Airfarewatchdog.com has a survey indicating that American Airlines has the rudest employees followed closely by United Airlines and then to a lesser extent Delta and US Airways.

It comes as no surprise that the legacy airlines would have these higher “rudeness” ratings given the trials that their service staff have been through in comparison to others.

But there is more to it, in my opinion.  These top dogs are legendary for being micro-managers of their service staff.  There is no empowerment at these organizations that permits employees to solve problems and win customers.  There is a fear that employees will give away the farm if permitted to do so.

Curiously, that has never been the case at Southwest Airlines where employees are quite empowered.  Employees know when someone is trying to scam their airline and generally will defend the airline and its values quite well when given the chance.  Employees know that just handing things out to placate people isn’t the answer in many cases and they do know that the more they hand out, the more impact it has on the profitability of the company and therefore their salaries.

But I also think that legacy airline infrastructures just don’t care very much about service.  They see themselves as selling a commodity rather than a service.

Is an airline trip a commodity to you?  Or a service you’re buying?

Filed under: Airline Service by ajax