Source: Arizona Republic
Author: Christia Gibbons

How was your flight?

"!@#!#$%," has become the business traveler's response as they face lost time, money and wear and tear on their psyches, bodies and personal lives during the worst year of flight delays and cancellations.

"It's the first question people ask you, and you get to the point where you just let it all out and say exactly which airline you just flew so they won't," said Phoenix resident Laura Paquelet, who flies throughout the country as a partner in the Raleigh, N.C.-based PSE-3 sports-marketing agency.

The Bureau of Transportation Statistics reported that nearly one-third of all domestic flights in June were late, an all-time monthly worst. Flight cancellations rose 59 percent over June 2006, at 2.7 percent vs. 1.7 percent.

The airlines reported their worst-ever record for delays in the first six months of a year, and overall delays are at their highest level in 13 years.

Jeff Verbin, an attorney and managing shareholder with the Phoenix office of Greenberg Traurig, tells of a Swiss client he was meeting in Dallas earlier this summer who was forced to buy a suit when his lost luggage didn't get to him in time for a key meeting. Then, flying onto New York, that same suitcase, now packed with the new suit, was lost and the businessman ended up wearing jeans to a formal meeting with a sports executive.

Verbin, who flies at least three times a month on business, said, "It is amazing that delays are at a 13-year high, and getting worse. Few other businesses could get away with this."

The situation is unlikely to change soon. Industry analysts say the government and the airlines are equally to blame for not improving an antiquated air-traffic-control system, planning for adequate gate space, or employing the latest technology to track passengers and baggage. Then there's weather, but the experts said even that could be handled better through use of updated systems.

While electronic gadgetry from cellphones to laptops allow these travelers to keep productive as they wait out delays and cancellations at airports and on tarmacs, many say it's the quality of the business that can suffer.

Time with family also takes a hit.

"Late-arriving flights can take away hours or sleep, missed meals, and add unneeded stress," Verbin said.

'1960s technology'

Ron Kuhlman, who studies customer loyalty as vice president of global transportation for Unisys, a technology services and solutions company, said airlines are rated below the Internal Revenue Service in customer satisfaction.

"The system is hopelessly flawed," Kuhlman said. "21st-century problems are being solved by 1960s technology," he said.

While Congress is debating Federal Aviation Administration plans for 10 to 15 years out, there's little discussion on what to do now, experts said.

And an industry just now getting its financial sea legs after 9/11 and a round of bankruptcies can ill afford to underwrite the technological advances available all at once, said Travis Christ, vice president for marketing at Tempe-based US Airways.

"It's certainly true that business people are frustrated. I fly for business, and I know," Christ said. "We as a country have failed to plan and build for what we have."

"It all takes money and No. 1, the money goes for safety and after that it's basic blocking and tackling," he said.

One of business travelers' biggest concerns is how they are rerouted once a flight is delayed or canceled, with no regard for their business needs.

"Don't make me get to the airport two hours in advance and tell me you're delayed and we've rerouted," Paquelet said.

Some airlines alert passengers on the status of their flights two hours before the scheduled departure. US Airways hopes to implement the technology by the end of the year, Christ said, primarily to help business travelers.

"Yes we could do a better job handling baggage, notifying passengers and rerouting them," Christ said.

No priority passengers

Alerts are one way to provide options, Kuhlman of Unisys said, but the real problem is that airlines are not using systems, although they exist, that automatically reassign booking based on priority.

"Airlines don't have a way to identify their best travelers and give them the best solutions," he said.

Aaron Lamstein, the president and chief executive of Worldwise, which distributes eco-friendly pet products to Phoenix-based PetSmart, was a case in point.

Flight delays, cancellations and unusable booking on a business trip from San Francisco to Dallas to Amarillo, Texas, cost him more than a day in travel, $400 for a taxi ride because it was faster, and sleep. He ended up being in his hotel for only 30 minutes, enough time for a quick shower before one of his meetings.

Lamstein likened flying these days to "combat situations."

Gaming the system

Business travelers have become wily working the system.

They plan fewer trips, pack more into trips, and at the first sign of delay do their own rerouting.

"I find myself traveling the night before a meeting because it can be too risky to fly on the same day," Verbin, of Greenberg and Taurig, said.