Edinburgh

 

Edinburgh, Scotland is one of the more fascinating cities in Europe.   The history of the city dates back hundreds, if not thousands of years, and much of it is now preserved as a UNESCO World Heritage site.   It is the seat of the Scottish Parliament, and home to such famous people as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Robert Louis Stevenson, Sean Connery, J.K. Rowling and even Tony Blair.

It is easy to pass up a chance to visit Edinburgh, as most tourists flock to nearby tourist destinations such as London and Ireland.  While London is great, hotels in the city center are extremely expensive, as is the city in general.   By comparison, there are many great deals available for hotels in Edinburgh city centre.   Staying in the city center allow visitors to experience it's many museums, castles, and festivals.   Such an experience is just not possible in today's hectic London.

Delta once had a non-stop flight from Atlanta and New York to Edinburgh, but it didn't last.   Today, the only non-stop to Edinburgh from the United States is on Continental via Newark.

Everything That Is Wrong With The Airline Industry

I am a big fan of Brett Snyder over at the Cranky Flier.   Two years ago, I was even privileged to contribute a guest post on The Future Of Airline Loyalty Programs.    Last week, Brett was on vacation and had an anonymous guest write a post for his blog for his Headwinds blog at BNet.

You should read the post in it's entirety here.

In it, an anonymous airline insider says that his company just doesn't have the basic technology necessary to disseminate accurate information in the event of a delay, yet even;

...if we had “perfect” information to give, should the airlines invest in better technology or more bodies to communicate in a more timely manner? For that matter, should the airlines invest in technology that would help cultivate that perfect knowledge? Quite honestly, I don’t think so.

I simply don’t see the return on investment. In fact, I don’t see how giving passengers better information actually saves (or generates) the airline any money at all. How would it? The tickets are paid for, and most of them are non-refundable. “Everybody knows” the airlines provide lousy information, so it’s not as if customers will flee to the competition for that sole reason.

There you go.  Customer service provides no return on it's investment according to this guy because you already paid for your ticket.  I have no reason to believe his views are unusual in the airline industry.

Now personally, I enjoy flying on Southwest airlines, as they seem to be the most operationally efficient airline out there.    This guy's airline flies for United, a carrier that I have been avoiding like the plague for some time.  

As I wrote in the comments of the post, I give Brett tremendous credit for allowing this guy to share is views, which I am sure he does not agree with.  As long as there are people in the airline industry who feel the way this guy does, passengers will suffer and airlines will continue to lose money.