The airport is one of the few places where you will see two to three open chairs between each passenger. Most would opt to sit on the floor or in the aisle ways to avoid encroaching on the lives of their fellow wayfarers. Airports transform even the most passive, rational individual into a powder keg just one small offense away from a nuclear meltdown.
(Truthfully, it's not airports that cause this regression, it's the airLINES, but the airports take the fall.) Each countenance I observe reveals a unique, but similar attitude about the passengers. Exasperated, annoyed, irate, antsy, bleak, exhausted, incredulous. They are the same expressions and attitudes you'll see at any airport, on any day, at any hour, going any WHERE. It's a weird dynamic, because, as I said earlier, the leg-twitching, arms-crossed, eye-rolling inhabitants of each gate have a similar objective: reach a destination. They are all going to the same place, usually for some pleasurable outcome. Visit friends or family, go on a vacation, see somewhere new, explore, or surprise someone special. You would think that these motives would be a uniting force, sparking thousands of interesting conversations and new friendships. In fact, in my experience, the shell of a volatile traveler is easily cracked with a simple greeting or introduction. Needless to say, it is the continual disappointment of airline service that turns each person in that venue into an island, but it's just as easy to form an archipelago too.
That doesn't really explain why I like airports, does it? Other than the fascinating social empiricism I gain from just being at there, the typical attitudes of my fellow travelers don't really brighten my day. Moreover, the incessant ineptitude of the airline industry in general is appalling. Airlines continue to overpromise and underdeliver. Even more enraging are the times when an operator DOES do its job as advertised and practically blows out a shoulder trying to pat itself on the back. (I was going to use the metaphor "remove three of its lower ribs so it can suck its own c**k", but that seems a bit ribald.) In all honesty, the airline industry is a bastion of technological innovation, efficiency, and adaptability, but its customers have been victimized by, like I said, a differential between promises and delivery.
It's an unfortunate gap in marketing that we encounter every day in various ways. I often think to myself "Does the burger match the picture?" It doesn't, most of the times. Literally, though, I'm willing to accept a deflated Big Mac (yeah, I know, I really wouldn't eat it) because it doesn't cost me $500 of my savings and two hours of my life.
Succinctly, the airlines have shot themselves in the foot. I think they would do well to be more transparent and explain their policies and practices and be more realistic about their service delivery. Do you know why airlines overbook flights? In a nutshell, a lot of business passengers don't show up (with refundable tickets) and the airlines run on such slim margins that it's crucial to their survival (and, thus, our ability to travel) to fill the majority of the seats. Services aren't like tangible goods. Coca-Cola doesn't have to worry if a can of soda doesn't sell today, because it could be sold tomorrow or the next day or the next day. Airlines don't have that luxury, because empty seats can't be inventoried. They're just lost revenue. It's a practice that is incongruent with everything that is taught in a capitalistic market. Once you buy it, it's yours. Not true at the airport. Your boarding pass is meaningless until you're actually sitting in Row 7, Seat D.
I know, it seems unfair. And that's because it is, but a better understanding of the reasons you get bumped and your rights as a customer might help fill those hollow terminal seats between travelers. I'm not advocating a utopian airport society, because I'm as flummoxed as most people by the industry. However, the countless times I've been burned by a surly attendant at check-in have taught me to be realistic. Just as the burger doesn't match the picture, the flight probably won't meet the departure time. No matter what the price.
I'm not certain if it's the marketing that has superseded our previous trillion negative experiences at the airport or we're incapable of learning ANYTHING, but no one can seem to grasp that, from tarmac to tarmac, it won't happen like you've been promised. It's time to realign expectations with reality and not with what the Travelocity Gnome told you. Check out http://www.mytravelrights.com/index.cfm for your rights as a traveler and the "rationale" behind many of the travel industry's maddening policies. It is with that knowledge that one can hop, skip, and jump around the world without murdering someone with honey roasted peanuts. (For reference, an awesomely stupid example of that actually happening can be seen in the movie "Daredevil". Yeah, believe it.)
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1 comments:
You, my dear friend, travel too much for a 25 year old! :) Do not misunderstand me here...this is a good thing. I, myself, have been flying since the tender age of 6. Thanks to my family, I have spent many a day in airports all over the world. I want to applaud you for stepping outside your mental comfort zone and looking a little deeper into why people are so scared of one another in such a setting. Cause that's really what it all comes down to. Fear...that all too common an explanation for darting eyes, hidden faces, and whispers amongst groups. That word and meaning that has been abused, misused, and overused since George W. Bush has been in office. We are all strangers accumulated into one place. All in a rush to get somewhere important. And that is the only thing on our minds...reaching that destination. Fuck everything and everyone else. We are all just Strangers On A Plane. I can see it already...the next big flub in the box office. :) After all...we were taught to not talk to strangers since we were kids. Thanks to hightened security after 9/11, people feel strained in the presence of flying machines. Airlines have lost lots of their carefree luxuries. Too many rules and regulations are now applied once you step through the revolving doors from the parking lot towards the ticket counter. Of course, that is all necessary for the assurance of our safety. But really, the haydays of airlines are long gone. No more smoking, excessive drinking, guns, knives, (heck, even water and shampoo) double story seating, and making merry from one destination to another. For in the old days...it was like one big party! :D No, but seriously, we do live in a overly cautious, overly exploited, overly commercialized country. We always make everything look better then it really is. That is what marketing is about, no? To sell you must present your product in such a light that is appealing to the consumer. I'm with you in starting a new marketing revolution. Lets stick to the oldies, but goodies! Let show it how it really is, not to shock, but to say, this is what you get for this is what you paid for! Yup!
-Dasha
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