Onto Passenger Experience... as well as some of the stuff I’ve endured over the year. Welcome to Part Two of Review 2023.
- Part 1: Thinner seats, more passengers and more aircraft
- Part 2: Some Passenger Experience Thoughts about the year
- Part 3: My Year in Numbers
I’m leading off with this – these are based on personal experiences this year as opposed to the corporate stuff I’ve talked about in Part 1. As such, this is very qualitative, rather than quantitative.
As always, your experiences may and will differ.
On the ground
The move for self-service continues apace in this space, as airlines seek to reduce costs, whilst dressing it up as passenger improvement. And whilst there are some cases where this is viable, it all goes in the window on long-haul legs, when a passenger needs to check luggage, or if document verification is required.
Whilst airports and airlines are looking to Biometrics as a key to your data, rather than you presenting your travel documents and boarding pass,
Airport security continues to be its usual fun and games that we’ve all come to experience. The “Good” news is that more airports are adopting CT-Style security scanners. The bad news is that most of the UK airports will miss that deadline by a country mile if reports are accurate.
CT-Style scanners at Helsinki Vantaa
The bigger problem with the CT-Style scanners can be speed – not the speed of the scan, but the speed of sorting through items that need secondary verification – and even in high-traffic airports, you can be stuck for 30 minutes in a queue without much to do.
On-Time performance
Ryanair took the first medal this year for on-time performance, with American Airlines and Finnair bringing up the rear.
Sadly, British Airways doesn’t seem to know the first meaning of the term, with delays being a “feature, not a bug” out of its home hub of Heathrow and its outstations, with every flight I’ve taken with British Airways being delayed this year.
I don’t imagine this will improve until someone gives British Airways an incentive (be it a penalty or fiscal) to get their house in order.
Lounges
As we’ve come out of the pandemic, it seems life is back to normal for most of the lounges, with the hot food troughs back in full swing.
The surprise “nice” lounge of the year is the one at Basel-Mullhouse EuroAirport, with its design and Food options – so good to see at a small airport.
The wooden spoon for lounges this year? Like you couldn’t guess. The Swissport lounge at Chicago O’Hare T5. What a dump.
If you let your lounge get into that state, it’s a sign that costs will be cut for profit.
Hard Products
All the products – bar one – were classic products of their generation when they rolled out and deployed on their aircraft.
Collins Aerospace Pinnacle aboard British Airways
Deployment of those products can be variable – for example, putting in seats designed for 31″+ a sub 30″ seat pitch configuration. There are solutions – unfortunately, it would mean different seats or losing seat counts. Again – the one thing airlines hate doing, spending money.
The newest seat I sat in the year was by Safran for Ryanair, with their Z100-based seat.
Apart from the debris left by a previous occupant, it was passable enough for a 1-hour segment.
Catering
Most of the experiences have been “fine”, be it in Club World, Premium Economy or even long-haul economy.
British Airways Club World
British Airways Club Europe
American Airlines Longhaul economy
Well apart from the omnishambles that is Finnair, with it taking my wooden spoon of the year. Whilst the airline is pleasing in the big seats – even in short-haul European business flights, it flunks on long-haul economy class, with a single choice in catering, a limited widebody offering and of course, lots of upsell if you want snacks or alcoholic beverages outside the meal service. It’s just cheap.
Finnair’s “choice”.
Connectivity
We’re in an increasingly connected world, so it’s good to see a lot of carriers have adopted reasonable pricing for their connectivity services.
Well. All bar American Airlines which insists on charging $35 for transatlantic wifi – even though it’s good enough to stream with at this point
Finnair takes a gold star for offering free messaging.
Only one carrier I flew with didn’t have connectivity of some sort – and that’s Ryanair. I kind of expect that though, as it would have to be subsisted to the end of the earth for them to load antennas onboard.
Immigration Experiences
The queues to immigrate into a country are a fact of life. I just get on with it as I wait in line like everyone else. Even if the UK’s exit from the EU has added at least an hour to my wait to enter countries this year.
And attitudes have mostly been fine and welcoming – bar one country.
Have a guess which one.
…
It’s the United Kingdom.
The agents this year seem to have had “be suspicious at all times” drilled into their heads – making travel through Heathrow at least a painful and long experience.
And no, I will not update my passport just so I can use the e-gates.
Upgrades this year?
Just the one – with an operational upgrade from British Airways from World Traveller Plus to Club World. All the others were out of my pocket.
Service Recovery
One airline needed to provide service recovery this year – and unsurprisingly, it was British Airways, who rerouted me across Switzerland for a flight home.
The good news is that within 4 days of a case being submitted, costs were approved and I had my ticket between Zurich Airport and EuroAirport Basel approved. The money was in my designated account a week later.
Next Year
My travel year kicks off very early this year, and I’ve got more than a few eyes open on passenger experience with the airlines I’ve got for my first trip of the year – let alone the following ones (and there’s plenty to be booked right now).
I’ll hopefully be able to keep an eye on things travelling across the pond, as well as elsewhere.
Because all the little details make the biggest difference sometimes.
Welcome to Economy Class and Beyond. Your no-nonsense guide to network news, honest reviews, in-depth coverage, unique research, as well as the humour and madness I only know how to deliver.
Our Social Media pool has expanded. You can find us across most networks as @economybeyond on Twitter, Mastodon, BlueSky, Threads and Instagram!
Also, remember that we are part of the BoardingArea community, bringing you the latest frequent flyer news from around the world.