Recently, there was a feel-good story about an airline. A traveler was striving to reach a tertiary airport to connect with a family member suffering a probable fatal health episode. Having boarded, she learned of delays in departure and lamented the impact that would have on a very short turnaround at the connecting airport. Her reaction led to emotions.
No, this is not one of those stories where emotions led to an arrest, though those seem to be proliferating. Instead, this story relates the anxious and tearful reaction of the traveler and the airline's extraordinary accommodation. The pilot somehow convinced the airline to hold the connecting aircraft and await this traveler, undoubtedly inconveniencing an array of other travelers. She was so inspired that she posted her grateful reaction on "Tic Toc."
The story indicates that flight schedules can be adjusted, complex processes can be managed, and the importance of service can be highlighted. It is a touching story and worth the very few minutes to read.
I recently attended a planning meeting for an educational effort I am involved with. The discussions were amazingly complex and educational. I likely learned as much from the planning as anyone might hope to learn by attending the seminar. More on that in a future post. But one relaxing lull led to discussions of the perils of air travel, stemming from some who faced challenges in travel to the meeting.
Every attendee contributed a tale of travel woe. Each had been on the difficult end of a delayed or diverted flight, lost luggage, failure of accommodation, or downright disrespect. There was some feeling of community in the shared experience of airline frustration and disappointment. There were also some humorous components and laughing about frustrations always helps with acceptance and recovery.
I relayed my experience of the six hours that became 18. I found myself late boarding a flight one afternoon with a scheduled one-hour turnaround in another city. The path was back to Paradise at the end of a long couple of days.
The airline had access to all the pertinent information, knowing which passengers had connecting flights and the timing each of us faced in the connecting city. The airline knew how late it was departing, and the math involved with the impact of that was anything but calculus.
The flight duration was enhanced by some degree of ground delay after boarding and finally taking off. Late turned into later, and still, everything was known to the airline.
The door opened at the connecting airport leaving me 15 minutes to traverse two terminals to the departing gate for Paradise. Once clear of the multitude of other travelers striving to deplane with equal frustration, I ran through the airport at my best, and yet lamentable, speed. I arrived to find the door shut at the Paradise gate. I was literally 6 minutes past departure time.
As I walked away, I began searching for alternatives on my phone. I found a flight departing in less than one hour to Emerals Coast, a destination only 40 miles from Paradise and I broke into a run again. As I approached that alternative gate, boarding had begun, but I was pleased to hear there were empty seats. The gate agent, however, could (would?) not put me on the flight.
She explained that her capabilities at the gate only allowed her to accommodate passengers "with status." That was an apparent reference to the loyalty programs and the benefits of accumulating a volume of miles on some airline. Despite being a "frequent flyer," I lacked "status." Some might naively believe that being a customer conveys some "status," but not in this situation. It is humbling when someone tells you they can help people, but can't (won't) help you.
I was therefore directed to a long line at "customer service," less than 40 yards away. There, I plodded along as the deluged staff strove to accommodate or assuage "status-less" passenger after passenger. When it was eventually my turn, the gate door for the Emerald Coast had closed. My lack of "status" had resulted in another disappointment.
The original ticket had me check in, clear security, leave a town, connect, and arrive in Paradise in just over 6 hours. The alternative would have been about an 8.5-hour drive home.
At the connecting airport, having missed my flight and the only rational alternative flight, I found myself about seven hours into my return trip and being offered a flight the following morning, about 15 hours later. The airline offered no apology, hotel accommodation, or even acknowledgment of the situation.
Having invested seven hours in reaching this connecting airport, I was ironically still about an 8.5-hour drive from Paradise. The entire seven-hour investment had accomplished no progress, and the prospect was another 15-hour delay plus two-hour flight. And that was assuming the next flight would proceed as scheduled, even for those of us who lacked "status."
The kind people at the rental car counter found me a vehicle and I departed at about 9:00 p.m. and drove to Paradise in the middle of the night. I arrived with time for a shower before heading off to work. I beat the arrival time of that alternative next-day flight the airline had proposed by about 8 hours.
My written complaint to the airline was responded to promptly. They cheerfully informed me that they had refunded the unused portion of my ticket (connecting to Paradise, I still paid for the useless trip to the connecting city). They reminded me that travel can be uncertain and hoped to see me again soon on another flight.
The airline did not address my suggestion that gate personnel at their company might be empowered to help passengers who were delayed or displaced by the airline's failure (even those lowly "no-status" passengers).
The cheerful message did not address my suggestion that if they had told me before departure, I could have driven home in about the time it took to reach the rental car counter in the connecting city.
There was no mention of the failure to offer a hotel, a meal, or even an apology for the failure.
The lesson, at the time, was that there will be frustrations anytime we are at the mercy of someone else's schedule, rules, and processes. It was a long, dark drive back to Paradise. The lesson is that in any service industry, there may be perceptions of less-than-adequate service.
Having read the inspiring story that instigated this post, I am hopeful that my flight delay that day that precipitated my missed connection somehow accommodated or helped someone in need. Without me knowing, perhaps somehow that airline was taking care of someone whose needs were greater than my own. If so, so be it. Doing good for others is important.
My need to believe that people are fundamentally good drives me to conclude that what I experienced was merely the downside of someone else's upside. I hope someone was accommodated and afforded their "Tic Toc"-worthy moment. It is easier to suffer the downside believing that it was for someone in need to have an upside, rather than mere incompetence or ambivalence.
Or, perhaps the team there was merely ambivalent or incapable of proacting to prevent inconvenience. Possibly, no one there cared about the customer in any manner. But that is a cynical conclusion. And having listened to the amazing stories of my fellow travelers at that recent meeting, I got off easy. Perhaps one day I will recount their far more challenging travel travails.
If you have a bad experience with an airline, there is an automated complaint process on the internet. Contact the Federal Aviation Administration for details. And, before you think the challenges are specific to this or that airline, have a read through Reddit and perhaps you will conclude that someone, somewhere, has had a complaint at some point about virtually all the available flying alternatives.
Travel is simply difficult. There are many moving parts, competing schedule demands, uncertainties, and challenges. Moving people from place to place, on schedule, is daunting. The news more recently announced that the government would sue one airline over late flights. The soon-former Secretary of Transportation said
“Airlines have a legal obligation to ensure that their flight schedules provide travelers with realistic departure and arrival times."
Another airline was fined recently for its flight delays. The government is seemingly interested in flight delays and challenges in the world of travel. That story includes allegations that the air traffic control system, rather than the airlines, is responsible for much of the delay challenge.
What is seemingly missing is any conversation about the leadership that would bring collaboration and progress. The anecdotal indicators are of a system in need of adjustment(s), a system capable of reacting and proacting when it chooses, and yet a dearth of leadership focused on bringing change, improvement, and efficiency. In short, it sounds a lot like the Florida workers' compensation system of the 1990s.
If this system disappoints and frustrates you similarly or in any regard, email me directly and lets discuss it - david.langham@doah.state.fl.us. You have "status" here.
