Have my posts become too whiny -- or has travel simply become a chore rather than a joy?
I like to travel. I really do. Or at least I used to. You'd never know it from my recent posts on this blog though. I seem to be on a roll writing about things that I find annoying: Rising air fares and declining airline service. Airline surcharges and costly hotel "extras" (not just the mini-bar but
WiFi, parking, usurious telephone charges, etc.). The Transportation Security Agency's policies that affront travelers. Highway delays. Hotels that waste
electricity and water in the name of "luxury." Or, on the other end of the scale, accommodations have been allowed to go to seed.
Believe it or not, I have exercised some self-restraint. I really haven't written the price of gas that has skyrocketed the cost of a road trip. Nor did I regale you with the tale of the speeding
motorcyclist who broadsided my car while I was on Colorado's Western Slope ( biker landed in the hospital; I'm OK, and I have a new car).
Other blogs and websites (
The Cranky Flier, Christopher Elliott's ombudsman-
ish site called simply
Elliott,
Frugal Travel Guy,
Upgrade: Travel Better among others) keep the traveler (aka, the customer) in mind.
Commuting Doctor Repeatedly DelayedWhenever I think I've been too grouchy, along comes another example of why travel has become so frustrating and joyless -- and in the following case, that puts my inconveniences into perspective. Al Lewis, whose
syndicated column appears in the
Denver Post, wrote about Dr. Joel Schwartz, an obstetrician specializing in high-risk pregnancies, who flies once a week from Denver to
Las Vegas. "If he's not in the office on time, he has a packed waiting room. His partners must pick up his caseload. And his anxious patients may end up with a doctor they do not know.
"Schwartz, who commutes from Denver to Las Vegas every week, doesn't like
to roll the dice when it comes to air travel. After Denver- based Frontier
Airlines filed bankruptcy earlier this year, he said he bought five months'
worth of tickets on United Airlines. His first United flight was canceled. His
second was nearly two hours late.
"A consummate traveler, he said he found the airline's employees unusually
grumpy. When he called customer support, he said he could only reach people in
exotic locales who seemed scantly empowered to help him. So Schwartz bought
backup tickets on Southwest Airlines to ensure he'd be on time for his patients
each week.
Schwartz said once he's burned through his nonrefundable United
tickets, he's going back to Frontier or Southwest, or anywhere else....
"'You would have to cut my arm off before I'd ever go back to United,'" he
said. At this point, it's hard to say what might be worse. United's service? Or
a one-armed obstetrician who can't always get to his Las Vegas office on
time?"
Dr. Schwartz has clearly had it with
United, and so, according to Lewis, have pilots. "They [
the pilots' union] are demanding that CEO Glenn
Tilton resign. They are hanging out their dirty cabin blankets on a website called
Glenn Tilton Must Go. As airlines drown in rising jet fuel bills, the pilots union says
Tilton's performance is among the worst....
Tilton is a former oilman who took Texaco through bankruptcy and helped merge it with Chevron Corp. before joining United in September 2002. He and his crew earned tens of millions taking United through Chapter 11, hacking away at airline workers and their benefits. Along the way, they leased a shiny new headquarters on Chicago's
Wacker Drive. Then they sharpened their knives again to get through an unprecedented spike in fuel prices."
It is difficult to adopt an upbeat attitude toward travel providers that not only take advantage of customers by cutting costs and downsizing their workforces but are enriching themselves in the
prcoess.
Blogger Reports Bizarre TSA Agent's Treatment of Disabled PassengerDr. Schwartz, even if delayed, certainly can fend for himself at the airport. Denver blogger James, Future Gringo, with a pass to accompany his mother to her gate at Denver International Airport, witnessed a TSA's downright bizarre action when clearing a developmentally disabled passenger through security.
He
reported, "This agent was visually inspecting the wheelchair and probing around some cushions as expected, but then she did something that I would never expect: She took an ETD (Explosive Trace Detection) Swab, and repeatedly rubbed the child’s face with the swab. She did this a few times with the swab attached to the plastic forceps. I don’t recall her putting the swab IN the machine, but after finishing she gently caressed the child’s face a few times with her hand - which I thought was equally as strange." Strange indeed.
James also commented, "Now this TSA officer was not being forceful or rude, and was actually quite gentle and friendly with the child. However the act of rubbing a child’s face with a substance bothered me. A fully able bodied person would never consent to having their FACE rubbed with a dabber or swabber. A person in a wheelchair who is cognizant and articulate would not allow this. Why should a wheelchair bound child who can’t speak for themself be subjected to this? Granted this only lasted about 15 seconds, but I didn’t think it was right or appropriate on the part of the TSA."
Prices, airline policies, arbitrary TSA procedures and all the rest nothwithstanding, I'll try to be more positive, because I like to travel. I really do.
