For-Profit Prioritization in Air Travel
Following a logic of profit, prioritization happens at every step of the air travel experience. Digital check-in kiosks have made the process more efficient and egalitarian for all travelers, but access to customer care is still segmented by class. Let’s call it what it is, class segmentation. People who pay more have preferential access to the customer desk and have a special queue to drop checked baggage.
A similar dynamic applies in your way to security. There’s various ways of signaling that your affairs are more important and skip the typical line. Travelers with priority boarding passes are given preferential treatment. Travelers with “TSA-pre” designation skip the line too. If you lack either of these designations, there are for-profit companies that establish agreements with the airport by which they can offer travelers a chance to skip the line for a fee. If you refuse to cooperate with any of these initiatives, you can stand in line watching the higher classes being promptly helped by everyone.
After security, people are again segmented and divided in different waiting rooms providing different levels of comfort and amenity. Access to these facilities is awarded by affiliation with airlines and financial institutions. Notice that for these premium or “VIP” lounges to exist, i.e., for their value proposition to be of any value, it becomes necessary that the airport provide a degraded experience for the rest of the travelers. Were the standard of comfort for every traveler lifted, these lounges would be rendered useless, a prospect that would worsen the relationship between the airport and airline executives.
The air travel experience removes the veil and shows you for-profit cooperation as it is: No opportunity is spared to extract value from travelers. At each and every step of the experience, you are treated according to your willingness and ability to pay. Dignity in wealth. Priorities are assessed, established, and imposed everywhere. Such are the systems America has built for itself.
In the West we fan ourselves touting an egalitarian society while at the same time building separate waiting rooms for the wealthy, going the extra mile to spare them all discomfort, letting them board first, feeding them mid-flight, giving them space to breathe while making all other travelers feel the crushing burden of disappearing leg space at the back.
✎ Connection to