The Experience We Did Not Mean to Change

I was flying home from Nashville after a business trip and had a little time before my flight back to Dallas.

For the better part of the last fifteen years, that usually meant heading for the nearest Admirals Club.

It had become part of my routine. I'd answer a few emails, grab something a little better than airport food, enjoy a quieter place to sit and, if I'm being completely honest, use one of the cleanest bathrooms in the airport. Frequent travelers know that last benefit probably deserves its own membership fee.

This trip felt different from the moment I arrived.

There was a line just to get inside.

I assumed it was unusually busy, so I waited. After checking in, I found another line for food. Every chair I could see was occupied, and the room felt every bit as crowded as the terminal outside.

I stood there for a minute, looked around, and walked back out.

A few minutes later, I was sitting in the airport food court eating lunch.

Halfway through my sandwich, I realized what had been bothering me. The lines were inconvenient, and the crowded room certainly didn't help, but neither was really the issue.

For years, walking into the Admirals Club had felt like stepping away from the airport for a little while.

In Nashville, it never felt that way.

It Had to Start Somewhere

Sitting in the food court, I started thinking about why the Admirals Club was created in the first place.

I picture someone sitting in a meeting years ago talking about frequent travelers who spent far too much of their lives in airports. Maybe the conversation turned toward creating a place where they could catch their breath before the next flight.

I have no idea whether that's how it happened.

It just feels believable.

Someone had to decide what travelers should feel when they walked through the door.

Once that idea was clear, everything else probably became easier.

How much space should there be? How quiet should it be? What kind of food should be served? Those choices would have followed from that first decision.

None of those choices would have meant much by themselves.

Taken together, they became the experience people remembered.

The Change Was Probably Invisible

Over time, the experience changed.

Membership became easier to obtain. Credit card benefits expanded, and more travelers found their way inside.

I understand why those decisions were made. Had I been part of those conversations, I probably would have agreed with many of them.

An experience like this usually does not change because of one terrible decision.

More often, they drift because of a long series of reasonable ones.

One decision solves a problem. Another opens the experience to more people. A third simply feels like common sense. By the time something feels different, it can be difficult to point to the moment it actually changed.

People Remember the Feeling

Working in live events has taught me that audiences do not remember every detail.

Most won't remember a lighting cue, a piece of music, a graphic on a screen, or the exact words someone used.

What they remember is how the experience made them feel.

That's usually the part that stays with them.

The same seems to be true of hotels, restaurants, stores, airline lounges, and almost anywhere people choose to return.

They're responding to the experience as a whole, even if they couldn't explain exactly why.

When that feeling begins to change, it often happens so gradually that neither the people creating the experience nor the people enjoying it notice right away.

That doesn't mean anyone stopped caring.

The people making those decisions probably care a great deal. They are trying to improve the experience, serve more people, and make something they already believe in even better.

The challenge is recognizing when those well intentioned improvements begin to reshape the very thing people valued from the beginning.

Somehow, It Didn't Feel the Same

I don't know what the answer is for the Admirals Club.

I'll keep using it, and there will probably be plenty of trips when it gives me exactly what I'm looking for.

I only know that on an afternoon when I expected to step away from the airport for a little while, I found myself leaving the lounge and eating lunch in the food court instead.

The experience was still there.

Somehow, the feeling wasn't.