Many of you who travel regularly will have observed that the notion of customer service in the airline industry is fast becoming an oxymoron. This is especially true if like me, you mostly travel economy. Not many of the people I work for can afford business class. On the rare occasion I find myself in one of the wide plush leather seats at the front of the aircraft, I notice the change in attitude. However, in economy, in the cheap seats you must tolerate whatever treatment is being dished out.
It must be difficult to be a player in the airline industry today. The relative cost of flying has come down significantly over the years. Recall if you can the cost of flying back in the 80’s and 90’s. Profit margins now are slim, competition intense. The result is cost-cutting. Extra charges for seats, luggage, meals and other services are now the norm. Leg room disappears as they try to cram more seats in. Nothing resembling a perk remains.
In fact, attitude reigns. There was a nasty reaction from a flight attendant on Air France once when I was trying to get moved to a clean seat. There were shrugs of indifference after Air Canada damaged an instrument I was travelling with. Too big to care.
Another time, a last minute flight change was explained by personnel of a different unnamed airline as being due to: technical difficulties, weather issues, vague computer problems, or in the words of one uncharacteristically honest person: "the crew tied one on last night and slept in." Too big to even bother to coordinate their stories. The result sent me running through the maze that is Frankfurt airport under renovations – not much design to start with - the chaos was too big to comprehend. I missed my connection and ended up in the same bar as the crew, which should have made me nervous.
A smile is now a perk, enjoy it. This brings me to Air North. It’s the little things from a small airline that make a difference. Meals are offered - I recommend a seat near the front if you want the Sheppard’s Pie before they run out. Also, they have a few new planes with ample leg room, and that new airplane smell. An attendant on one of my recent Air North flights spoke with such a delightful continental French accent – live not recorded – that I actually listened to the safety demonstration. But I digress. In general, people are happy when they’re handing out cookies. Let us celebrate our smallness where we can.
- Daniel Janke
