After a month of fairly intense traveling, it seems odd that I am starting my vacation by getting back on a plane. However, here I am back at Logan Airport in Boston, waiting for a flight to Italy. Because the check-in counter at British Airways was quiet and the line at security short, I have just enough time to write this brief post to give notice that I will be away until November. As always, Dede will post a couple of items while I am away.
Passing a line of people in another airport earlier today reminded me of an oddity of United Airlines service that I have been meaning to comment on for a while. The last couple of times I have flown United, I have been highly amused by the fact that there are two check-in lines for domestic flights. While this is normal procedure for international flights, what really caught my attention was that the Business Class line is right next to the ticket machine and has a bit of red carpet under it. The line for Coach/Economy dog-legs around it. Once the Business Class passengers have boarded, the carpeted line is closed off, and regular folks have to walk an extra yard or two to get to the plane with no carpet to cushion the walk.
Now, what I want to know is, what value does United really think the red carpet adds? At a time when airlines are scrambling to stay aloft, why waste precious dollars on a bit of carpet? Do they really think that it makes a difference to the business class passengers that they get to walk one yard less? Maybe United has done research and found that this ploy really does make business travellers feel important. If so, I find that a sad comment on those people. If not, I find it a sad comment on whoever implemented this procedure.
What do you think? Does this ploy do anything to add value to the United brand experience, or is it just a case of rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic? I look forward to reading your comments when I return in a couple of weeks.
(3 votes, average: 3.33 out of 5)
Loading ...
Email This Post
October 21st, 2008 at 11:42 pm
Hi Nigel,
Hope you are having a nice holiday. This is an activity with no value at all. It might have been introduced by somebody who was asked to add value to business class passengers and nobody challenged that this was a pretty frivolous way of doing that. good to know it not only happens in Asia.
Cheers