“Oh no, not again” I thought.
The flight attendant was coming back on the plane’s announcement system to share yet another reason why we were delayed.
We were going on the second hour of reasons, while buckled in with anticipation of leaving, as the sun shone down on the aircraft upon the shade-free tarmac.
First, the crew had somehow let someone on the plane who didn’t have a ticket (how does this still happen?), then the computer system of United Airlines went down, then they let people off for “air on the jetbridge” (lies) and now they were trying to get everyone back who had gone off of the plane.
They didn’t even serve water, let alone cocktails during this waiting period.
And then…
Oh wait…no…
They let the same guy on again who didn’t have a ticket the first time.
(What?!)
The ticketless passenger is sent out of the plane again with apologies and a bag of popcorn with the airlines’ condolences.
I mean, he could have at least gotten a pack of Biscoff cookies.
Three hours late, we finally take off and two hours later arrive at our destination.
Late and frustrated, my patience and person, the first email that hits my inbox upon landing is a survey from United asking me how my flight was.
To which I share…
And I hear NOTHING BACK.
Nada, zip, zilch.
Silence.
I mean, I get weather being an issue. I just had a flight canceled this past weekend forcing me to come home a day later.
But this was not a weather issue.
This was human error to which the airline owned up to nothing and did nothing in return.
Now, I don’t generally fly on Southwest because I want my seat picked ahead of time and this bougie gal generally flies in first class, but they have customer service right.
24 hours after an issue we had with them for a family trip, they deposited 25,000 bonus miles in my account for each passenger on my itinerary without me ever having to complain.
They went above and beyond without being asked to do it. And the thing is, we will all make mistakes.
They happen, but what we do after them says everything about who we are as a company and creates loyalty with our customers.
When we screw something up, our goal is always to make sure we leave the person who we made the mistake better off than they were before the problem. I want you to be surprised and delighted so much that you are glad the mistake happened.
United, you got this one wrong.
But hopefully we can use this as a reminder of what we need to do to get it right.
Ticket or no ticket.
Cheers,
Kim “Bougie” Walsh Phillips
