An airline is never better than its worst product

Ranking airlines, saying that one is better than the other is a complicated, if not impossible, exercise. The proof is the often passionate conversations between passengers, fans and other “haters” on specialized forums. The proof is in the misunderstanding that often follows the annual publication of the Skytrax ranking. The proof is in the airlines that fall over themselves when we tell them that despite their efforts we are still not convinced, and that customer comments seem to go in our direction.

Why is it that no one seems to agree, let alone the airlines themselves don’t understand why the customer does not value their products and efforts?

A flight is unique, an airline is a whole

First of all, it is difficult to judge an airline on the basis of one flight, no, Air France is not bad because a Paris-Marseille flight in economy went badly and Emirates is not great because we had a dream experience in First Class between Dubai and Singapore.

Some airlines are better on the long haul than on the medium haul. Because it’s a choice, because economic common sense demands it, because it’s their culture, whatever.

Then there is the aircraft. Of course, flying on a 767 or an A350 is not the same.

Then comes the cabin. Already within the same type of aircraft. You will not be surprised that naturally we find business and first class more comfortable than economy. But also within a fleet of aircrafts. Do you love the Air France business cabin on some 777s? You will hate the one of the so-called “COI” (Caribbean Indian Ocean) destinations, old, faded and shabby. On a given aircraft model, some airlines may offer several cabins, of different age and quality. Russian roulette for the passenger.

Then the crew. Depending on the protocols, the training received, the freedom they are allowed or not in the execution of the score, the business culture, the mood of the day….some airlines are very consistent (at high, medium or low level) and others promise you a real lottery.

Departure and arrival airports also play a role in the passenger experience, even if the airline has few levers to improve things.

Finally comes the context of each flight and the imponderables. Climatic phenomena, strikes, breakdowns… a lot of things can influence the good or bad progress of a flight. The airline is not responsible for their occurrence but will be held responsible for the manner in which it has handled them.

Too many factors to judge on one flight. A flight is a story, an airline is a million stories intertwined. We can draw trends, judge the consistency of the service but it is difficult to draw generalizations.

An airline may be worth, on average, 15/20, but for the passenger the truth of a flight may be 19/20 or 3/20 and It is precisely this amplitude that the airlines must fight before even thinking about improving the best grades. Because it doesn’t matter if they improve from 15 to 16 if they continue to get 3s!

And this is the subject of my second point.

The airline knows what it is offering, the passenger knows what he is experiencing

We frankly have the impression that the airlines are in denial about customer feedback. When one talks about the poor service experienced on a flight, the other reminds him of the significant progress made recently.

I come back to what I was saying: if a flight is worth 3/20 it is worth 3/20 for the passenger even if on average the airline is worth 15. He is unlucky if he came on the wrong day but that’s the way it is!

I mentioned in my review of a Lufthansa flight from Paris to Frankfurt that this is the first time I had a service “bug” and such an ugly meal tray on this route with them. Bad luck, this is the day I chose to do my review and even if it doesn’t pay tribute to what I had on this flight, it was the reality of this flight.

Do you know what it does to the Air France passenger who has just experienced the horrors of a 10-hour flight in economy on the dramatic “COI” cabins to know that on the other 777s the cabin is top notch and the service much better? This does not reassure him any more than it calms him, on the contrary he has the impression to be taken for a fool. So yes, I can confirm that in La Première Air France has surely the best experience on the ground in the world and that in flight it is still of high level. So what? What does the economy passenger think about it? For the Air France passenger (or Lufthansa or ….) the truth is what he lives, it’s a long-haul economy flight in the worst cabin in the fleet, it’s a medium-haul flight with minimal service. The reality of a connection in Frankfurt is not the Senator Lounge or the First Class Lounge to which the “HON Circle” have access, it is the speed of a connection in less than an hour in a huge airport. The reality of United is not the Polaris cabin and service, it’s one of the worst economy class and the worst staff of a major. Moreover, their president understood it well when he said that as soon as you get on one of their planes, you are furious against the whole world. And this is what makes the reputation of an airline on the market! The worst product that 80% of the customers are confronted with, not the best one that concerns between 1 and 10% of them.

And what are the airlines doing to improve things? They listen to the customer, create focus groups in which they invite the customer. Which client? The one who travels the most, who is easy to identify and even whom they want to value and thank. So the one who will never experience the “worst product”. So whoever will say “ok they can improve but let’s be tolerant, in business or in first it’s very good”…No you shouldn’t be tolerant because this “very good” experience is only lived by a tiny minority of passengers. Do they listen to the passenger who flies a long-haul flight at a low price and two domestic flights a year? No because he doesn’t travel enough to have a reliable opinion. Nevertheless, he is the one who makes the reputation of the airline, he is the most representative passenger.

So yes, the real disconnect between the airlines and their customers is that the first only look at what they do best while the others only experience what they do worst.

An airline is only as good as its worst product and that’s it.

Image :Angry passenger by Elnur via shutterstock