Cranky Talk – The Summer of Airline Madness
And we are back after Dave’s nuptials. What are we talking about? The same thing every traveler is talking about… how crazy things are right now. Sure, there are cancellations and delays every summer, but this is a different story as airlines realize they don’t have the ability to fly their schedules and then mass cancel a month out. And that’s on top of the regular issues.
Even more nuts are the fares that airlines are charging right now. Prices are sky high. Come listen in as we talk more about it.
Email Dave here and ask him how his wedding was.
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3 comments on “A New Cranky Talk is Live – The Summer of Airline Madness”
It sounds like the current situation in the US air travel market has certainly created challenges for Cranky Concierge as a travel agent and travel “fix-it” service provider.
Without getting too specific (and without trying to sound too happy about negative impacts to passengers), have the well-publicized service failures by airlines in recent months led to a significant increase in additional work for Cranky Concierge?
I’m not sure how price sensitive the average CC customer is, but at the very least, in times of such uncertainty (in terms of reliability of flights) and high fares, one would assume that CC’s service fees, now that they are a smaller proportion of the total trip cost, are beginning to look like better “bargains” (or “investments”, or “insurance”), at least compared to the days when < $200 domestic R/T itineraries were easily available on many routes and when few flights left the gate 90+% full.
Kilroy – Yes, it has been a lot more work lately. I don’t know how accurate I can be, because it’s not tracked perfectly, but it wouldn’t surprise me if we were spending 1.5-2x the amount of time per client compared to pre-pandemic. It’s not just operational issues, but it’s also schedule changes before hand, helping people understand entry requirements etc. It’s good for business… demand is off the charts… but it’s a lot.
Thanks for the insight and response, Brett. I can definitely see how Cranky Concierge might see some very significant swings in demand, both in absolute terms and in terms of average time per client.