I cannot agree with you more here. I will never forget the 9 HOUR yes 9 HOUR trip from LIT to DFW via New Orleans, Houston, and ABILENE all for a small line of storms between DFW and LIT. Granted it was alot of ATC routing and ground stops but the flight should have been cancelled and not moved until DFW was open. Worse there was not one iota of weather or turbulence but yet the pilot would not allow drink service. Once we finally arrived at DFW we waited an hour for a gate where there wasnt another aircraft in sight. And of course a friend of ours missed his connection and he had to pay 165 for a room at the Hyatt without any help from AA – hes on a fixed income. None of us have ever flown American again and never will. Customers dont forget messes like this. It wasnt even so much the flight as it was the complete lack of customer service or regard for passengers well being.
Bad problems are, in my opinion, as much an opportunity to “win” customers as they are to lose them.
I believe that most people do “get it” when an airline is suffering a problem out of its control. I also think they judge an airline on the basis of a few simple things:
1) Is the airline keeping me up to date on the problem and what they are doing to solve it?
2) Is the airline trying to honestly address my needs in terms of what they can do or are they just trying to make me go away?
3) When the problem was solved, did the airline strive for a good solution for me or did it just proffer a solution that was OK for the airline?
Really? You flew AA??
Djüd… You *know* better.
-R
(amr must die)
I cannot agree with you more here. I will never forget the 9 HOUR yes 9 HOUR trip from LIT to DFW via New Orleans, Houston, and ABILENE all for a small line of storms between DFW and LIT. Granted it was alot of ATC routing and ground stops but the flight should have been cancelled and not moved until DFW was open. Worse there was not one iota of weather or turbulence but yet the pilot would not allow drink service. Once we finally arrived at DFW we waited an hour for a gate where there wasnt another aircraft in sight. And of course a friend of ours missed his connection and he had to pay 165 for a room at the Hyatt without any help from AA – hes on a fixed income. None of us have ever flown American again and never will. Customers dont forget messes like this. It wasnt even so much the flight as it was the complete lack of customer service or regard for passengers well being.
Bad problems are, in my opinion, as much an opportunity to “win” customers as they are to lose them.
I believe that most people do “get it” when an airline is suffering a problem out of its control. I also think they judge an airline on the basis of a few simple things:
1) Is the airline keeping me up to date on the problem and what they are doing to solve it?
2) Is the airline trying to honestly address my needs in terms of what they can do or are they just trying to make me go away?
3) When the problem was solved, did the airline strive for a good solution for me or did it just proffer a solution that was OK for the airline?
Greg