Back to a travel related blog entry (Domino 7 schtuff later)
Tags :Rant
I received an interesting email from the Magician
of Information, Bas. This time the topic was on how the business
traveler is getting treated as second class more and more.
Generally, the travel
industry agrees that business travelers who pay more deserve more. It is
the ones who book deeply discounted airfares, hotels or cars through the
Internet who perturb them.
So when you travel, do you not try, or
even in some cases your company might make you, take a least cost option.
At least a reduced cost option. But does this mean you should
get poorer service? I feel that if I happen to get a great Internet
rate on a hotel room, when I register and show a status card, I should
get what comes with it. I have only had one instance where they said,
well you booked this on a special rate. With a simple question of
what the rate mattered they couldn't answer. Now this really stuck
out from the article
Efforts to rein in
bargain-hunting business travelers have included changing loyalty programs
so that benefits are tied to fare prices instead of just the number of
miles flown, as Delta Air Lines did last year. The pay-for-perks attitude
also extends to employees, who seem less willing to tolerate business travelers
who demand to be pampered even when they travel on the cheap.
So I know AA can do segments or miles,
which just makes some people want to take hops on trips instead of direct
since doing short flights would never get you status in miles. If
I use status to upgrade a cheap coach ticket to First Class based on how
much I fly, does that mean I am entitled to lesser service than those that
paid more? One flight attendant in the article stated just the opposite.
Although he was put
off by the passengers' sense of entitlement, he says he did not allow it
to interfere with his job. But his disdain for passengers with Champagne
tastes and beer budgets is widespread in the travel industry, especially
among employees who have accepted pay and benefit cuts to help their companies
weather hard times. For such customers to demand red-carpet treatment strikes
them as impudent.
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On Friday, August 13th, 2004 by Chris Miller
