I had moved from a job that got me to travel nationally to one that got me around the world. In those years, my domestic travel was very little and the biggest casualty was my flying status with the domestic airline. From a Gold Member, I was quickly downgraded to a Silver and then to the lowest membership level. From all the check-in and lounge priveleges, it was suddenly, nothing. An amazing transformation in the way the check-in counter staff of the airline looked at you when you checked in. I watched a movie in which people went to any extent to keep their flying miles up to date - ironically, on a flight - and realised why.
I have been travelling by air for years now and the only thing I have seen happen with absolute regularity is that the size of seats has been decreasing i.e. becoming narrower. I am sure some industrial engineer would have told them that they could stuff more seats in to a plane and hence make more profits. I saw the worst of it on a flight to the US last month. There was this slightly plump lady who was struggling to get in to her seat and as the flight was going full in the economy section, there was no place where two contiguous seats were empty. Finally, the airline had to upgrade her to business class. She struggled quite a bit before fitting in to that seat as well.
This made me think...why do I think so poorly of this industry when it is really keeping us honest!!! We realise that our positions mean nothing when we retire. We mistakenly identify ourselves with our positions only to realise that our own staff look straight through us when we retire or move on...by downgrading our status if we dont fly regularly, the airline industry is doing the same. If we experience this few times, we will never get hit with retirement blues.
Further, with all this belt-tightening (not the seat belts ofcourse!!!) and seats getting narrower, the airline industry is really forcing us to slim down. Obesity is one of the biggest challenges that we face as a society today as it moves to become an epidemic. Obesity, like many other problems, does not come alone..it comes with other ailments such as diabetes, back problems, etc. This unwritten policy of "slim down or dont fly" from the airline industry has done us a huge favour. Call it Airline Social Responsibility!!!
Life has its ups and downs. Only when we go through the troughs do we appreciate the peaks. Troughs help us get level headed and keep our feet to the ground. The airline industry is like these troughs. We are well and truly grounded!!!
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