David J. Danto
Principal Consultant,
Collaboration/ AV / Multimedia / Video / UC
Dimension Data
Director of Emerging
Technology
Interactive
Multimedia & Collaborative Communications Alliance
eMail:
David.Danto@DimensionData.com Follow Video &
Technology Industry News: @NJDavidD
(Read David’s Bio) (See
David’s CV) (Read David’s Other Blogs & Articles)
My Last
Business Trip of 2016
By almost
every measure, 2016 was just an awful year.
One only has to think about
the people we lost, the unrest in the world, the politics - and then of course,
one has to include the business travel experience. So I suppose it was fitting that on my last
business trip of the year this week, I would experience a small taste of
everything that’s gone wrong with air travel.
My United outbound flight was taking off
from Newark terminal A. This of course
meant that that – despite being in the trusted traveler program and having
Pre-Check clearly indicated on my boarding pass - I wasn’t going to get a
Pre-Check experience. One can
(amazingly) still get Pre-Check indicated on one’s boarding pass even when it
isn’t ever offered at the terminal / gates in question - because there is still
no correlation between TSA Pre-Check services promised and delivered. I knew in advance I would have to be creative
if I didn’t want to have to unpack and repack my bag while in the security
line. The solution of course was to go
through security in Newark’s Terminal C – where Pre-Check is offered and
usually available, and then take the airport transportation over to A. That’s an inconvenience, but it’s one that
shouldn’t be a problem at a modern airport.
Ah-ha, I have you there – as Newark is not a modern airport. Yes, tons of money has been spent upscaling
the waiting areas, creating iPad equipped bars where convenient moving walkways
used to be, removing the convenience stores and replacing them with “European
Style” “Bistro Stores” (meaning the potato chips are now a brand you don’t
recognize and are now quintuple the price.)
However, when it comes to connecting between terminals – for that you
still have to walk down some outdoor metal stairs and ride a bus on the tarmac. I decided that that particular schlep would
still easier than TSA required disrobing and unpacking my shampoo and computer,
so it’s what I did. I knew I’d still get
to terminal A in time to jump on my scheduled
conference call from the United Club there.
But of course, instead of finding the
club I found the above sign. You’d have
thought that with United charging hundreds of bucks every year for membership
they’d have sent a note to the locals in the New Jersey / New York area that
the club was closing. Of course
not. Despite getting at least three
spammy emails from United a day, that little gem was left out (probably out of
fear that too many people would be angry about it.) United has been playing bait and switch with
their clubs all year – open / closed; take passes / no passes allowed / passes
allowed unless they feel it’s too crowded; etc.
This one really hurt though. I
counted on being able to join colleagues and get work done from my PC. When I reached out to United about this,
their response was:
That link takes one to the listing of all
United Clubs, where there is no actual announcement of the closing, but more
than halfway down the page of club locations and hours you can see the new
hours for the terminal A club posted: Monday- CLOSED – CLOSED, Tuesday- CLOSED –
CLOSED, Wednesday- CLOSED – CLOSED, Thursday- CLOSED – CLOSED, Friday- CLOSED –
CLOSED, Saturday- CLOSED – CLOSED, Sunday- CLOSED – CLOSED. Apparently United expects us to check the
webpage (which is not mobile friendly by the way) each time before we fly in
order to determine where the latest bait-and-switch is taking place. (My request for a partial refund of the Club
Card fee has not yet received a response.)
Amongst the many challenges facing
United, it’s going to have to decide if it wants to operate out of terminal A
or not. This “we will - but with only part of the services we offer at C” is
getting very, very tired. It’s not my
fault that their leasing deal in A is different than the one in C – they are
either offering the needed services and amenities there or not. Maybe one less overpriced bistro will pay for
a better security queue area and one less “pay with your miles on an iPad” bar would
pay for a more modern people mover between terminals.
