LAX just launched a private terminal for the uber wealthy. $4000 to go through this terminal instead of where all the “plebs” transit. Seems a slight bit ridiculous to do this, considering you would be in the first class lounge anyway if you went through the regular terminal. But, you know how the rich are, if you can pay for something to set you apart, you will.
A brief reminder: this website is all about Heathrow, London, and Air Travel and so we are incorporating this news from abroad to help give Heathrow users and Londoners perspective.
Could such a thing be heading Heathrow’s way? With the expansion plans underway we would know by now if such a thing will happen but for me, it’s less about having the wealth in the UK to generate traffic through this, but more about culture. Americans love their wealth and love to flaunt it; a rich Brit is almost the opposite: slightly ashamed and desperately wanting to fit in and be normal, utterly hating the idea that people would think he or she would assume they are better than the rest. And that is why we love Britain, and the UK, and its people. Also, I am half British, so I am totally biased, just saying.
So much progress has been made in the Airline industry in previous decades that I think what is needed rather is an education of sorts. Educate the people who are waiting in a queue, or at an airport to do two quite paradoxical things:
- Appreciate how far travel has come. How fast, how far, how safe, how incredible it is. That it’s much, much better than ever before and it literally transports you better than any other experience (bar train travel, but that won’t get you over an ocean). Show this visually, demonstrate it with old videos, and safety stats.
- And then secondly, occupy people’s time at the airport. Help them absolutely love it. I personally can’t spend enough time at an airport – there are heaps and heaps of fascinating things to do there – it reminds me of one of my favourite essays by GK Chesterton, most especially the part of ‘small boy complain of having to hang about a railway station and wait for a train’, go and read it here. Get people to love the experience, to write about it, to visit the airport as an excursion, to make it far, far apart from a glorified bus station into a wide-eyed wonderment of modern engineering. A spectacle! I’d far rather go watch planes take off than opera, or a sports match – it’s a modern miracle that we can fly!
All this to say, LAX has started a trend, and it is one that will unlikely be followed by the likes of Dubai and Hong Kong and such, but doubtfully here in the UK. And for that, I am very grateful.