Good Airline Service?

Seriously. I never thought the day would come when I’d be praising airline service, it’s usually all so bad that one feels gratitude when it’s not purely awful. But ever since I’ve been doing this writer-in-residence fellowship at the University of Chicago and I’ve had to go back to New York for various reasons, I’ve been using Delta’s new New York/Chicago shuttle (or semi shuttle) service. it runs from the old Marine Terminal Building at Laguardia to non-hellish (i.e. non O’Hare) Midway in Chicago.

I like the old deco-era Marine Terminal Building; I like the fact that I’ve been able to book (relatively) cheap flights through Travelocity as long as I reserve 2 or 3 weeks ahead of time. I like the jets Delta flies: these (relatively) small Embraeur jets I’ve never flown before, only two seats to a side, smooth rides.

The one thing I don’t like, the only reason I’m doing this post, is not product placement, but selfishness: not enough people seem to know about the service and thus it might be discontinued which would be inconvenient for me. My flight to Chicago a couple days ago barely made it into double digit passenger numbers (“a very light flight” the woman at the gate put it).

So I write this wondering why more airline experiences can’t be as efficient and pleasant as this. And hoping it might attract a few more customers so it won’t disappear the way most decent consumer services do.