So, getting back to my trip, after the
conference call (and having to read documents on my iPhone instead of my PC) we
boarded the flight. It was an Embraer
ERJ-145 – the aircraft we used to call “Barbie’s
Dream Jet” because of the similarity in size and interior room with the
actual pink toy. I was lucky enough to
grab seat 18A – the single seat at the exit row. When you lift the window side half armrest this
seat is almost wide enough for a human to fit into, and the exit row forces a
decent amount of legroom. That luck
unfortunately comes along with the exit door – which causes the seat to be
pretty cold, and in this case had the added inconvenience that the cover of the
exit release lever was falling off the door.
One could even see the residue of the tape that someone must have put on
to keep it in place at some time in the past.
The fact that the interiors are falling apart is only one reason these
RJs need to be retired. The other
reasons (as I soon was reminded) include the rest of these aircrafts are
falling apart too.
Shortly after boarding on time, the
captain told the passengers that our “air conditioning” had a problem, and the
“mechanics were on the way.” I can’t
even remember how many times this year a maintenance problem was discovered on
my plane only as boarding had begun or was about to begin. There is no doubt that United and other
airlines have been cutting back on the quality and value of their aircraft
maintenance programs – either through outsourcing or postponing routine
maintenance, or just devaluing and dis-incenting the contributions of their
mechanics. This flight was just another
example of being unnecessarily delayed because an aircraft was not properly
maintained – which happened on nearly half of the flights I took this
year. A new air conditioner part needed
to be installed. Once it was done we
were on our way.
When we landed, and taxied over to the
gate, we learned that the replacement air conditioner part used was not
compatible with the standard gate APU at our destination, so they couldn’t turn
off the engines and we couldn’t get off the flight. This was a second delay on the back-end due to
the same problem – a double whammy due to incompetent maintenance.
When I was heading back home a couple of
days later it looked good for a slightly better experience. I was scheduled on an ERJ-175 (a bigger regional
aircraft that has a first class cabin and overhead bins big enough for rollaboards.) I had
stunningly received an advance upgrade to first when the upgrade window opened
days earlier. This is only the second
time all year that that happened - in nearly 100K miles flown and over 50
segments. The only reason it happened this
time was that it was a 6am flight which was half empty – and which will only be
in the air for about an hour – so United figured they’d never get anyone to pay
for an upgrade. United usually offers
non-elite passengers upgrades for what has been angrily called “tens of
dollars” as passengers check in at an airport kiosk or on-line. United management would rather make ~50 bucks
for the upgrade then keep their promises to their most frequent customers. (Everyone except airline management knows
that someday this disloyalty will come back to bite the industry.) However, for today, I’d get the bigger seat
to sleep in for a bit as I head home.
The good feeling passed- right along with the boarding time - while we
were all still waiting at the gate area.
None of the four person crew had shown-up on time. They trickled in within a 10-15 minute window
after the boarding time had passed. We boarded late, left late, but arrived
on-time because of the padding rampant in today’s airline schedules.
So my last trip of 2016 experienced the failed
promise of TSA Pre-Check; the failure to deliver promised and paid for club
benefits; the misguided priorities of investing only in things that can be
charged-for at Newark Airport – not the underlying infrastructure; the failure
of United to properly maintain their aircraft; a reminder of the usually
un-kept promises of loyalty rewards (unless there are not really desirable in a
given instance); the inability to manage crew logistics; and the ridiculous
nature of airline schedule padding – a pretty decent sample of all of my 2016
experiences.
That trip thankfully wraps-up my travel
for 2016. I get a few weeks at home
before I have to hit the road again for CES.
My United “confirmable regional upgrades” for that itinerary have still
not cleared in the three months since I applied them to the reservation. I doubt that they will. If United can get fifty bucks for an upgrade
from some once-a-year traveler why would they let me use a benefit they promise
to be “confirmable upon use?”
I hope you and yours have an enjoyable
holiday season and New Year celebration, and that your travels (and mine) are
markedly better in 2017 – unless you’re part of United’s management. In that case my wish for you is to continually
experience the “friendly” coach travel on your own airline until you actually realize
and address the problems.
This article was written by David Danto and
contains solely his own, personal opinions.
All image and links provided above as reference under
prevailing fair use statutes.