We were met at the plane by the FBO owner, a very nice guy ...

Hey, and you managed not to insult him too. :-)

Thankfully!

Interestingly, we did discuss the difficulties of servicing corporate
clients at length. I was heartened to note that he has joined the
growing list of service providers (ourselves included) who now insist
on obtaining credit card information up-front, and charge for no-shows.


This has always been a problem for hotels -- corporate pilots are
absolutely notorious for not showing up -- but unbeknownst to me, this
has also become a very bad problem for FBOs. Apparently it has become
all-to-common for the corporate jet-guys (think "NetJets") to call
ahead, order a ton of catered food and specialty items for their
time-share owners, and then simply not show up -- leaving the poor FBO
owners in the lurch, often to the tune of hundreds of dollars.

This is really a problem for small FBOs, who are often single-person
operators. When they get these specialty orders they must leave their
business for an hour or two, run into town, buy all the bakery, fruit,
roses, whatever, and then hustle back to the airport. Only to be left
with a bunch of rotting food and wilted flowers.

Now we all know that it's probably not the corporate pilots who are to
blame -- I'm sure Joe Bigshot in the back simply changed his mind, and
decided to fly to Tulsa in stead of Grinnell. However, that doesn't
make it any easier, or any more right.

Most of the FBO owners I have spoken with in recent months have
hardened their attitude towards these folks, after years of taking it
in the chops. And rightly so, in my opinion.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"