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Business Travel & the Business of Travel: Interview With Joe Sharkey

Locations in this article:  Chicago, IL Denver, CO London, England Paris, France

Business Travel & the Business of Travel: Interview With Joe Sharkey


Plane landedAre America’s “meanest airlines” really that bad?  

Frequent flier and New York
Times business travel columnist
Joe Sharkey doesn’t think so.

Read on to hear tales of real customer service, plus other bright spots in the
airline industry, including the latest in business-jet travel and a helpful
little process known as security preclearance.

Peter Greenberg: Joe,
did you hear about the “meanest airlines” from the most recent Airline Quality
Rating report?

Joe Sharkey: Which
is the meanest airline?

PG: The top five
meanest airlines in order are: Delta, United, Alaska, American, and US Airways.

JS: They’re stuck
with some of those affiliated regional carriers.


Delta planePG:
And
that’s what’s killing them.

JS: Actually, I fly
US Airways a little more now that I live in Tuscon. I’m going to say it, I like
US Airways. I do.

PG: No, it’s okay to
say that. I’ve flown US Airways a couple of times in the last few weeks. In
fact, I actually fly them on average about two or three times a month, and I
haven’t had a problem with them.

JS: No, no, I
haven’t either. I think that it’s the old America West culture, at least in the
West, and I just don’t have any gripes with them. You were talking about
Continental recently, which is an airline that I used to fly a lot when I lived
in the New York area. I just flew them from Chicago the other night with bad
weather and heavy winds. O’Hare was a mess, but the people who work for
Continental just radiate good cheer, by and large. There was a gate agent who
was dealing with all these people complaining and griping. I mean, they were
just coming at her and she was doing it with such grace. I went over to her, her
name was Christina, and I said: “Christina, how do you do this with all these
people complaining, and griping, and you just maintain your good cheer?” She
said, “Mr. Sharkey, I go home, and I drink heavily.”

PG: Now you see Joe,
she was not telling you the whole story. She had been drinking since 2 p.m.
yesterday afternoon.


Airplane wing at sunsetJS:
It
could be. It is an appropriate response to some of these conditions.

PG: Actually, the
best thing I’ve seen happen was at the old Denver Stapleton Airport, years ago.
A flight was canceled and people were lined up at the counter trying to get
re-booked. There was one gate agent there like your friend, who was just trying
to deal with everybody. All of a sudden this guy comes out of nowhere, pushes in
front of the line, and slaps his ticket and said, “I need to be on this flight,
and it’s got to be first class.” She said, “Sir, I’ll be glad to help you. I’ve
got all these other people here. Don’t you worry about a thing.” And he looked
at her, and said, “Do you have any idea who I am?” This woman, without
hesitation reached down, grabbed the microphone, and said : “Attention
everybody, I’ve got a man here at Gate 17 who does not know who he is.” This guy
looked at her and dropped the F bomb, and everybody heard it. She looked at him
and she said, “Sir, you’re going to have to stand in line for that too.”

JS: That’s a pretty
good rejoinder, I’d be kind of proud of that if I came up with it.

PG: Not only that,
everybody applauded. Nobody cared about the delay anymore because they loved her
response.

JS: You’ve got to
love it.


Plane landing pink skyPG:
Also
in travel news is that we just saw the airlines report record profits on their
third-quarter earnings.

JS: Happy days are
here again! It’s time to start a new airline or something.

PG: Well, the
airlines managed miraculous. For 10 years they managed to lose $50 billion. So
2010 was the year they designated as comeback. They said, let’s play catch up,
and they have with ancillary fees.

JS: You have to add
in the amount of revenue they’ve been raising from the fees. I think it is
about, this year is going to be $10 billion. I mean that really adds up and
their prosperity is partly resting on that. Although there’s no question about
it that the airlines have got capacity under control. That’s not so hot for the
rest of us because it means fewer seats, fewer flights. But yeah, they’re seeing
better days. By and large that’s better for all of us because we want a viable
air transport system.

PG: Well, we want a
viable air transport system with as much competition as possible. Because
competition leads to better—forget the fares—it also leads to better service. If
these airlines don’t feel that they have to compete because they already have a
humongous amount of market share then there is no incentive on their part to
provide service, or deals.

JS: I think that’s
where we’re headed. And that’s why you want to business jet. I was recently at
the National Business Aviation Association. That industry is
still in dire trouble, and of course there are a lot of jobs involved. Their
sales of deliveries of the business jets this year are about 700 compared with
about 1,300 two years ago.Cost of flyingThey’re not really going to pull out of that mess for another
year or so, but where they are pulling out is at the very top level. You know
the $65 million jets like the new Gulfstream G-650. What a beauty that is.  They
had so many potential customers wanting to look at that baby they had to rope it
off.

PG: Wow.

JS: Bombardier
introduced two new super long-haul Global 7000 and a Global 8000. They cost $65
million each, and that’s only with standard equipment. Now, of course, I don’t
ride business jets, I fly in coach. The last business jet I was on crashed. So
that was sort of a message to me that this is now your lifestyle, pal. Let’s
just say it was intensely focusing.

PG: All right well
let’s shift gears to one of my favorite topics: pre-clearance. Every chance I
get to preclear—meaning if I’m in Canada, Bermuda, the Bahamas, Ireland— I can
actually go through US Customs in that country. So when I land in the United
States I’m not stuck in a two-hour line going through customs. My bags
automatically connect so I’m not schlepping. It’s the best.

JS: I remember you
telling me abut that years ago, and I had never done it until fairly recently
when I was at Shannon on a connecting flight. I had I bought three Cuban cigars
in London—I smoke three cigars a year. Now, it is really great to go through the
preclearance because it is really fast. But, the woman who was the customs agent
there reminded me of the nun I had in sixth grade; she looked me right in the
eye and she said, “You wouldn’t happen to be carrying any tobacco products,
would you Mr. Sharkey?” I am no good at telling lies so I caved like a cheap
suitcase, and they made me destroy them there. So, that was the downside. At
Kennedy I could have strolled right through with my smuggled Cubans.

PG: I’d just like to
say on behalf of this show I am not traveling with you anymore.  But on balance
though, you saved a lot of time by preclearing.


Plane at gateJS:
Absolutely.
No question about it. And it was painless. The cigars are contraband so they had
every right. They were good natured about it; they kind of felt like it was a
sham to have to destroy the cigars.

PG: Well, thank God
she didn’t ask you about all the cocaine you were carrying.

JS: Yeah, I’m in
capable of committing a crime, not because I’m moral, just but because I’m
incapable of lying. I always get caught.

PG: But in all
seriousness, I just hope that US Customs and Boarder Protection can cut some
more deals in more high volume foreign countries like the United Kingdom or
Paris, where we can actually preclear there. Not only does it save time on the
passengers’ end, but it also saves money in terms of fuel burn, misconnected
passengers, misconnected bags. It’s brilliant, right?

JS: And on a very
serious level as you just mentioned, I had cigars, but I did have a pretty good
look over. So if I were a doer of bad deeds, I was much more likely to be caught
there than, I think, at Kennedy.

PG: Well, I would
just like to thank that woman for stopping the criminal deeds of Joe Sharkey
from The New York Times.

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