INB O X YOUR LE T T E R S
TAKEN TO THE CL E ANER S I read Derek Picot’s piece entitled “Taken to the cleaners” (in the Jan/Feb edition) and was utterly appalled. While he rightly acknowledges that most guests will have no
idea what the appropriate price for laundering specific items might be, the idea that “the way forward is to understand the real cost of providing a laundry service, minimise it and then add as much profit as you can possibly get away with” is fundamentally misguided. It’s precisely this kind of thinking that has led to the financial
services industry being subject to “conduct” regulation. Part of what conduct regulators are looking at (in addition to other bad behaviour) is that firms don’t take advantage of their customers – notably by exploiting information asymmetry between what they know and what their clients know. Given that many of the clients staying in the hotels Mr Picot’s
piece is directed towards will work in the financial industry, can I politely suggest that subjecting them to the very thing their own regulators dislike is not very clever? It’s also a bad business model irrespective of your client base. It might
work in the short term – and there is an absence of conduct regulators in the travel industry – but it’s indicative of a “rip-off ” approach to customer service that will eventually get found out. Fleecing people because you can is not intelligent business in the 21st century. Based on the article, the only reservation I intend to have with
the sort of hotel taking advice from Mr Picot is around making a booking in the first place.
Christian Hunt, UK
DE REK PIC OT RE S P ONDS : I cannot agree more that in a competitive market the consumer should look for value and fair pricing. The article was intended to be thought-provoking and relevant to the business traveller, as this was a subject that generally falls below a client’s buying horizon. I felt it provided a challenging subject that would interest readers. The ideas expressed were not so much a pricing tutorial for hoteliers, but to warn travellers of the potential for hoteliers to steal the shirts off their backs!
T UR BUL ENCE IN CHINA In response to Agnes Wong’s question in the January/February 2018 issue regarding turbulence over flights to Shanghai, I’m a pilot for an airline in Australia that flies to China. Your reader is correct in saying turbulence over China is worse, however it’s not for the reason you responded with – though the varying mountainous terrain and extreme weather patterns in winter definitely add to the problem. China’s airspace is almost entirely military and highly restrictive.
For example, if you were to route from Hong Kong to Zhengzhou, there’s effectively only one route or corridor of airspace you can take. We oſten deviate off track laterally to avoid bad weather, sometimes requiring up to 100 miles to avoid [it], but Chinese ATC (air traffic control) is often unable to permit our request due to the military airspace either side. Adding to this problem is that should you wish to climb to a higher altitude to avoid said weather you can’t do that either, because there are others on the same corridor both above and below you. Compare this to Australia for example, where we frequently deviate to avoid storms, and it’s usually not an issue getting a clearance from ATC to do so.
bus ine s s tr a v el ler .c om
The corridors in Australia/the rest of the world are not so
set in stone; you could have five planes all at once going from Perth to Melbourne on entirely different routes without issue. I believe having almost all airspace controlled by the
military is unique to China. This certainly makes flying in China interesting, a bit more bumpy, and I hope it answered the reader’s question in layman’s terms.
Name and address supplied
To provide more information on why it is potentially more turbulent over China, there are two factors specific to the region. One is the large patches of restricted military airspace… The other is that increased smog and carbon pollution can also create increased turbulence. A study conducted over the South China Sea found that thunderstorm build-up was twice as likely to occur over frequent shipping lanes, and concluded that it was due to the carbon output of merchant vessels’ exhaust. Fine smog particles in the air assist ice formation in the atmosphere and produce stronger storms, leading to turbulence. Andrew Mizzi, Hong Kong
L A CKING IN HO S P IT AL IT Y I was returning from Orlando to Leeds via Chicago and Heathrow but upon checking in, I was told that my flight from Orlando to Chicago was delayed by over two hours and I had to be rerouted via Dallas Fort Worth (DFW). I asked to be placed on the direct flight with BA to Gatwick that was departing within two hours, but was told by the American Airlines (AA) check-in agent that it wasn’t possible as that flight was going via a different airport. As I waited in the lounge, the outbound flight to DFW was also delayed by 90 minutes due to bad weather, which resulted in me missing the last flight from DFW to Heathrow. I arrived into DFW close to midnight and was placed on
a flight 18 hours later, with no offer of vouchers, hotel or transport. I was exhausted and tired, and frankly gobsmacked by how AA treats its passengers in business class. The next day, I boarded the Heathrow flight, which
ran out of hot meals. My bags were then not transferred to my connecting flight to Leeds. I am utterly shocked and disgusted by how this journey unfolded. Doesn’t AA have any responsibility towards its international business class passengers when things don’t go to plan? Why can’t it learn from carriers like Emirates, which offers complimentary stopovers in premium hotels during long layovers? Ahmed Alhilou, UK
A ME RIC AN AIRL INE S RE S P ONDS : We’re sorry for the challenges Mr Alhilou faced. Unfortunately, adverse weather impacted his travel despite our efforts to reroute him. He was rebooked on the first flight the following day. We understand Mr Alhilou’s frustration and, as an apology, we provided him with a US$200 e-voucher, and have since been in touch again to reimburse him for his overnight stay in DFW. We hope that he will accept our apologies and that we will see him onboard with us again soon.
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