‘Why wouldn’t I fly business class?’: experiences of frequent flying beyond the kinetic elite
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2024
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Melbourne Authors
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School of Geography
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Honours thesis
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© 2024 Harrison Wayne
Abstract
Frequent flying as a phenomenon is often perceived to be reserved for the powerful and wealthy. Mobilities literature also plays into the notion that airspaces are mundane and meaningless, and in their scholarly pursuit become fixed along tight disciplinary lines. Ten in-depth semi-structured interviews with a diverse group of frequent flyers revealed that airports – and other airspaces – are, in fact, filled with meaning and are places that excite, exhaust, thrill and confuse. In three empirical chapters, this thesis unsettles some of the dominant narratives around frequent flying to spotlight the diversity of experience that exists within frequent flyer communities. Becoming a Frequent Flyer contends there is a moment or event which ‘sparks’ the journey of becoming a frequent flyer and represents the genesis of a frequent flyer identity. It also explores the journey from novice to expert revealing how the feeling of a frequent flyer identity is created and cultivated and not given by virtue. Re-thinking Spatiality explores how aeromobile journeys escape the confines of the airport and permeate a host of everyday ‘other worlds’ including public transport. It also explores how these ‘other worlds’ are where frequent flyers actively choreograph end-to-end journeys to suit their expectations and preferences. Tactical relationships looks at the changing relationships between frequent flyers and airlines and conceptualises these relationships as being shackled, settled or tactical. In doing so, it explores how the loyalty of frequent flyers is a conscious and thought-out decision and is constantly being renegotiated.
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Keywords
frequent flyer, aeromobility, airport, elite, kinetic elite, identity, diversity, journey, becoming, saptiality, relationships, tactics