Having just arrived in Sydney for the second week in a row, this time on my way to Darwin to talk at the ATEC conference – I find myself sitting in the domestic airport stewing over how much I love travel and going to new destinations etc and then how frustrating that actual act of travelling is. I think probably this is more so between Australia and New Zealand. This is my top lists of things that need to be fixed overall:
- The cost and availability of any decent food and alcohol within the terminals. Compare this to the US where every terminal has at least one if not two or three sports bars with big cheap beers and great meals.
- The cost of wireless Internet – if available at all. Am I missing something – don’t you just pay for the phone line, a massive wireless router and do a deal on the bandwidth. Or aren’t you just the telco anyway? Why is 30 minutes so bloody expensive.
- The cost of data connections on cellphones. What is the point of having a Blackberry or iPhone when Telco’s make the use of them in other countries virtually impossible. If I was a NZ phone provider the first thing I would do is a deal with an Australian network to provide same as home data rates – in NZ that would clean-up because at least 30+% must do regular business in Australia.
- The leg room on the planes. The amazing things is that Qantas is worse than Air NZ – yet Australian blokes tend to much bigger than us Kiwi boys. The “international” Qantas flight I was on just then was so bad the not-too-large guy sitting next to me and I are both having hospital treatment for severe elbow bruising. Remove 1 row, spread us out just a little bit more – it is not like you are completely full. Imagine how much happier your customers would be – especially in light of the increased discount fares. If you are going to compete on service – please do!
- The whole airpoints scheme. Firstly, that there is no Air NZ partner in Australia – yet most New Zealand frequent flyers probably do the majority of their business in Australia. Soon there will be no One-World partner in NZ. Don’t you realise we are basically the same country when it comes to business. Secondly, with the advent of cheap fares it is almost impossible to actually earn air points these days. I think you have to be realistic guys there is a global recession out there – we gotta go with the cheap airfares for mere business survival. You have to downgrade the points qualifications or you are going to lose loyal customers between airlines simply because there is no incentive to fly with one over the other when there are no points for the non-flexible fares
- The lack of plugs in airports. I bet you the security guys watch on their cameras – “we have a race on for plug number 1, there is two going for it, oh plug number 2 has been taken. Sorry to you other 50 who want to work, tough bikkies – no power for you”.
- Taxis drivers in Auckland and Sydney (Brisbane, Melbourne and Wellington come a close second as being pretty bad). For many international travellers a cab driver is their first real contact with our countries. So how come when you get in a cab and say the Hilton (I just picked that cos surely it is a landmark hotel in every city – I usually ask to go to the 2 buck beds with a bed bug hostel) the driver says – do you know the way? Or shall I take this route or this other one? I just want the cheapest and fastest mate – surely you know – your the expert here. Last week in Sydney I got a lovely Indian guy who told me it was his first week on the job and had no idea where to go and was petrified by the Sydney traffic. After countless wrong turns we get to the airport and he wants to charge me the meter – hold on mate, if you just went the right way it would have been half that! In the UK a black cab drive does nearly 4 years study for “the Knowledge” which means they know virtually every single road and every single shortcut.
- The absolutely crap waiting room seating. Give me London City airport any day with it’s sizable leather seats – I used to pay that extra £20 or so just to fly out of that airport. Surely with all the modernisation that has been taking place in airports in that last few years (most airports are extremely profitable businesses) they can give a little thought to customer satisfaction. Maybe happy customers might spend more in a happy airport environment.
- The state of the public toilets. What’s with you travellers – just cos we are in an airport and a rush doesn’t mean you have to pee all over the floor or not flush the chain.
- The removing of my laptop for security scanning. Seriously, I am more than sure there is sufficient technology out there now that can scan our bags and see through the laptops. I mean in the US and UK they can see through your clothing! Imagine the time it would save if every second traveller did not fuss around with their bloody laptops at every security point.
- Customs officers who do not have English as their first language. I could not understand a bloody thing the Indian guy who checked my passport in Christchurch last week – this is not an occasional occurrence! How can you really judge if someone is infiltrating our countries for the purpose of illegal work – or worse.
- How much the airline staff hate their jobs. What is up with that? The exception is Virgin Australia where (although granted they have had to relax their employment policy beyond just sexy girls since they exhausted the entire Gold Coast gene pool) you can be guaranteed a smile as they charge you literally $10 for a beer or coffee. Qantas staff are absolutely shocking and Air NZ marginally better. The lady at the Qantas check-in today in NZ would not check me beyond my domestic leg because I was not at the airport 2 hours before check-in (I was an hour – and we are talking about a tin-pot one horse country town airport here) despite right next to me the guy in the business isle was being checked all the way through to Sydney. Then on the flight we had as much chance of getting an alcoholic drink beyond just beer or wine as flying to moon (which the American guy next to me found out). On Air NZ last week they forgot to serve the coffee – I enquired and was told “we forget – oh well there is only a hour now – no time”. Airlines, you have got to do something about this – pay these guys more, or mystery shop, or something. There are some great staff but unfortunately more than 50% of my trips are ruined by people who just do not want to be there. Some of the older staff on these established airlines really detest their actual customers.
Share this Post
Nice rant Dan.
it’s not just NZ or Australia with the problems. It seems to be endemic to the airline industry.
I wonder who is copying who? Did the industry start copying Micheal O’Leary from Ryan Air or he start copying the rest of the industry.
The airline industry including airport operators and ground infrastructure providers should be ashamed of them selves for operating such poor value for money product.
I still think the best way to travel is by car. much easier and you can go at your own pace. Trouble is though sometimes its hard to think of what a town is like just looking at the dot on the map. At lest that solution is now solved with http:www.welcome2australia.com.au with a website like this who wants to fly anyway
I agree entirely Axel – brilliant thought, you are a genius – I am going from Queenstown to Cairns in two weeks, so I will definitely drive – might be a bit wet, but at least I won’t have any airline problems!