Old joke from the sports world.
Coach: Son, what is it? What's the problem? Indifference or apathy?
Player: Coach, I don't know and I don't care.
I was reminded of that when the annual J.D. Power and Associates' 2014 North America Airline Satisfaction Study was released on Wednesday. It contained something of a shocker - customer satisfaction with the airline industry is at an all-time high.
That's not a gigantic typo. The computer didn't haphazardly change around words. That's the findings of this year's survey.
On a 1,000-point scale, customer satisfaction ranked an overall 712, a 17-point increase - or roughly three percent - from 2013's previous record of 695.
But, like that parable between the coach and the player, you have to wonder what it is. Indifference? Apathy? A true sense of satisfaction that the airlines are trying harder and getting better?
Or, is that increase in satisfaction level really a measure of consumers becoming more jaded and more accustomed to the way airlines do business?
Is this a case of being truly happier, or just less unhappy?
Anyway, even J.D. Power's Rick Garlick brought up the issue about his own study, when he was quoted in the release as saying: "It isn't that passengers are satisfied with fees, it's that they are simply less dissatisfied because they realize that fees have become a way of life with air travel."
Garlick is the global travel and hospitality practice lead for J.D. Power, so he knows a thing or two. But the pragmatist would like to imagine it's a little bit of both.
Look, the airlines aren't perfect. A completely different and separate survey, the American Customer Satisfaction Index, last month gave the airlines low grades. Airlines scored a 69 this year on ACSI's 100-point scale, the same score from last year - no decrease, but no improvement either. That puts the airlines below fellow travel industry categories hotels and internet travel agencies, and at the bottom of the ACSI overall rankings with subscription television service, social media sites and the IRS.
So it's six in one, half-dozen in the other.
Still, many flyers' psyches have been shaped by decades of the status quo. They're not used to paying baggage fees. They're not used to paying for carry-ons, like some airlines charge. They're not used to paying for a bottle of water. They're not used to not finding a pillow and a blanket on their seat.
To that argument, I can only say this - when's the last time you bought a Big Mac at McDonald's for $1.60? When's the last time gas was $2 a gallon? The answers are 1986 and 2008. Times change. Things cost more. Airlines are businesses just like fast food chains and oil companies. You still enjoy going to a burger joint in a pinch and you still need gasoline for your car.
And you still love to fly.
It's been said before and it bears repeating - airline travel remains the biggest transportation bargain going. Does it have its problems? Of course. But whether you're happier or just less unhappy, there's still much to be satisfied with.
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