Kai, The Informologist

For the first time in my life, I missed a flight. Unintentionally.

I arrived at the airport about 10:45am to catch  the 12:20pm flight back to Indianapolis. The joy of being on a direct flight was soon wiped off with a line of probably 200 people. People were rounded up like herds of sheeps. And when questions are raised, all they could reply was ‘Get back in line like everybody else’.

Why did this happen? Let’s try to analyze.

1. People who were in the line are flying all over – both domestic and international
2. The reason why everyone’s gathering together is because each flight is about 10 to 30 minutes apart
3. The line would stand still for nearly 10 minutes each interval
4. The reason is because of a shortage of staff. Yes, only 6 staff were working to check-in 200 passengers
5. Plus, with international flights allowing more luggage and tighter security checks, the time is further extended.

While waiting, I was pondering about the alternatives that people may have. Flying is perhaps the fastest way to get around that’s unrivaled by cruise, bus or train. It’s almost an monopoly industry for people who have to travel in a timely manner.

Things weren’t all that bleak if you somehow manage to make it to the check-in counter (I did so in 1 and 1/2 hours). It wasn’t the staff on duty’s fault that the flights were arranged so tightly together. And with the recent recession, it was somewhat understandable that they were understaffed.

A very nice lady helped me located an alternative that would see me transiting in Chicago and be only about 3 hours late. No, I’m not being sacrastic, for a moment I seriously thought I am going to have to fly another day. The transition was confusing, but I’m certainly glad that I made it back to Bloomington before July 6th comes around.

I wouldn’t rank Northwest Airlines’ customer service alongside AT&T since it wasn’t the customer service that failed. It was the organization of the corporate. While I sympantize with the need to cut down expense in the time of recession, I do not agree that the service should suffer.

However, in an industry where choices are limited by time, there isn’t very much that the regular economy-class travelers, like myself, can do.