That Was The Week That Was 26-30 September 2022
Telling it like it is (not)
Lots of things happened this week, the week that was, but we were stopped, stone dead, by this most wonderful piece of corporate speak. I defy you to go past it with a straight face.
The Latvian airline airBaltic announces that during the first eight months of 2022 the most popular ancillary products of the airline were checked baggage, advanced seat reservation, as well as heavy hand baggage.
Eva Plakane, SVP Revenue Management of airBaltic: “We see that air travel is not anymore just a flight – it is a more in-depth engagement with customer by offering full travel experience from start to finish. More than half of the passengers who fly with airBaltic choose to purchase additional services to make their flying experience comfortable and enjoyable. Therefore, we are constantly following passenger feedback to improve our existing products and evaluate new options.”
Where to start? First, in the good old days, when you booked a ticket, got a seat and thoughtlessly checked in your bags, your flying experience was not ‘comfortable and enjoyable’. Oh no, it is only when you have to pay for things that used to be part of the ticket price that you can have not anymore just a flight. That was somehow less, Eva tells us, than a flight. It lacked the in-depth engagement we all crave. Is there a heart out there that does not wish for in-depth engagement with their airline? In the old days we did not have that. We did not engage by opening our wallets any wider for a start.
The good news is that we can get an in-depth engagement; we can have a full travel experience, from start to finish. Are you, like me, sick of full travel experiences that somehow leave you some distance short of your destination? That is not a failed travel experience, oh no. That is a full travel experience, just not from start to finish. What Air Baltic are warning us they might do in the future by making this very specific comment is nothing short of ominous. Start to not quite finish full travel experiences?
Booking a seat, once again, part of what, in the good old days, we called a ticket, is now our gateway to comfort and enjoyment. It is indisputable that not having a seat for a flight is unlikely to be comfortable and enjoyable, so I think we can trust Eva on this point. And what a gateway it is likely to be. A gateway to catching a plane and getting all the way to a destination. And hoping that you can be reunited with your luggage.
Or perhaps that is the enhanced in-depth engagement package? How much more comfortable and enjoyable your journey will be if you paid for the reuniting with your luggage package? There is an idea for you Eva, on the house. Which, by definition, means that there will not be an in-depth engagement, which will be uncomfortable and not enjoyable. Sic transit gloria.