Like most people, I enjoy traveling. What I don't enjoy are people who try to rip me off just because I'm a traveler. And I'm not talking about traveling to Papua New Guinea or deep into Africa or other exotic locales
Take my visit to London's Heathrow airport a few days ago, to the much ballyhooed Terminal 5. The design of the new terminal is fantastic -- broad spaces, good and rapid access to far-flung gates via train and escalators, comfortable seating areas around the gates (although they could have thrown in a few more outlets to recharge laptops and cell phones).
They've got some good restaurants such as the Giraffe -- a great place to grab an American-style breakfast after arrival -- but some of the new restaurants, such as Gordon Ramseys "Plane Food", have prices at the same altitude as the 747s flying in here.
That's one of the problems with Heathrow -- everything is so expensive. Want a glass of OJ at Ramsey's after your early morning arrival? It will set you back about $5. If that's enough to send you to something a bit harder, go for the $15 Bloody Mary. I mean, come on, that's $3 more than the Eggs Benedict.
The problem with Heathrow is that it wasn't designed to be an airport. It was designed to be a shopping mall at which planes land and travelers are trapped.
Worse yet, many of the sales people seem to have been trained to extract every dollar and Euro from your wallet. The folks who ran the Spanish Inquisition could learn a few tricks from retailers here.
Although I wasn't buying anything last Saturday, I walked into various shops to get a sense of the cost of things. When I entered the Duty Free liquor area I asked a clerk (who immediately latched on to me as they had in other shops) if they had Johnny Walker Red. His immediate reply was "Wouldn't you much rather have Johnny Walker Black or Blue?" I felt like making him black and blue.
When I was back out on the concourse I stopped to take a photo of the shop and the surrounding area. Within seconds a sales clerk yelled over to me that I was not allowed to take photos of the Duty Free shop.
My mouth dropped when I said "What?" "No," she said coming over, "it's not allowed and they confiscate the cameras of people who take photos."
"Is that the law?" I asked. "Yes," she replied.
"That's incredible," I said, "I'd like you to call a policeman so we can ask him about this."
"I'm just doing my job," she said, as she quickly walked away. I went to talk with her again a few minutes later but when she saw me coming she quickly moved away.
Jim Ferri
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I don't know if you saw the report two weeks ago about Amtrak reporting record numbers of riders. It's not totally the price of oil that has spurred train travel since it's been increasing for six years now. Maybe people are just beginning to see how good it can be.
I've always enjoyed train travel, although I've never done it much in the US except on Amtrak's Metroliner between New York and Washington, and commuting on the Long Island Rail Road. I was back on the LIRR a few weeks back, chatting with some kids who were riding in to the city for The New York Anime Festival. (That's them all made up in the photo). This train was more modern than the ones I had ridden previously, but other than that, things were pretty much the same -- people with their faces buried in newspapers, commuters dozing off on their way to work, masses rushing through Penn Station...
I developed my affection for train travel in Europe, where I enjoyed the freedom of not only being able to relax and walk around, but also the freedom of having complete freedom.
Today I was back on one of those trains again, this time in Italy with my wife, traveling from Milan out to Como, that fantastic town pinned on to the edge of the lake with the same name. Marjorie and I are really on our way to China but I've brought her here for a couple of days as a surprise, since this has always been one of those special places for me and she's never been here. I'm proud that I've managed to keep it a secret right up to when we got on the train, although I do admit to torturing her for the past two weeks as she's tried to guess where we'd be going.
En route to Como I remembered a lot of the experiences I've had on European trains. Years later, I'm still carrying all those wonderful people and places around in the scrapbook in my mind and, hopefully, I'll be adding a few more on this trip.
Anyway, I'm getting totally off track here, to use an obvious metaphor. Train travel never became popular in the US because it just didn't fit in well with our lifestyle. When we wanted to go somewhere we hopped on a plane since we wanted to be there, not use up our vacation times getting there. After all, it was only those Europeans with the gads of vacation days who could afford a leisurely train ride. Many Europeans, on the other hand, better understood that oftentimes the journey is the destination.
Jim Ferri
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Air travelers are a fairly resilient bunch.
Over the past few years they've endured just about everything that's been thrown at them. Additional fees for checked baggage, fuel surcharges, cuts in service, increases in delayed and cancelled flights, crowded planes, you name it. Now, they're about to be faced with another change, and it's one that many people either love or hate -- à la carte pricing.
"Unbundling," as it's called, is just the reverse of what your phone and cable company do when they tease you with the discounted cost of selling you a number of different services in one package. The only difference with the airlines is that it's doubtful if anyone will really discount anything.
American Airlines recently announced that it will start à la carte pricing next year, emulating Air Canada which went through bankruptcy after losing customers to WestJet Airlines, a low-cost rival. After emerging from bankruptcy in 2004 Air Canada then unbundled its fare structure, and created a bare-bones service so it would be more competitive with WestJet. It did work, in that it helped the company stabilize its domestic business
Today, the unbundled Air Canada has four tier or fare levels, with the completely refundable and most expensive Latitude- and Executive- Class tickets providing priority check-in, food, etc.
Tango, the lowest fare, is completely bare-bones and requires you to pay extra for everything - flight changes, advance seat selection, food, lounge access, bag checks, etc. On the other hand, it also allows you to save an additional $3 by not checking a bag or taking frequent-flyer miles. Half of Air Canada's passengers currently choose the basic Tango plan.
American will likely follow a similar scenario and provide a few basic fare plans, allowing customers to buy extra amenities for an additional fee.
American and other carriers have gotten very good at the imposition of fees, which has angered many travelers who hate the idea of being nickel-and-dimed for everything from food and drinks to blankets and headphones. But it is lucrative. Continental, for example, brings in about $100 million from passengers that are billed $15 for checking a single bag, and that doesn't include those who have multiple bags to check. United raises about $700 from fees every year.
But let's face facts -- the airlines do need to increase revenue if they are to continue flying. This is the reason they have all gotten so good at "yield management" -- raising and lowering fares depending on supply and demand -- which results in people in the same section of a plane paying very different prices for a ticket. Ever gone online to research the cost of a ticket and gone back the next day and seen a different price? You've been yield-managed.
Overall, all these fees really swell the corporate coffers, which is the reason why no carriers are decreasing the fuel surcharge despite the cost of fuel diminishing. In all likelihood we may not be going back to all-inclusive fares no matter how much fuel prices decrease.
Some people do like the idea of a bare-bones price point, but many frequent travelers don't want to have to wade through a menu of optional services for a fee, for things such as booking a flight online, choosing a seat, etc. And that doesn't even scratch the surface when you think about the potential for in-flight Internet, email and cell-phone service. Experts say that travelers can expect all these fees to become permanent.
If you remember that it was American Airlines that initiated baggage charges, I think you'll get a pretty good idea -- or perhaps not-so-good -- as to where the industry is going.
Jim Ferri
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