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What is it about air travel?

What is it about flying? We live in an amazing world, where we can travel thousands of kilometres in a mere matter of hours. We can soar high about the earth, seeing sights that earlier generations could only dream of. We travel in air-conditioned, pressurised comfort, with adjustable seats, private music and in-flight magazines. No leaky flying boats for us, no tiny airports in the middle of nowhere on the multi-week trip across the world.

Things are just as good for the airlines. They have vast numbers of cashed up customers eager to travel to every corner of the globe. They have an inter-linked global economy heavily reliant of frequent travel by business people happy to pay a premium for the privilege. Consumers are more than happy to have their products shipped same day and pay for this luxury. Airlines have expanded rapidly, buying the latest, greatest, shiniest planes to fly to every conceivable destination and a few that seem somewhat unconceivable.

So, with this perfect marriage of demand and supply, why is flying such a frustrating and painful experience? Surely an environment with a multitude of different providers is one perfectly suited to reward a company that provides exceptional customer service? After all that’s the tack that Virgin Blue have taken in Australia, although seemingly less so lately.

It starts with the airport terminal itself, an uncomfortable, irritating and expensive experience, especially if you’re one of those lucky ones forced to wait with your luggage for hours until you’re allowed to check in. Even in a modern, technological age we still need to arrive hours before departure, just in case things go wrong, or the line is glued to the spot (anyone flown through Perth airport?). And of course, heaven help you if you’re flying multiple legs, because one single delay anywhere along the chain can completely ruin your whole trip, even if you do allocate yourself lots of extra hours sitting in the terminal waiting for the privilege of being allowed to check your baggage in, baggage that the airline may deign to take, but only if it’s not too heavy, not too long, not too much hassle.

Then of course you have the customer service. Virgin are good, although now slipping as they start to tighten up on the things that gave them their reputation in the first place. Jetstar, a supposedly budget airline, with a rather ordinary reputation, offer better customer service at their counters than QANTAS, a supposedly marquee provider.

In the departure lounge you generally have a range of choices of fine dining, with Macdonalds often the restaurant of choice, due to its freshness and value (not necessarily ideals normally associated with the chain). You can buy various unhealthy snacks, sit on uncomfortable chairs and wait for hours.

Then on the airplane itself you are confronted with uncomfortable seats, a cruising altitude far too high to actually see anything, and cost cutting means you have to pay for the privilege of a glass of water. Those addicted to nicotine find themselves unable to do anything about their cravings, making them irritable and annoying everyone in their vicinity, while meanwhile it’s apparently alright to shoot up, with needle disposal units provided in the toilets.



Why is it such a frustrating and painful experience?

Don’t we live in the 21st century?

Isn’t this a world where things such as customer service and creating a positive experience are necessary for companies who want return custom?


Maybe it’s the quest of the cheapest fare that sees many of us fly different legs with different carriers. As we switch from one flight to another there maybe seems no point in offering us anything special, knowing that we have picked the cheapest fare and will do so next time as well.

Maybe it’s just flying itself. Travelling vast distances (distances unimaginable even very recently) in a big metal box is very technical and things can go wrong. Flights are not reliable, staff are not perfect, companies just want your money.

So what’s the solution?

I think that Boeing’s new point-to-point strategy is a sensible one. Flying in a smaller plane for a long distance means you don’t have to switch planes every leg. Less passengers means it’s faster to embark and disembark. More smaller planes means that there’s more flexibility built into the system.

I think that airlines need to accept baggage whenever you turn up, not just 2 hours before a flight. Our world is full of computers, if a computer can’t track a bag and put it in a pile to wait for a flight that’s coming later that day than what use are they exactly? If they can’t do that, they need to have more seats outside the actual terminal, plus food/drink etc.

Lastly, maybe we just have to pay that little bit extra to get the better service. This one seems much trickier, as I said. QANTAS provides somewhat indifferent service at times, while Jetstar are actually working hard to remove the stigma of being total bastards that follows them around from their start up days, when they were.

Or we could just not fly.

cheers

Harry