Worst in the world?
Levelling downwards.
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Jasper Kelly Thursday 24 June 2010 |
Why is the quality and experience of air travel descending to that of rail travel?
When Virgin introduced its VirginRail their stated goal was to lift the quality of rail travel to that of the airlines. We saw advertising for smartly dressed staff on immaculate trains with guarantees of punctuality and customer care. For a while, Virgin succeeded and rail travel looked capable of living up to its potential. Sadly, and I do not think that this was necessarily the fault of Virgin, their services deteriorated to match that of the other rail companies.
Despite our national history, we just do not seem able to run a railway. Now, in an all to English way, we now seem destined to bring our air travel down to the level of rail.
People write to me with grumbles that are not specific to any one thing but about the general lack of grace and missed expectations. They feel their journey should have been better and could so easily have been smoother and less tiresome had it been properly managed. The word care features regularly. Customer care, caring staff, careless attitude all come up in these communications.
Is it worse in the UK than elsewhere? Strangley, I think it is. We are becoming a nation that tolerates ignorant and belligerent staff. Travel in America and the service appears better because the staff behave better. And, perhaps, because the staff behave better the service actually is better.
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Brenda Purvis, Ashford 24 June 2010, 12:15PM | |
| This is all about price. Too many companies and too many people shop by price these days. Just take the world of car insurance; the adverts say we can save you £50 or this one is cheaper than that one. There is no suggestion of what you are actually get or whether it is value for the money.The same applies to travel. We in Britain (it is believed) always want the cheapest. I lived in Germany and they do tend to shop by quality.Scruffy staff, knowing nothing, caring less are the symptoms of cheap prices and cheap thinking.Will it get better by itself - no it will not. Can we make it better, well Virgin tried hard and failed, so I worry that it is a tough call. | |
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James, London 25 June 2010, 05:03PM | |
| There was a global poll of airline passengers recently that voted Heathrow the worst airport in the world. The travellers who took part in this survey took almost 250,000 flights between them over the past year. Sadly, Heathrow remains firmly entrenched as the airport the world loves to hate. | |
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K.McMullan 25 June 2010, 05:10PM | |
| I beg to differ James, Heathrow is perhaps the best airport in the world, its facilities are second to none. Let these people surveyed try any of the main airports in Brazil where you need to be a millionair to eat and drink and what about Lisbon, JFK and Frankfurt and who in heavens name thought Schiphol better than our own fantastic Heathrow, where else can you get fish & chips and a brilliant pint of guinness. Just try Sao Paulos main airports where they have over 20 million people living, what a disaster they are. | |
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Andrew Wills 29 June 2010, 11:37AM | |
| There is certainly a lack of consistency with airline staff. I am a frequent traveller with BA and one thing is painfully clear: The crew quality varies greatly with each flight. On some flights they can be excellent. Smiling, telling jokes and promptly answers every request.On other flights they can be "zombies", slow, rude or just ignorant. It's a lottery what crew you get on your flight. | |
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Fiona, Welling 16 July 2010, 05:18PM | |
| I think 'worst in the world' is a little unfair, but the UK travel industry could certainly invest in some effective customer care training. | |
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