Archive for April, 2006

Every year the human “air warriors” engage in a ritual not unlike those of the caribou or penguins. I’m referring to people who travel for a living and fall into airlines’ category of frequent fliers.

Every flight attendant will tell you and many frequent fliers hop onto end-of -year flights that are designed to jump your annual mileage or segments flown to meet the next level of benefit packages offered. Nearing about September, frequent fliers start counting how many more trips they have to accomplish in order to achieve their next level status. For USAir, it’s silver, gold, and chairman’s preferred. These people get on planes before others, get either 50% more mileage for a trip, get discounts on the US Airways club, and the crème de la crème, they are placed in first class if seats are available. Chairman’s level fliers also gets a personal liaison call service that helps you when you travel. It’s a direct line to help.

This is all done by a ranking system based on the number of segments flown or mileage traveled.

I personally am a segment guy. This means that for me to hit the Chairman’s Club level in USAir, I would have to log 100,000 miles translating to traveling nearly everyday versus the option of flying 100 segments in a year. A trip to NYC once a week would fulfill these requirements.

But that’s not what happens to many of us. For some odd reason many fliers are often just a hair short of missing the next benefits package, so we do something others may consider odd. We fly no where. Yes, no where. I’ve actually called my travel agent to book me the cheapest flight that can get me the most segments to help me hit my target.

Last year I woke up on a Tuesday and hopped on a plane to Philadelphia, then to Charlotte, and then to Orlando only to start my return back to Syracuse though Charlotte, Washington DC, and New York. I flew six segments in one day, enabling me to push over the Chairman’s level.

The Chairman’s level that gives me those precious seats in first class. Not because I’m special but because I don’t charge my clients for first class out of Syracuse due to the high fares as compared to other cities. Syracuse may charge $2100 for the same seat you’d get out of Boston for $1200. The comforts of first-class seating for my 6’2″ body enable me to sleep. The benefit to clients is that sleeping en route keeps me to be fresh and well rested so I can do my job to the best of my ability.

One hour on stage could affect the outcome of millions paid to put on the event.

So what’s the point? So what.

For management this little journey is a double-edged sword. USAir wants me to be a frequent flier and to reach the Chairman’s level, but not in the way they thought US Airways warriors would be traveling. I can tell you that I may take a connection flight versus a non-stop flight, because I need those segments. I and my cohorts fill up seats in planes that we might not have given the right incentives.

Besides, that one-day flight cost me about $176 total. I filled up a seat on 6 aircrafts and in several of them, I filled that precious first-class seat, pushing another frequent flier back to the coach section. They did not get the benefit of their travels.

It means that USAir uses gas to haul my 207 lbs around the skies and for no reason.

Compound this by thousands and you’ve got a management problem you’ve inadvertently created. I know of people on the miles side that do a trip or two to Japan for the day to accomplish the same thing!

So next time you believe you’ve done a great job, look closer. Are you cannibalizing your own business with discounts. Are you creating a buzz at a trade show that draws a crowd but no buyers since they can’t get through to see the Hooters girls or other unrelated hyped draw? Can you look at what’s happening objectively, find the truth, and then correct the error?

Management is about decision making and sometimes decision unmaking. Make sure you swing both ways.