Mark's Web Site: A quiet place with just a bit of pretension.

I am in the midst of a five week business trip around the world.  I started in Rio de Janeiro, came through Miami and Manila, and now I'm in Singapore.  I'll stop in Paris on the way home.  It has been exhausting yet enlightening.

Let me start with the airline industry.  Now here is an enterprise that needs a complete renewal.  This year, due to cutbacks from high fuel costs, the industry has no excess capacity.  As a result, its ability to rebound from common weather delays has vanished.  A one hour thunderstorm in Boston resulted in a two hour delay in the departure of my flight to Miami. This, of course, caused me to miss my connection to Rio and I had to spend the night and most of the next day in Miami.  On the other hand, a typhoon in Hong Kong caused me to miss my connection there.  Fortunately, it was early enough for me to catch the next flight out later that evening.  The delays due to congestion were extraordinary. 

The point of this, however, is not so much to remind us that air travel is risky at best, but to compare the responses of two different airlines.  In Miami, I was flying with American Airlines.  We left Boston two hours late because there was not enough staff to clean the airplane and load the luggage of the half dozen flights that were stacked up by the storm. When I got off the plane in Miami I was directed to a desk where I was handed a boarding pass for a flight the next day.  I asked about hotel accommodations - "Weather related."   I asked if I could retrieve my bag "No".  I called the emergency number for my travel agent.  She helped me to go back and ask some more questions.  The boarding pass I was offered booked me as stand by on an already oversold flight.  I asked for the agent to book me a confirmed reservation, which she grudgingly did.  I was left feeling that, except for my travel agency, I was alone facing this monstrosity of unintelligible rules we call the airline industry.  Actually, once I calmed myself down, the agent and I had a pleasant conversation about how those who make corporate policy never having to face the result of their decisions.  It is always left to the front line folks to fight the battles.  I do not envy the $10/hour ticket agents who face tired, angry travelers.  The net result was I spent the night in a Miami hotel with no clean clothing, no toothbrush (and none for sale in the hotel store), but with a bed to sleep in.  As it turned out, I did get the last seat on the next evening's flight to Rio - and it was Business Class!

The response of Cathay Pacific Airlines was different.  The circumstances were more trying because they were recovering from a full day of lost flights.  In Manila, the lines at the ticket counter were huge, yet there always seemed to be someone from Cathay Pacific working the lines to answer people's questions.  I regretted not having  booked on-line, until I saw that the long Economy class line with six agents working was moving much faster than on-line boarding pass line with only one.  It was only as I neared the head of the line that I learned all connecting flights out of Hong Kong were "Suspended".  That's a new term for me, I don't know how to interpret a "Suspended" flight.  Will it go later?  Is it canceled?  My choice was to try again tomorrow from Manila, or shoot the dice in Hong Kong.  I've always considered a step forward the better choice, so I went to Hong Kong.  I had no forwarding boarding pass and my bag was checked only to Hong Kong.  I'm thinking, "Well, if I get to spend a night in Hong Kong, at least I'll have some clean clothes." 

Upon disembarking in Hong Kong, I was directed to a ticket counter that was handling folks like me.  It had a relatively short line before it, so I saw some hope for a quick resolution. I also noted that flights to Singapore had resumed, although we missed the one I was originally booked on.  But - there's always a but - each person in line was taking 15 - 30 minutes to get their problem resolved.  Many of them were going to the States and those flights were already sold out with travellers returning from the Olympics.   Cathay Pacific did have someone talking to people in the line, helping them to understand the nature of the beast we were all dealing with.  I suggested perhaps they could use more agents, maybe some seating with a number system to call people up.  The gentleman assured me that the chaos in the main ticketing hall was consuming all the agents they had and that getting chairs through security would cause a further delay. 

Some folks had temporary boarding passes for flights that were getting very near to departing.  As they got closer to their times, tempers began to flair.  The gentleman told me that they had decided to take people as they entered the line, rather than push folks with close departure times to the front.  It is a judgement as to whether one with a temporary boarding pass should take precedence over one who was issued no boarding pass.  Anytime we have to make such a judgement, someone will rage.  Fortunately for me, Cathay Pacific decided to go with the "first come" rationale.  When it came my turn, I couldn't believe the agent when he said "the next flight is at 8 PM, would you like aisle or window seating?"  And they were prepared to transfer my baggage to my flight!  I was done in under ten minutes - no doubt a relief for the anxious Filipino behind me. 

I did notice that those in line who were most impatient with the staff appeared to be Western.  They'd leave the line to demand of the counter manager more agents to serve them.  They'd consume precious minutes of an agent's time with nonsensical requests.  One woman, clearly European, having been turned away from the agent manager's desk, engaged in a shouting match with the manager from her place in line.  I observed that talking to the staff did nothing but lengthen the time they took to resolve the problem in front of them.  It brings to question this perception of privilege that we in the West carry with us.  Asians seem to have more patience for being sheparded into queue and having to wait long periods of time to resolve their problems. Although some do have a higher expectation of privilege, they tend to exhibit it with less noise.  We Westerners demand immediate gratification with loud shouts and make matters worse by trying to force our solutions upon an already strained system. 

Reflecting on the differences in my own attitude between Miami and Hong Kong, I wonder if my anger in Miami and patience in Hong Kong was the result of some personal learning or a different cultural context or just the wearniness of an extended journey.  Anyway, the result is that I am now in Singapore with a day to myself.  I think I'll go for a walk....