I’m going to an International Conference of Business Advisors in May and this has me dreading the prospect of traveling across the country. Nothing about Business Travel is good. Airports and security, running through airports, airport food, airline food, strange time zones, strange beds, hotel food and on and on and on.

But the very worst part of this all the poor customer service I will have to put up with. Admittedly most of the service providers (TSA, Airports, Airlines and hotels) have a tough job. But what has happened to the friendly skies? Every time I travel I see example after example of poor customer service.

Especially in airports and airlines. Why is it that in the interest of expediency the airport and airline personnel can not take the extra 30 seconds to be reasonable, personable and customer oriented? Most airline personnel give us (me) the feeling that they are doing me a favor by allowing me on their aircraft. Huh? When did this become a high privilege?

Now it wouldn’t be so bad if it was one or two of the airlines but it seems to be every airline with few notable exceptions – Southwest and Virgin. What is differentiates these two from the others? I think it is a company culture of customer service.

One person I know has suggested that it is the unions. I’m not sure but I would hazard a guess that Southwest and Virgin are union shops also so that can’t be it.

So what is it? Why has customer service in the airlines gone down so drastically and other sectors of business has seen a marked increase in customer satisfaction?