Are you one of those airline junkies who not only do for themselves almost everything a travel agent does, but also often help friends and colleagues — or even people they barely know? Have you reached the point of frustration that eventually comes with anything time-consuming one does for free?
I’ve been close to that point for a few months now, for years having booked trips for others, checked them in for flights online, kept an eye on departure times and helped them redeem miles for “award” tickets. I suppose the frequency of those free services hasn’t become abusive quite yet, so I haven’t changed my ways.
But some other fellow junkies who also write about travel have had enough. They happen to be bloggers who, along with commenting on various airline news items, offer travel advice — including responses to e-mail inquiries about airfares, flight delays and resolving post-travel issues…
Do travel blogs influence your decision-making when booking a trip? Does it make a difference to you whether an airline a blogger writes about has treated him to a free flight? When it comes to ethics, should readers be less strict with blogs than with the mainstream media?
There are hundreds, if not thousands, of blogs covering all aspects of travel — both from a business and leisure perspective. Most of them haven’t had a new post in months. As all initial enthusiasts eventually discover, maintaining a blog in any field is much more difficult than starting one.
Many travel blogs are dominated by the author’s personal experiences on the road and feature numerous photographs of airplane seats, in-flight meals and hotel rooms. They are informative — even educational — and sometimes entertaining, but their readership tends to be relatively limited…
Public relations departments of airlines can’t catch a break. Not only is their industry under constant scrutiny by the public and the traditional media, now they have bloggers to worry about.
Let’s face it — the news hasn’t been great lately. How do you spin reducing services while adding fees? Or keeping fuel charges intact when oil prices are three times lower than they were when those charges were imposed? Part of a journalist’s job is to “unspin” what businesses — or the government, for that matter — tell the public, but another part is to do so fairly and to present different sides to every story.
Bloggers, however, have no such obligation. They are free to rant about any grudge they may hold against a company without worrying about bias, and they have become a part of the media that many airlines keep an eye on and even try to influence…
