Little things about business travel today add up to more
than mild irritation. Trying to book online, getting an error message to call
an 800 number, calling and being told, "Sorry, it's your computer that's the
problem, and you pay $25 to book here." I appreciate the need to keep
booking costs down, but not at the expense of passengers caught in a catch-22.
They cannot book online due to airline system errors, but pay an extra $25 for
that plus usually a higher fare by telephone after inventory controls are
unleashed. This is particularly a pain on Fridays.
Watching passengers trying to squeeze so called carry-on
luggage into sizing bins, then board and check anyway at the gateway, being
told all the overheads are full. Baggage fees are driving all travelers to
random acts of insanity. Watching the privileged move ahead in boarding lines
does not help the airline image of customer-friendly.
Airlines promise a very high percentage of availability for
lowest business class discounts but will not guarantee that. Book two weeks or
a month ahead if you want the inventory, they remind us, but we often don't
have that luxury. Granted, some travelers wait too long and are unreasonably
impatient or feisty when they are told the seats are gone. However, a lot of
travelers deal with pressing realities that do not afford a lot of advance
booking time. They have to compete with leisure travelers who have plenty of
time to set schedules months ahead. They also compete with other companies
whose travelers also are on discounts and are trying to get the limited
lowest-cost seats.
Frequent flyer seats are becoming an oxymoron. Of course,
the undercutting outside-the-GDS web fare paradigm continues to cause skeptical
views of corporate discounts as really of value. Supposedly, the airlines do
not undercut their published fares, but delays getting ATP versus loading at
the sites certainly creates the perception they are using two fare levels for
the same routes. Percentage discounts apply only to published fares, not
web-based faring.
Are some of these gripes unfair or overstated? Little things
do add up.
This report originally
appeared in the Sept. 6, 2010, issue of Business Travel News.