Demotion Blues

Traveling sucks. I am not talking about the excitement of two weeks lying ahead in Mauritius or the expectations of conquering Kilimandjaro that usually overshadows this fact. I am talking about the part of getting from point A to point be B, before the fun actually starts. What is nice about standing in queues, sitting in cramped up seats and dragging huge amounts of luggage around with you? Just like in many facets of life, there is also a ladder to climb for travelers. From flying on low budget airlines with no free meals or special treatment to flying first class on the world’s most luxurious airlines with champagne and white slippers. The higher the status, the easier the traveling part becomes, but to get there you have to work for it or be filthy rich. I have never gotten far on this ladder myself, but I have managed to reach step 1 on SA’s most popular airline…Silver Status on SAA’s Voyager Program. So what benefits does this have for me as a traveler? Nothing much to be honest. I get to check in with the business class passengers where the queue is usually shorter, I have access to some of the SAA lounges where there are comfortable seats and the muffins are for free, and if I get really lucky I get bumped up to business class on some occasions when the economy seats were overbooked. Apart from that, nothing else. Oh, and I get my preferred seat (if available). So nothing much, but to make traveling easier every bit counts.

So today was my first trip for 2010. I was not going far, only from Cape Town to Johannesburg, but the procedures were the same, waiting times were the same, it is just flying time that was different. I asked the driver to fetch me early. I wanted to check-in, get comfortable in the SAA lounge and fire up my laptop to get some work done…or to update my blog if all else fails. Check-in went smoothly, but on my way to the lounge I noticed something on my boarding ticket - Frequent Flyer Status “BLUE”. This meant only one thing - I have been demoted, no access to the lounge, no comfortable seat and no free muffin. I checked my Voyager card and saw the expiry date...”02/2010”. I missed it by one week. All my privileges were ruthlessly taken away without getting a warning letter first. Being the optimist I usually am I immediately went to the nearest restaurant where the seats were also comfortable, the muffins slightly more expensive but the Internet access exactly the same. Or so I thought. No internet access today, no power socket for my laptop, the muffins were too expensive and I still had 90 minutes on the clock to kill. It is amazing how the few lost benefits could put such a damper on your trip. At this point I remembered that the lady at check-in never asked which seat I wanted, meaning that she was either kind to put me on my preferred seat, or what I was fearing most now, just where she wanted to put me. And why did she not say anything about my status while checking in where only the privileged were allowed to check in? I guess she was just kind, not my preferred seat, but at least in an aisle seat. Better than nothing for someone who had just been demoted to “BLUE”.

So what do I have to do to get my status back, to get a free muffin and to have internet access? I have to fly more. I have to go through this a couple of times until they decide I deserve preferential treatment again. How many flights do I have to do, how many long queues do I have to face, how much money do I have to spend on overly expensive muffins? I don’t know, but in order to put some sunshine back in traveling I need that silver lining BAD!