Can they run a business?

Recently, I needed to fly to Tucson Arizona with a friend. The cheapest we could find was a 3-legged flight with a transit at Phoenix. But after we booked, we changed our minds and decided to rent a car and drive the last leg from Phoenix to Tucson, so we called the airline to cancel the last leg:

Me: I would like to cancel the last leg of our flight, and get off at Phoenix

Airline rep: No problem Sir. It'll cost you $400 a ticket.

Me: I am not sure I explained myself well, all I want is to not take the last flight. Surely not flying can’t cost more than taking the flight. After all, you can resell the tickets.

Rep: Sir, this is our policy. If you don’t fly we’ll have to deduct the charge from your credit card.

Well, after some more deliberations with supervisors and managers we decided to take the flight nevertheless  and try our luck at the service desk in Phoenix (after all the entire ticket was not much more than $400).

Well, to our great surprise, no sooner had we arrived at the gate in Phoenix, a loudspeaker announcement could be heard: The flight to Tucson is overbooked, if anyone volunteers to take a later flight, please make yourself known to one of our staff members. 

Not wasting a second we jumped at the opportunity, but only under the condition that instead of taking the next flight, they would waive it altogether. They agreed, but not before we got refunded $250 each. 

And the American airline industry remains in bad shape.

Stark naked passengers: the future of modern aviation

It won’t be long before all pre-boarding airline passengers will be required to undergo total body hair removal, comprehensive search of all cavities and orifices, and board their plane stark naked. No luggage whatsoever will be allowed. Instead, luggage will follow passengers on separate cargo flights.

During flights, the release of seat belts will be controlled centrally, and toilet bags will be sold by the aircrew to the confined passengers. This, together with the extra seats replacing the now-obsolete toilet cubicles will help airlines recoup some of the additional security cost.

If this may sound to you as overreaction, it really is nothing more than a simple extension of our current reactionary security measures. That is, when a terrorists’ attempt takes place, we implement new measures to reduce the possibility of reoccurrence of similar attempts. This is the reason we rely so heavily on metal detectors (which do not detect plastic explosives), need to remove shoes (what about wigs?), or are prevented from bringing liquids on board. But not only can’t this approach prevent new original plots, soon will we reach the limit of restrictions we can impose on passengers. For example, as modern explosives can be molded in any shape or form, it’s not unthinkable that they may even be worn as undergarment. What will we do after the first terrorist blows up his underwear?

Although it has been nearly eight years since 9/11, it wasn’t the improved security alertness or the tight security measures that prevented this week’s attack from becoming a full scale disaster. It was a lucky malfunction of the bomb combined with a spontaneous heroic act of one of the passengers that saved the lives of the Northwest airline passengers.

But again, following this latest attempt, additional ineffective measures and restrictions are being implemented. From now on we’ll not be allowed to leave our seats 60 minutes before lending – as if terrorist acts cannot take place earlier. And even though security expert claims that a shoe bomb is big enough to blow a hole in an airplane, from now on we’ll not be able to carry more than a single bag on board.

The only real chance we have to prevent airplane terrorism is to improve intelligence. Intelligence was acknowledged as a major failure that led to 9/11. Intelligence, again, failed to prevent this recent attempt. After all, the bomber’s father, who is a prominent banking official in Nigeria, went to the U.S. embassy in Nigeria, to discuss his concerns about his son, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. But that didn’t trigger any additional checks or investigation when his son boarded the plane.

It seems that, once again, kneejerk measures have won over substance. But what can we expect? After all, if 9/11 wasn’t enough to make the required change, can we really expect a failed terrorist attempt to do the job?