Specious Complaint, or, It's Hell Flying "Steerage"

Writing in the Washington Post, columnist Ruth Marcus pens a complaint about private sector efficiency.  Not that she relishes writing a complaint, she states in the piece, but becuase she desires to highlight the efficiency of government.

But I am not in Italy, and I want to share the story of how I almost made it and then didn’t. Not for the unattractive pleasure of complaining in print: As calamities go, even vacation calamities, this one doesn’t amount to a hill of fava beans. But my tale of travel woe does say something about the unexpected capacity of government, so maligned for bureaucratic inertia, to perform with astonishing competence, and the inability or unwillingness of the private sector, so glorified for its supposed efficiency, to do the same.

Her praise of government efficiency hinges upon how quickly she was able to have her expired passport brought back into date.  It only took 4 hours or so.  Not bad.

Her complaint, allegedly, is lodged against the airlines, but not the TSA, for long lines at the ticket counter, and security chokepoints, where each and every individual is subjected to the TSA game of 20 questions, and the luggage search, with their shoes off.

She doesn’t blame the TSA for the long lines at the security chokepoint, because that’s not the TSA’s fault, it’s the airlines fault, because the airline “administers” the lines.

But is Ms. Marcus actually praising government efficiency, and dissing private airline efficiency in this piece?  I don’t think so.  I think Ms. Marcus is actually put out by the fact that first class and business traveler class passengers receive faster chokepoint service than what she calls the “steerage” class.

The security line for economy class stretched nearly the full length of the terminal. As the minutes sped by, I asked one agent, and then another, in increasingly beseeching tones, whether they could help. Nothing doing. In the meantime, I watched the “premium passengers”—brandishing their first-class and business-class tickets—whiz right by the rest of us in steerage.

And then a bit further down from the above quote, Ms. Marcus once again jabs her pen at those priviliged first class and business class travelers, but under the guise of those long chokepoint lines.

And United’s attitude that it has no control over long security lines isn’t exactly accurate. The Transportation Security Administration screens passengers but, infuriatingly, leaves it to airlines to administer the lines. Hence the business and first-class travelers sped through, while the rest of us waited.

Ms. Marcus piece is titled Why I’m Not Under The Tuscan Sun

Posted by on 10/18 at 06:07 AM

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