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Deleted member 29185
Guest
What is the "romance" is easily answered.
Airline travel of yesteryear was a very upmarket and romantic notion of sipping champagne whilst being spirited across nations in time frames measured in hours rather than (at times) months. Airline hostesses were seen as godesses, which created some envy with even the old No.96 weighing into the debate with a classic comment about them being "glorified waitresses". For passengers, we used to dress up for the occassion and be treated with courtesy, called Mr or Ma'am and served those quaint little airline meals and a drink or tucked up with a little pillow and blanket even when flying economy. Generally, we were made to feel important, even when we clearly were not. Air travel was romantic.
These days, air travel is cheaper than a bus which has dragged it down to that level. It's affordable by all (even the dreggs of society) and economy has turned into zoo class with dirty t-shirts and thongs (the footwear variety) being considered by some to be appropriate and yet others believing that sticking discusting tinea ridden feet all over other peoples armrests and setbacks is the way to go and is hence (and understandably) treated accordingly. The niceties have systematically been stripped away. Service has developed a new definition revolving around the FAs giving the least they can get away with as quickly as possible to allow them to retreat to safety behind the curtain. The little "romantic" luxuries like the meals, blankets, pillows and courtesy have been replaced by efficacious automated robots with matching personalities, thanks to LCC and bogan pax.
VA was indeed starting to put the romance back into flying with the reinstatement of the personal touches......"Welcome back Mr swanning_it, thank you for once again choosing to fly with us"........"May I offer you a newspaper"........etc. Other things have come back as well, which is reminiscent of the past like proper boarding passes instead of shopper dockets, attractive uniforms, better decor and cleanliness of the cabin. I for one, fully support those measures (in fact I still reckon they stole that phrase off me as I said "they are putting the romance back into travel" a few years ago here on AFF) and I really, really, really hope they don't stagnate any further and that they continue to put the romance back into travel just as soon as they consolidate their finances a bit, but really politeness seems to be waining a little bit, and that costs nothing!
I am very grateful that LCC has played such a huge part in making air travel affordable, but a company which can deliver affordable (not necessarily the cheapest), safe and enjoyable (romantic?) air commutes does definitely have my support. VA were doing that reasonably well, but the rot started to set in when they arrogantly consigned their previous loyal flyers to the waste heap whilst chasing that elusive greener paddock. I also warned of the pitfalls of that folly some time ago as well........unfortunately, they didn't listen and I'm 100% convinced that was their single biggest faux pas to date. Loyalty will be rewarded with loyalty but breach that trust at you own peril. There are other options and it's far easier to keep customers than win new ones.
We'll have to wait and see if the big picture develops further or whether this underdeveloped print just fades away.
