This is a little off topic for this blog but it is a business blog and customer service is a passion of mine. In a past life I developed customer service training programs for a number of Fortune 100 companies. I know that many of you are frequent travelers and can relate to this saga. It is a long story but I am actually leaving a good bit out. It is a tale of the emotional highs and lows that any frequent traveler will know.
I recently experienced some of the best and worst of airline service. In the end the good guys won and I am very grateful to them. I make it a practice to always be polite to airline service personnel. They have a tough job. I have learned that it is also in my best interest as many times this polite behavior has allowed me to get what I could not get by being aggressive. They actually do have some discretion as to what they do for you and bad behavior can get punished and good behavior rewarded. My resolve was almost tested this time but I did manage to stay polite and express my appreciation for what people were doing for me.
I had gotten snowed in at Jackson WY and missed my American flight. They rebooked me on United for the next day, January 29.th It was United 560 to Chicago, changing to 540 to Boston. I called United to confirm this and get a record locator and seat number. When I arrived long before departure time, the Jackson airport was in chaos with many delayed passengers from the past two days trying to get out. As I stood in line for 90 minutes to check in, I learned from a fellow passenger that the plane was going to stop for fuel and hold in Denver because of bad weather in Chicago and long anticipated hold times. He said we would not make our connection to Boston and he had rebooked on a later flight.
Armed with this information I called United reservations, after repeating agent about ten times, I decided to see if I could go directly from Denver to avoid Chicago and managed to book a 3:35PM from Denver direct to Boston, getting me in at the same time as the original Chicago connection. I had already heard about the bad weather in Chicago and was apprehensive about going there anyway. When I got to the front of the line, the United people told me I needed paper work from American. When I explained that neither the American or United reservation people told me this, it did not matter. They did say come back to the front of the still monster line (partial good point). This was good as they were starting to close off anyone else getting on the Chicago fight.
I raced over to American that fortunately they did not have a flight going out at the time so no lines. I asked for quick help. The agent could not get the system to work but did manage to give me a paper ticket (good points). When I went back to United I was told the plane was not going to Denver but Chicago. I would miss my connection in Chicago but they could not rebook me now as they were too busy getting people out. I would have to deal with it in Chicago. (partial bad point as there were a lot of people to process but it could have been done nicer) They also could not give me a seat assignment and I would get it at the gate. After another 30 minutes in security, I got a boarding pass to Chicago but not to Boston. I was worried somehow I would not get on as this has happen often with no seat assignment. Of course, I got the extra special treatment in security, as in step aside while we go through everything, but I told them how much I appreciate what they do for us while this was happening and they were efficient.
Once on the plane, it was announced that we were indeed stopping in Denver. The weather in Chicago had put a hold on the flight for another 9 hours in Jackson. The pilot in his wisdom (he gets gold stars) decided that this would not work as the weather was starting to get bad in Jackson again and the weather in Denver was sunny. It was also supposed to get real bad again in Jackson the next day. So we would go to sunny Denver and refuel and wait. Now he gets better, he said that we would not be held hostage in Denver, we could get off as we would be there for several hours, at least. The purser, to her credit, suggested I call United reservations on my cell phone when I told her I wanted to regain my Denver to Boston reservation. I did this successfully, after repeating agent ten times. Other passengers, who were only changing planes in Chicago, also started doing this as word got around.
It took a while to get everything sorted out before we took off from Jackson and we knew our connections would be tight. I explained this to the purser who said, very nicely, stay in your seat, and when I get approval I will let you and others like you get off first. I gladly agree to cooperate. The purser, like the pilot and all the crew, get extra gold stars.
When we got to Denver they could not get a customer service person to bring over the jet way. The purser had everyone with tight connections get their stuff and line up in anticipation of approval to get off and kept calling for a jetway. Kudos to the passengers as they all cooperated and only those with tight connections got up. Apparently, there was a disagreement between the United people as to whether we could get off as I seemed to learn later. The captain had to intervene and call the station manager on his cell phone to get a jetway. I had wondered why the jetway was slow to appear and the pilot had to intervene. When it arrived they hurried us on to our gates.
There were about 10 or 12 people going to Boston and we all went to the gate, getting there about 35 minutes before departure time, thinking we were home free. The gate agent would have nothing to do with us and left this long line to start boarding passengers. There was no other help in sight. We all watched in frustration as everyone was boarded while we stood in line. People would wave or ask for help from time to time but no one was aggressive. She appeared to be ignoring us and never acknowledged our requests or said that she would be over when she was through. Her attitude toward our presence was soon confirmed by statements she made to a fellow employee in front of us.
Finally, another gate agent came and started to help us at the desk. He asked the original agent at the gate to help him after all the passengers had boarded. She refused, saying that her supervisor told her not to help us, as we were not supposed to get off the Chicago flight. At that point people started to lose it. The helpful gate agent told us to clam down and he would help if we let him do his job. He said if we did not cooperate no one would get on. We all behaved. I said we appreciate what he is doing. He said then give him room and we all did. The original gate agent did nothing to help but argued with the helpful gate agent while he processed us. She said that reservations screwed up getting us on this flight and she would have nothing to do with it. She said her supervisor told her not to board us. He ignored her and got us all on the flight in time. I wish I had time to thank him but he was focusing on getting the others on.
This good gate agent and the entire crew of flight 560 deserve kudos and they represent the type of service that is willing to be flexible and let people trapped for a day or two get home. United should honor then. The Jackson ground crew should not have given us misinformation but perhaps they did know what was really happening and that is an airline issue. The Denver gate agent who was not going to let us on that flight after all we went through should be sent to customer service training, at a minimum, and write I will think of the customers first a thousand times. She was the real bad guy, as was the supervisor who told her not to board us. I hate to think what might have happen if she had denied a dozen people with confirmed reservations to get on the plane after the struggle they went through to get that far. And after her fellow employees at United went out of their way to help us get that far. It certainly would have been another black eye for United. The airline should be thankful that they have some reasonable and flexible employees who think of their customers. I am.
BTW - I identified the good and bad gate agents by gender because that was the situation but I have seen no correlation between gender and good or bad customer service so I am not making any generalizations here.
Exhausted I sat down and wrote this. In the old days I would have sent this in a letter to the President of United Airlines and perhaps told a few people. Now, I put it on my blog and hope that Google and other search engines such as Yahoo will get it to him.
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