Why the skies are not friendly anymore
Somewhere around the sixth concourse of Hell, I began to feel that the terrorists had already won.
I was in Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson Airport, ferried from one franchise-encrusted terminal to the next by human conveyor belt that makes me feel like a box of Sugar Smacks headed for the UPC scanner. After a two-hour delay, my flight had been cancelled, and I and hundreds of other bleary-eyed, acquiescent voyagers were heading with somnolent resignation into the bleak night to lick our wounds.
“I never want to get on a plane again,” one man groaned, as a trio of red-shirted Delta salesmen proffered “free round-trip tickets” for those who sign up for its frequent flyer program. “What’s second prize?” a guy next to me quipped.
It was hard to imagine that anyone en route to this River Styx would weigh anchor again, but hope is about all the airlines have left.
American airline passengers are among the most dissatisfied in the country, according to the University of Michigan’s American Customer Satisfaction index. Of the 19 industries the group asked consumers about in 2007, the only groups that scored worse were the cable and satellite TV industry, reports. Even the IRS did better than the airline industry. A similar study by JD Power Associates found that overall customer satisfaction with airlines in 2009 declined for the third consecutive year to a four-year low, in spite of a five-minute improvement in on-time arrivals. But none of that improvement has been reflected how passengers actually feel about flying.
Never mind that the U.S. Department of Transportation reports that 88 percent of flights in this country land when they say they will. People on these planes find the experience wretched. Largely, this has to do with the in-flight experience, in which airlines insist on squishing the most obese population in the world in seats designed for Giacometti sculptures. Too, the cutbacks in the meager alimentary perks make flying on an American airline a bit like being freighted by cattle car.
“It used to be we would get free snacks on a plane,” said David Van Amburg, director of ASCI. “Now, not only do we not get a meal, but we’re charged for a bag of chips. There’s a perception that we’re paying more in bits and pieces we’re not getting any more for it.”
The security that is the necessary byproduct of a precarious world feels not only onerous, but humiliating, protracted, futile and absurd to the point of inanity. Most of us are willing to endure certain personal intrusions [Dash] removal of footwear, rummaging through baggage, being irradiated metal detectors [Dash] in the interests of public safety. But when fanatics slither through seamlessly, it’s easy to feel that confiscating one’s Yoplait is somewhere between excessive and futile. The answer [Dash] additional and more intrusive scrutiny taxes [Dash] one’s logic, wallet and nerves. It can be enough to cause one to give up on air travel entirely [Dash] a crippling economic blow surely relished by our enemies.
Beyond the rigors of flawed security, though, there is this bungled logic: Capitalism is about many things, but fundamentally, it’s about choice. That’s why Starbucks has 14 types of coffee. This plethora of choice, as Barry Schwartz has noted, can be dizzying to the point of numbness. But how is it that although I have 47 types of toothpastes to choose from, when it comes to travel, I have only two: the highway, or the skyway?
Granted, the country still has Amtrak, a perpetually debt-ridden rail service that only makes money here in the Northeast. But while its trains putter on at 35 miles per hour, trains in France and Japan hum through the countryside at speeds approaching 200 miles an hour. Riding one of these trains in France was among the most pleasurable travel experiences I’ve had. The trains are clean, efficient, comfortable and prompt. When I ride Metro North into Grand Central, I feel fortunate if I can find a lavatory, let alone one with toilet tissue.
Last year, the president announced an $8 billion push for high-speed rail to begin work on 10 high-speed rail corridors as an alternative to driving or flying. He added another $8 million this year. But the money will all be spent before we see a single train in place. Perhaps some innovative capitalist, a modern-day Cornelius Vanderbilt, will see the gapping crater in the nation’s infrastructure and figure out a way to give Americans the alternative they demand – and deserve.