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Serving Itself
Opinion · July 11, 2004

Travel is still thought of as a service industry. But someone must have forgotten to tell Craig Kobayashi, the Hawaiian Airlines pilot who recently refused to fly his plane from Honolulu to San Francisco with Joshua Gotbaum on board.

Kobayashi said he was "uncomfortable" having Gotbaum on his plane, even though he posed no security risk to the flight. It turns out the passenger, a court-appointed trustee overseeing the carrier's bankruptcy reorganization, had tried to make changes to the pilots' pension plan. Gotbaum ended up taking another flight.

Never mind that federal law doesn't allow crewmembers to screen travelers for ideology (passengers can be removed if they're deemed a threat to safety). Never mind, too, that the only comfort Kobayashi - or any other commercial airline pilot for that matter - ought to have been concerned with was that of his customers who, after all, are paying the bills.

The Hawaiian case is just the latest example of the travel industry forgetting why it's here.

It isn't just airline employees who have somehow convinced themselves that their companies exist solely for their benefit - not that of shareholders or, God forbid, even of travelers. Check into a hotel, and you'll find much the same attitude: serve yourself and then, when you're ready to check out, let us help ourselves to the money in your account. Ditto for car rental companies.

The American travel industry, which used to set standards for its exemplary customer service, has lost its way.

One of the most dramatic examples is in the skies. Today's airline industry is just a shell of its former self. The legroom in economy class has shrunk to less than 32 inches of legroom from a standard of 36 inches since airline deregulation in the 1970s. Flight attendants - don't you dare call them stewardesses - often don't even come through the aisles to offer you a drink. They now claim they're here to save your butt, not kiss it, and they jokingly refer to customers as "the enemy."

The attitude extends to the boardroom, where bean counters make heartless cuts in wages and benefits (the apparent source of the Hawaiian pilot's discontent). In short, everyone from the baggage handlers right up the line to the executives sitting in their corner offices seem to be in it for themselves, not the passenger. How else do you explain some of the recent labor disputes, the criminal compensation packages reaped by underperforming airline CEOs, that continue to dominate the news headlines?

Unfortunately, the "me-first" mind-set is infectious. "Help yourself" is a favored lodging industry term nowadays. The hotel clerk has devolved from the most articulate employee in the building, to someone who barely has a grasp of the English language, to … a machine.

Help yourself: check yourself into the hotel by sliding your credit card through the ATM-like machine in the lobby. Help yourself: Want breakfast? Go to the buffet, where there's no server - don't you dare call him a waiter - in sight. Help yourself: Ready to check out? Don't bother coming downstairs to tell us how you enjoyed your stay. We'll just slide the bill under your door and charge your credit card automatically.

Meanwhile, hotel executives are busy inventing new ways to help themselves to your money. How about a surcharge for an in-room safe? A fee to deliver a fax to your room? A charge for parking, or a special "resort fee" that covers everything from the coffeemaker in the room to the towels provided poolside? These are increasingly common charges, not to be confused with bizarre extras like an "electricity surcharge" to cover high power costs, or phone "connection" fees that are incurred every time you pick up the hotel phone.

But the one business that's almost completely forgotten why it's here is the car rental industry. In no other segment of the travel industry - not even airlines - are customers taken advantage of more than when they rent a set of wheels for their vacation or business trip.

Forget, for a moment, the long line customers have to wait in if they're not frequent renters. The fun really starts when the rental agent tries to strong-arm a hapless motorist into buying expensive (and almost always unnecessary) insurance. And don't hesitate, otherwise the car rental employee is likely to pull out photos of damaged cars and to ask, in a portentous tone of voice, "Do you want this to happen to you?"

No other industry has figured out how to routinely quote a base rate that's nearly 25 percent lower than the actual cost of the product, and to do so legally. That's right, when renting from a major airport, the cost of a rental car will be an average of 25 percent higher, once taxes, surcharges and extras are added on - and that doesn't even include insurance and prepaid gas options.

Is it any wonder that almost every major customer-satisfaction poll reflects a growing disenchantment with the American travel industry? It is painfully obvious that the business has lost its way to the detriment of passengers, guests and drivers.

Fortunately, there's hope. Ailing legacy airlines like United Airlines and Delta Air Lines appear to be having a change of heart by spinning off low-fare startups such as Ted and Song, which try to recapture the essence of customer service. Hotels from the smallest bed-and-breakfast to big chains such as Ritz-Carlton often surprise guests by bucking the industry trend - as do full-service car rental companies like Hertz and Avis.

But they are exceptions.

There's an adage in business that if you don't take care of your customers, someone else will. In the case of the travel industry, maybe that wouldn't be such a bad thing.

Christopher Elliott is a travel commentator. All e-mailed questions may be edited, condensed or republished at the site's discretion.

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