Tuesday, June 22, 2004
Travel Blues
We visited a client yesterday in Atlanta, which entailed a plane flight south. My colleagues left from La Guardia, and I left from Newark Airport nearer to my home. My colleagues decided to go out Monday night because they did not want to get up early Tuesday morning. I decided to go out Tuesday morning because I get up early anyway. Here is what happened.
My colleagues did not get to their hotel room in Atlanta until 1:30 a.m. Flight delays, of course. They sat around the LaGuardia terminal for hours and had a dinner of "very bad food," one colleague reported. I got up at 3:30 a.m. to get to the airport for a 5:30 a.m. flight only to find that the airline had lost my reservations and the flight had been cancelled. I was bumped to a 6:30 a.m. flight. The airline did not notify me of the cancellation until I got there. In the end, I got more sleep than my colleagues did, but that was small consolation for wretchedly poor airline service.
Fortunately, in my work I have not had to travel that much in recent years. I suppose I would be inured to the lousy conditions that fliers suffer if I did. As a result, I am angry over the lack of service that airlines pass off to customers these days. They are cattle cars of the air with one exception. They aren't as regular as cattle trains.
Long ago when I first started working, flying was a pleasure. But that was long, long ago. I don't expect to enjoy flying every again. And that's a pity. But then, I don't expect anyone will ever enjoy flying again. The airlines need PR that starts with decent service.
My colleagues did not get to their hotel room in Atlanta until 1:30 a.m. Flight delays, of course. They sat around the LaGuardia terminal for hours and had a dinner of "very bad food," one colleague reported. I got up at 3:30 a.m. to get to the airport for a 5:30 a.m. flight only to find that the airline had lost my reservations and the flight had been cancelled. I was bumped to a 6:30 a.m. flight. The airline did not notify me of the cancellation until I got there. In the end, I got more sleep than my colleagues did, but that was small consolation for wretchedly poor airline service.
Fortunately, in my work I have not had to travel that much in recent years. I suppose I would be inured to the lousy conditions that fliers suffer if I did. As a result, I am angry over the lack of service that airlines pass off to customers these days. They are cattle cars of the air with one exception. They aren't as regular as cattle trains.
Long ago when I first started working, flying was a pleasure. But that was long, long ago. I don't expect to enjoy flying every again. And that's a pity. But then, I don't expect anyone will ever enjoy flying again. The airlines need PR that starts with decent service.
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