Airlines are still putting themselves out of business.

Last week, I flew to Chicago for a meeting. My wife also had a meeting in Chicago at the same time, so we flew together. My meeting went fine. Hers did not. Why? Because the speaker for the breakfast she was hosting (250 people registered) didn’t arrive. Weather was the stated issue. The speaker’s flight was cancelled, and 8 hours of waiting at the airport couldn’t get her a seat on a new plane. The flights were all too full. Essentially, there is no slack in the airline system, so “slack” shifts to the edges, to the passengers.

Now, as a business owner, I can no longer expect missing a meeting due to a travel glitch to be an exceptional event. Now I have to view it as a likely possibility. And that changes my thinking. It’s still okay to travel for a week or more of work. If I’m a day late on that schedule, I can make it up.  But, I can’t plan a trip for a two hour meeting, with any expectation that I can get there and back reliably.  The only reasonable response is to cease that type of travel, because now it’s both expensive, and very risky.

Alternatives exist. Video conferencing and Web conferencing work. I’m installing a new video conference setup in August (in new offices).  We calculate the payback time at just three trips to London for a team of two.  At that rate it will have paid for itself by the end of this year.  Web conferencing is even cheaper.

When your costs go up, your service goes down, and your reliability sinks, your customers will find alternatives. In the case of the airlines, that is already happening.

FYI, I’ve put in my time traveling. I have well over 2 million air miles. From 1996 to 2006 I logged an average of over 200 hotel nights a year. I stopped tracking at 3,000 takeoffs.

Then in December of 2006 I changed jobs and got off the road. I didn’t get on a commercial flight until last week. That was an 18 month break. Honestly, the trip wasn’t bad. For one thing it was short (overnight). I got direct flights. I got upgrades based on past history. We left on time and arrived on time.  Staff (American Airlines) were businesslike.

Just lucky, I guess.

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