Air travel today has progressed to the point that it has about all the charm and comforts of riding a public transportation bus (and I may owe an apology to many of the bus companies). On Monday I flew to Detroit, MI, to attend a company sponsored information security conference. On business I fly coach (or cattle as I like to call it) as a cost savings for my company. As I was spending my allotted hours waiting at the airport in hopes my flight would not be delayed or cancelled, I spent some time pondering air travel. Many of the airports are looking old, dirty, and crowded. They’re full of highly priced small shops, stores, and quick food chains that cater to small purchases by people on the move. The departure gate seating area’s are usually undersized and spill over into surrounding gates. In order to cut cost airlines are using smaller planes to fly many of their routes. These planes use less fuel, require fewer attendants, and can be fuller booked per flight. As a matter of fact, on both legs of my flight the plane was overbooked and the airline was offering free round-trip tickets for passengers to volunteer to take a later flight. These planes also offer less room per passenger then larger planes. As someone who is well over six feet tall and two hundred pounds, there is no way to be comfortable for a long flight. Sitting completely upright in my seat my knees are against the seat in front of me (don’t get me started on having that person decide to drop their seat back into my lap). This is the same or less level of comfort I experience and have come to expect from riding public transportation buses.
I’m in my early 50’s and can remember when air travel was fun and an enjoyable adventure. I’ve spoken to others in my age group and they agreed that it use to be different and better. This situation is made worst due to what I call a loss of social manners. My wife tells a story of a recent commercial flight she was on where the rather large man seated beside her spent the flight enjoying sharing his eye tearing flatulence with the rest of the cabin. Why do I say he enjoyed it? Because according to her he would actually shift in his seat, raising one leg to let the gaseous death escape without saying a word as an apology. Most men of my father’s generation would have died from internal ruptures before doing that in a public place. Any of you who have flown could recount more then one story where you have encounter someone rude and totally inconsiderate of other passengers on a flight.
The Airlines are struggling to stay in business and the public has communicated that what they value most are cheap prices. With the ever increasing cost of fuel the only way for an airline to possibly survive is to cut operating cost which in turn usually results in some reduction of the level of service to it’s customers.
I for one think that the price is low enough and that customer service deserves some attention here. I don’t enjoy traveling by air these days, and I use to love it!
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