If, like George Clooney in Up in the air, you spend a significant chunk of your time at work riding the clouds (hopefully not doing so to fire people extensively), I am quite sure any improvements that airlines make to boost their services is music to your ears.
As travel industry members, airline revamps are part of our daily office conversations: “Have you flown on X’s A350? Have you seen that Y has hired chef W to design its business class menus? Just back from Z on Y and I can tell you their legroom in economy is unbeatable!”
As airline nerds, we're most curious about what you value most from an airline.
Here are some options to choose from:
- Punctuality. You could not care less about fancy perks. The only thing that matters to you is to depart on time and be punctual for your meetings. You spend enough time traveling already, so you want to avoid wandering around airports like a character from The Walking Dead.
- Direct flights. The thought of spending three hours in a hub waiting for your next flight and going through security checks, again and again, drains the life out of you. And this is the best case scenario. You start running not because it became fashionable, but because you need to get fit to catch your connecting flights since it's not uncommon for your first let to be delayed. And to think that you sometimes complain about a four-hour turnaround! Some days you would need a full 12 hours to be on the safe side.
- Milles. Oh yes! A platinum card means the world to you. You know you will never suffer from overbooking and you love being treated like royalty by airline staff, not to mention those free flights or upgrades you can use to have the time of your life when flying for leisure.
- Legroom and privacy. “Give me some spaaaaace!,” you feel like shouting as soon as you reach your seat. You are not known for being built like LeBron James so why do your knees get crushed against the seat in front of you when flying economy? And what about some privacy when flying business? Is that too much to ask for? Being able to stretch your legs to the full and cocoon in gorgeous business class seats makes you feel like crying tears of joy.
- Airport lounges. With the kids and everything, you don't go out very often anymore so spending time in awesome airport lounges is like a visit to the spa or a nice night out for you.
- Food and drink. You're a foodie. You have a blog on international cuisine, you know the best dining spots in every city you've ever visited and you're always looking for the latest gastronomical trends. Even though planes are not restaurants, for you it’s essential that the onboard meal selection brings some joy.
- Entertainment. Your idea of paradise is to spend a full weekend binge watching the latest series, so when you are up for a nine-hour journey (or longer!) you really want a wide selection of films and series to keep you going. You still remember fondly that flight when you were able to finally watch Big Little Lies on HBO.
As a frequent traveler, what do you most value?
