Comments on: Bookends http://jeffnolan.com/wp/2008/03/04/bookends/ Jeff Nolan's take on investment, innovation, entrepreneurship and the technology industry Mon, 06 Feb 2012 06:44:37 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Shefaly http://jeffnolan.com/wp/2008/03/04/bookends/comment-page-1/#comment-238643 Shefaly Sat, 08 Mar 2008 09:22:13 +0000 http://jeffnolan.com/wp/2008/03/04/bookends/#comment-238643 Does it all not depend on what "better" means? Does 'better' mean avoiding the thronging masses rushing for their seats on their no-seats-assigned, cheap-as-chips-tickets flight to Lanzarote? Does it mean not losing as many bags? Does it mean not having to wait around in terminals for terminally delayed planes? Does it mean not sitting on the tarmac for hours to take off? Does it mean not being served terrible food? The thing is that there are piecemeal solutions to every problem that regular travellers complain about. Avoid the Lanzarote crowd; fly Virgin Business which sends you a Limo, takes you through security and you wait in a fancy lounge. Don't lose bags; pack sensible and light, not your entire household and take it as carry-on which many airlines will allow (except those going to Lanzarote). But no one airline is delivering the lot. Some can be fixed with passengers paying more money, others not. In case of BA, the main culprits are BAA and unionised staff. In case of Virgin, well, Branson told the staff, if they strike their goose is cooked, so hey presto, no strike. I am guessing UAL's problems are similar to BA's, minus of course the countless Chapter-11 protection filings which suggest an inept management too. Yes, I agree travel is worse now than in 1997-98 when I travelled every week and did not mind it, even though one end of my travel was Heathrow. Now there are just too many people, the terminals are just too small and too tacky, the rules are too many to follow, and too many hiding behind the 'safety' concerns. And yes the older you get, the worse these annoyances become :-) Thanks. Does it all not depend on what “better” means?

Does ‘better’ mean avoiding the thronging masses rushing for their seats on their no-seats-assigned, cheap-as-chips-tickets flight to Lanzarote? Does it mean not losing as many bags? Does it mean not having to wait around in terminals for terminally delayed planes? Does it mean not sitting on the tarmac for hours to take off? Does it mean not being served terrible food?

The thing is that there are piecemeal solutions to every problem that regular travellers complain about. Avoid the Lanzarote crowd; fly Virgin Business which sends you a Limo, takes you through security and you wait in a fancy lounge. Don’t lose bags; pack sensible and light, not your entire household and take it as carry-on which many airlines will allow (except those going to Lanzarote). But no one airline is delivering the lot. Some can be fixed with passengers paying more money, others not.

In case of BA, the main culprits are BAA and unionised staff. In case of Virgin, well, Branson told the staff, if they strike their goose is cooked, so hey presto, no strike. I am guessing UAL’s problems are similar to BA’s, minus of course the countless Chapter-11 protection filings which suggest an inept management too.

Yes, I agree travel is worse now than in 1997-98 when I travelled every week and did not mind it, even though one end of my travel was Heathrow. Now there are just too many people, the terminals are just too small and too tacky, the rules are too many to follow, and too many hiding behind the ‘safety’ concerns. And yes the older you get, the worse these annoyances become :-)

Thanks.

]]> By: Jeff http://jeffnolan.com/wp/2008/03/04/bookends/comment-page-1/#comment-237049 Jeff Wed, 05 Mar 2008 02:15:21 +0000 http://jeffnolan.com/wp/2008/03/04/bookends/#comment-237049 Ben, With all due respect, air travel in 1997 was a lot more pleasant than in 2007. I know because I was doing it in both decades. More on point, air travel on JetBlue and Virgin America is pretty nice so why can't United deliver the goods? Ben,
With all due respect, air travel in 1997 was a lot more pleasant than in 2007. I know because I was doing it in both decades.

More on point, air travel on JetBlue and Virgin America is pretty nice so why can’t United deliver the goods?

]]> By: Ben Casnocha http://jeffnolan.com/wp/2008/03/04/bookends/comment-page-1/#comment-236984 Ben Casnocha Tue, 04 Mar 2008 22:39:13 +0000 http://jeffnolan.com/wp/2008/03/04/bookends/#comment-236984 Air travel may seem like it was better back in the day, but the data don't bare this out. I'll blog about this. The short story is that there are fewer delays, cleaner planes, faster routes, more routes, lower prices, etc etc now than there have ever been. The difference is it used to be that airline travel was romanticized and people were in awe so they put up with all sorts of crap. Air travel may seem like it was better back in the day, but the data don’t bare this out. I’ll blog about this. The short story is that there are fewer delays, cleaner planes, faster routes, more routes, lower prices, etc etc now than there have ever been. The difference is it used to be that airline travel was romanticized and people were in awe so they put up with all sorts of crap.

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