One airline didn’t even cancel the flight -it disappeared from the departure screen! There were no announcements or indicators to the cancellation. I had to pursue information through an unrelated gate with highly stressed airline representatives dealing with people stressed due to being unsure of the current condition (flight disappearing versus showing as cancelled). Turned out that the airline combined my flight into the later one to same destination due to low passenger load and the weather delay. As it was, the later flight was further delayed because there were other delayed passengers connecting to that flight i.e. wanting to maximize the load.

In the second case, the airline announced the delay with multiple loudspeaker updates and description for the reason for delay, published the delay to the departure screen, and then, when the flight was cancelled, its representatives actively worked to accommodate the passengers onto later flights. The passengers were less stressed because they had been informed and that airline’s corporate policy is such that it encourages airline representatives to ‘have fun’.

Of course I love the second airline’s handling of the situation (Southwest) and have continued to tell the story of the first airline’s problem (United) since it happened in 2003…

It is long been the truth in every industry, that how you are treated when things go wrong matters as much and often more than what actually happened. I deal in a customer relations business all day, by place focus on handling customer problems politely and in a professional manner goes along way not only in resolving their problem, but in turning them into loyal customers, after all poor treat is today’s norm.

Good attitude is half the battle in winning customers today, and all you have to do is treat them the way you want to be treated. The age old saying “Do onto others as you would have them do onto you.”