This is just a mini-rant. Not even a rant, more of an annoyance. Recently, on a number of social media outlets, I have noticed the trend of airline, travel, etc. rants. I have a few searches set up to see what people are saying about different travel companies and I am used to the normal “such and such sucks” and “I’ll never fly DeltAmericUnited” but recently there has been an uptick of supposed “frequent flyers” who are posting full out rants on Twitter or Facebook.

One example happened this past week during American Airlines pilot work slow-down. A complaint was made on Twitter by someone who in their own words “flies a lot”. At first, it looked like a normal release of frustration about a delay on American, but as this person’s delay went on, the rant became more inflamed. At one point the frequent flyer insisted that they would go out of their way to fly Southwest. Then, somehow, United was dragged into the fray and thrown under the bus.

I do not expect frequent flyers to know everything about an airline, but if you’re a frequent traveler and watch the news, you knew about the problems American Airlines was having. American even put out a press release giving passengers alternatives if their flights were delayed.

The traveler in question told me that this all happened after they were already on board and after a 2.5 hour delay, they were finally on their way. 2.5 hours?! While that is a terrible delay, why did no one speak up and ask to be let off the plane (especially our frequent flyer)?

At some point, if you’re going to give yourself the title of frequent traveler, you need to own up to taking responsibility for fixing your own situation when things go pear-shaped. This is not to say you should not vent frustrations on social media, it’s just a plea for folks to be a little more rational when doing so.