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Buzzkill
Alternate dimensions
An Insurgency of Quality
The airline industry needs to check their own baggage
I wasn't surprised to read that the airline industry was rated the worst in customer ratings. It seems like every week there's a news story about one of the major airlines raising their fees or adding another miscellaneous cost on top of their base ticket prices. I'm slightly sympathetic to the fact that the airlines are dealing with ever-increasing oil expenses, but not all airlines are dealing with their struggles in the same way.
I was pretty outraged when American, United, and US Airlines announced plans to charge an extra $15 per checked bag. This is already on top of the $25 for a second checked bag that they (and in fairness most other airlines) already charge. Why couldn't they simply add $15 to the price of their tickets? Because they can't compete on price with low cost carriers like Southwest and are feeling the squeeze from both sides.
Now more and more travelers will abandon checking luggage and cram all number of accessories into smaller carry-on bags, thereby causing long lines through security and long boarding times while they struggle to shove their bags overhead with little assistance. This will ultimately lead to delays and more misery.
The bottom line is that for flying, people mainly care about cost and if you've flown on Southwest, American, United or Virgin America there's not a great deal of difference in service — so why pay more? If anything, I enjoy flying on Southwest and Virgin America more because the employees tend to be friendlier and the personal entertainment on longer flights breaks up the time.
Until airlines like American can prove that their higher prices reflect a better and more enjoyable service I'll keep picking the lowest price I can find. I don't mind sucking it up even if I end up in a middle seat between two big burly guys with no elbow room. We've all been there.
Instead of these airline companies being creative with accounting, they need to get creative with designing better experiences like Alaska Airlines is doing or consider re-engineering planes to fly with alternative fuels like Virgin highlighted recently when they used 5% biofuel. I might pay $15 more if I think it's worth it but I definitely won't pay an extra $15 to have a more miserable experience when I know I can pay less elsewhere.
With any luck, one of the travel sites will be updated so that I can search flights and compare the full cost for my travel knowing that I'll be gone for two weeks and will definitely be checking one bag if not two. Then the larger airlines will maybe take note and change their travel plans.
Filed under: Service design, Web
Nick Myers is the director of visual design & branding at Cooper, where he designs experiences for companies across a variety of digital products. His designs have received several awards since he began working as a designer in 1996. He teaches, studies, and writes about visual design and enjoys helping companies craft stunning interfaces and digital brands whether in retail, financial management, patient care, or photo sharing. When Nick's not designing, he's usually training for his next marathon.
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Comments
Seda - Thanks for your insights. I'm reluctant to believe that outdated systems is the reason why the airline industry is lagging. Many other industries experience the same pains and have generally been a great deal more successful.
It's pretty common that the new enterprise system we're redesigning at Cooper has to either replace or continue cooperating with ancient back-ends and they manage just fine.
Consider again the Alaska Airlines example which is a redesign of the service experience, not so much the technology.
I, too, am frustrated by the added costs for air travel. However, I would like to share my 2 cents worth from someone who has a bit of an insight to the Airlines' world.
Majority of the airlines, specifically the large ones, have been around for a long time. They have many complicated processes which are performed either manually, or by old and labor-intensive software. Although, this might good for employment figures...as you can imagine, they add to the airlines' overhead costs.
Unfortunately, this also adds another level of complexity which is the ability to transition to new methods and technologies, when they are available!
Adding the high cost of fuel (which BTW, is the airlines use the "cream of the crop") to these problems...let's say that change might be on its way, but will not be here soon enough to spare us from paying for every convenience that we may need during our flights!