"People are our most precious asset" is a corporate mantra that has a hollow ring in many organizations, whether it applies to staff or customers. Airlines and hotels are supposed to be service industries, but I'm always amazed at how differences in demeanor by the people at the sharp end can make or break a travel experience.

Years ago, I always stayed at the same small, somewhat decrepit hotel in Paris, because of the charm and graciousness of Nicolas, the elderly and erudite White Russian night porter. I will return to that tatty hotel with a big heart in Avignon, but never to the four-star palace hotel in Nice where we stayed last week, because of its rude and intolerant staff.

Cattle class on one airline can be a better experience than business class on another. You must have noticed how often two flights on the same airline can be like flying with two different airlines. Frequent fliers can detect a "bad" crew from a "good" crew the moment they board the plane. One hotelier says that he can tell a good hotel from a bad hotel in the first 10 minutes.

How often do you find the clichés of the glossy ads and PR hype redeemed by an elusive amalgam of friendliness and efficiency that I call "hospitality"?

I like to believe that people will be nice to you if you are nice to them. But it doesn't always work that way. It depends upon our level of expectations, often linked to needs and priorities - whether, for example, we are in a business or leisure mode, or possibly even a bad mode. Expectations are crucial for travelers with "special needs," like wheelchairs and crutches. One of the best flights I ever had was with Lufthansa many years ago after breaking my ankle in Frankfurt.

Surgery this summer has left me with "special need" for fast access to a lavatory and I have a "deaf-and-dumb card" in several languages to prove my case.

Traveling to Nice the other day, the British Airways' check-in woman at London Gatwick was unimpressed. "Yes, I know all about that," she said, waving my card away. "But economy passengers are not allowed to use the business class toilets in the front of the plane."

"No problem," the pleasant guy at Nice said as we checked in for the flight home. "I'm putting you in the front row so you get more legroom. And sure, you can use the toilets up front. I'll check it with the cabin crew." What he meant was the front row of cattle class behind the business class curtain, which on this flight was only pushed back to row 5. You can count on the first 15 rows having the middle to give a two-by-two instead of a three-by-three configuration. What is more, the guy gave us access to the business-class lounge: a godsend on a two-hour wait.

When it comes to the crunch, it is all down to your front-line management style. Get it right and you can expect service beyond the call of duty.

Baggage is a weighty issue for travelers faced with confusing rules for carry-on and checked bags, and what to do when they go missing. But it is the weight of passengers themselves that is now exercising airlines: Faced with spiraling fuel costs, every ounce counts in the frantic search for ways to cut overheads.

Cute headlines like "Fat fliers hurting airlines' bottom lines" and "The weight problem is spreading" greeted a report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. It said that "an obesity epidemic" among Americans has had "unexpected consequences beyond direct health effects." Throughout the 1990s, the average weight of Americans increased by 10 pounds, or 4.5 kilograms, causing airlines to spend $275 million on an extra 350 million gallons of fuel just to carry the extra weight, the agency says. The extra fuel burned caused an estimated 3.8 more tons of carbon dioxide to be released into the air.

Sixty-five percent of American adults were overweight or obese in 2002, the CDC survey said. If current trends persist, obesity will become the No. 1 cause of preventable death in the United States - not to mention the death knell for the financial well-being of the most vulnerable big-name carriers.

Jack Evans, a spokesman for the Air Transport Association of America, said: "Just like we don't control the cost of our fuel, we don't control the weight of our passengers. It's not likely that airlines will scrutinize how much passengers weigh. But instead they are trying to do a better job of estimating passenger weights in figuring out how much fuel they need for a flight."

Passenger bulk has never been an issue. But nemesis may be nigh for the "laterally challenged." Southwest Airlines requires "large people" to buy a second seat for "safety and comfort."

Airlines should offer an incentive to bulky passengers in the form of a weight-watchers program linked to frequent-flier miles. But I'm not holding my breath.


Roger Collis is the author of 'The Survivor's Guide to Business Travel,' published by Kogan Page in conjunction with the International Herald Tribune, and edits an online newsletter at www.truthintravel.com. Roger also writes 'The Frequent Traveler' and 'Ask Roger Collis' columns for the International Herald Tribune.