David J. Danto
A Blog – In My Personal Opinion……
Why?
Perspective is an interesting
thing. As frequent travelers, I and many
other road warriors see things that many others either don’t see - or don’t see
in the same way. As I was dragging my
carry-on through Texas this past week it dawned on me that we’re putting-up
with a lot of things that aren’t right.
If your experience at airports or in hotels is a once-a-year vacation
thing then you may not think twice about a slightly bad experience. If however you spend a good part of your life
on the road then all the little things can add-up to the level of intolerable
very quickly. Below are some of the
worst offenders – things that either just don’t make sense or grow after a few
experiences to being downright offensive.
· Why does a
bottle of water at any US airport cost just about the same as a case of water
at any pharmacy or convenience store? I
understand that some mark-up might be in order, but one bottle for the price of
24? It makes you wonder if the TSA
prohibiting water bottles is really for security reasons or price protection –
and if it really is for security shouldn’t there be some law or policy
outlawing price gouging?
· Why do the
majority of airport grab-and-go sandwiches come in oversized, plastic
containers? The concessioners must know
we’re not allowed to carry-on any additional bags to hold our lunch or dinner
so we have to pack it in our existing bags.
Why don’t they come in paper or plastic wrap so we can easily pack
them? Even flying out of environmentally
conscious California – where you can’t get a plastic grocery bag if your life
depended on it - these oversized hard plastic boxes are the norm.
·
If the airlines now charge exorbitant rates for the
service of checking bags, why aren’t they offering refunds when they fail to
provide good service? It is completely
fair to assume that any bag I pay to have delivered to me in baggage should be 
waiting
for me on the on the belt when I get there – or at least be there within 20
minutes of landing. If it isn’t there in
30 minutes I feel I deserve a 50% refund, and if it isn’t there in 60 minutes I
feel a 75% refund is in order. Every
frequent traveler knows that the scramble to get on to aircraft early is all
about finding room for your carry-on.
Most times we just don’t have the extra hour or more to wait for bags to
be delivered. (Personally, I’d check
bags more often if every flight were handled like the regional jets where I
bring my bags to the (correct) plane and get them in the jetway after landing.
However, with the consistent delays delivering bags and many that get
lost it’s just not worth the risk.) Why
do we let service providers charge us for services whether or not they were
provided satisfactorily? Also - before someone mentions it - this isn’t about the
fact that I and many others have found ways to get these services for free (via
elite status, loyalty credit card, etc.)
It’s about the airlines failing to provide adequate services that they
feel they have a right to charge for.
· And as
long as I’m addressing carry-ons, why do some gate agents challenge frequent
travelers about carry-on bag sizes during boarding? If the bag fits in the overhead bin why does
it matter if it is a half inch bigger than the ridiculously tiny sizers the
airlines use to prompt the infrequent travelers into paying those bag fees I
mentioned above. If it doesn’t fit it
will have to come out and be gate checked anyway. It’s not like the process of tagging bags at
the gate is a something that agents aren’t doing on every flight anyway. If it’s about the delay that the process of
bringing it back out might cause, then the delay in arguing with the frequent
traveler that knows the bag fits (as it has fit a hundred times before) is
surely more impactful. This always
reminds me of the old saying “if all you have is a hammer then everything looks
like a nail.”
· Moving on
to the hotel experience, why do many hotels still use closet hangers that have
hooks too small to fit in a standard closet?
Maybe thirty years ago people might steal hotel hangers to use at home,
but no frequent traveler has the room in their carry-on bag to stash a hanger
to save the huge buck or so that it would cost
them on Amazon. The reason this is a
problem is that the tiny hooks don’t fit over a standard curtain rod. Every frequent traveler worth his or her
platinum card knows the first
thing you do after checking-in is hang your jacket in the bathroom and run
the shower on full hot to steam the wrinkles out. Figuring out where to stick those tiny hooks
(maybe a towel rack, maybe pull off one of the shower-curtain hooks if they are
used) is really an unnecessarily frustrating experience. Hotels need to add a few pennies to the room
cost to replace the occasional lost hanger and stop driving us crazy with
finding places for the tiny hooks in the shower.
As with any annoyance, experience it once and you may not think about it
again. However, hitting the same issue
again and again while fighting to get your work done on the road makes these
experiences very frustrating. If you have
any others to add to the list feel free to email them to me and I’ll add them
in here.
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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.