love words. In particular, I like the
way a word can mean different things and how sometimes those
different meanings result in unintentional irony.
Take the word "base." The airlines have announced that they are
eliminating "base" commissions for travel agencies in the U.S. and
Canada.
The airlines' use of the word refers to the meaning of "base" as
in "basic" or as in "baseline." But the dictionary provides a
number of other meanings of the word "base" that might be
considered in the wake of the abolition of commissions.
"Base" also can be defined as "being of comparatively low value
and having relatively inferior properties," as in the example of a
"base metal" that lacks resistance to corrosion.
Certainly the commissions that were just eliminated had reached
the level of a "base metal" long before the airlines did away with
them. The pay levels started losing their value more than seven
years ago, and the airlines steadily brought the payments down to
the point where a microscope was required to see them.
Another definition of "base" is "degrading," as in a "drab base
way of life." Here I think we have found our most significant
metaphor.
Agencies that have insisted on regarding airline ticketing as an
important part of their business have been leading a "drab base way
of life" in the post-commission caps era. And it has been degrading
for those agencies that continued to believe they had to survive as
a ticketing outlet for airlines.
For years, many agencies put the words "air tickets" in their
Yellow Pages ads, thinking this was the centerpiece of their
business proposition. If anyone still puts those words in an ad, it
would be a good idea to substitute words such as "cruises" and
"tours."
The whole notion of ticketing demeans what a travel agency is
capable of doing. Agencies are places the public turns to for
knowledgeable, consultative help in sorting out the infinite number
of options available in planning a trip. Issuing a ticket is an
incidental part of that complicated process.
The skill of a good travel agent, even in the airline sphere, is
in finding the best options and in saving business and leisure
travelers untold amounts of time and stress. For these services,
customers are prepared to pay -- probably a good deal more than
most agencies are prepared to charge.
One final definition of "base" is "ignoble," as in "lacking or
indicating the lack of higher qualities of mind or spirit."
The way in which airlines pretended to be agents' partners over
the years and then dropped their hammers certainly brings that word
to mind.