This week there will be thousands of travelers taking to the airways on their routes to Thanksgiving turkeys around the country. Most every one of the travelers is aware that their service will not be what it was in the past on airlines---especially in coach class.
The airlines are trying to attract more first class and business class travelers by offering more amenities to those high paying customers*. But what happens to the majority of passengers—the coach travelers? Amenities have been stripped away and can only be accessed by paying ala carte fees. There are additional fees to bring bags along; fees to get a meal; fees to get water; even fees to get a few extra inches of seat space. This list could go on and on. The service that airlines provide, including service at the gate and service in the aircraft has declined to the point that, unless it involves a safety issue, there is barely any service at all.
Passengers are now more stressed and weary as they travel through airports. What are airports doing to help relieve this stress and weariness and make up for the service that has been taken away by the airlines?
If readers of this article have examples of services their airports are providing, please forward those to [email protected]. We will explore some of those services in the upcoming weeks’ articles.
*(Mayerowitz, Scott. "No Pillows in Coach, but It's Sundae Time up Front." Y!News. Yahoo.com. Web. 21 Nov. 2011. http://m.yahoo.com/w/news_america/no-pillows-coach-sundae-time-front-150836639.html?orig_host_hdr=news.yahoo.com)
About the Author
Christine Hill
Christine Hill, executive vice president and co-founder of ServiceElements, has been in teaching, facilitating, and coaching for 30+ years. She has a Master’s in psychology/education from Northern Arizona University and is passionate about helping organizations, teams, and individuals with development of human interaction skills.