When it comes to airline service, it’s easy to make sweeping generalizations, because they’re usually completely correct. The awful air carriers deserve their reputations. So do the good ones.
But every now and then something happens that makes me question the conventional wisdom.
Take yesterday’s experience in New Orleans, in which I received surprisingly attentive service from an airline that I didn’t expect – and unusually poor service from one that I did.
I had just wrapped up a meeting in the Crescent City and was schedule to fly to Bermuda for another event. My outbound flight was delayed because of a mechanical problem, and I ended up standing in line at a ticket counter belonging to a major airline, trying to find another way to get to the island.
Here’s the interesting thing. Even as the agent tried to help me – at one point attempting to rout me through Los Angeles – her colleagues urged her to take the easy road and rebook me on tomorrow’s flight. That would have meant missing my meeting, and the ticket agent knew that and generously spent a full hour trying to get me to Bermuda. (In the end, she couldn’t, but it wasn’t for lack of trying.)
When it was clear that I couldn’t make it to my destination, the agent made sure I was taken care of. She issued a hotel voucher and two meal vouchers, even though I had already booked a return flight to my home in Orlando on a low-cost carrier for the next day and was standing by for an afternoon flight.
All of which brings me to what happened when I boarded my budget airline flight a few hours later. I was the last person on the plane, and found a seat but no room for my carry-on bag. I pack light, and my first rule of air travel, like so many business travelers, is “never trust an airline with your luggage.”
I found an overhead bin that could almost accommodate my bag. But a small pouch in the bin prevented it from fitting. I asked a flight attendant if she would allow me to put that pouch under my seat.
“Oh no you don’t,” she snapped. “That’s my bag.”
Now if there’s one thing I’ve learned about mediating travel disputes, it is never argue with a flight attendant. You don’t want to give her a reason to kick you off the flight or to call the authorities. So I was forced to gate-check my bag after removing my laptop and noise-canceling headphones.
I said nothing to the attendant. But after surrendering my wheeled bag to a ramp worker, she came over and delivered a lecture about the importance of checking in early and arriving at the airport on time. It didn’t occur to her that I might have been a standby passenger. I wasn’t about to tell her.
“If you’re in the ‘C’ group, don’t even think about bringing a bag on the plane,” she said. (I realize it’s probably not too difficult to guess which airline I was on. Whatever.)
I just looked at her and said, “OK.”
But it was not OK.
I had just paid a pricey walk-up fare, and what few personal belongings I had, I expected to be able to take on the plane with me – particularly if there was room for them.
This got me wondering whether the generalizations we make about airlines, especially when it comes to service, are true anymore. Do the network carriers really hate us? Do the discount carriers love us?
I believe the answer to both questions is “no.”
Low-cost carriers are not just vulnerable to sudden bankruptcies, but they can be breeding grounds for second-rate customer service. In the same way, a network airline with a proud history of customer service can still do it right.
I’ll be far more reluctant to make a generalization after yesterday. Because generally speaking, I could be wrong.
✓ Get the latest travel news, tips and commentary from Elliott’s E-Mail, the subversive newsletter from industry gadfly Christopher Elliott. You’ll travel like a pro. Sign up here. It’s free.
Sign up for my 
{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
Chris – one thing I’d do – is did you get the NAME of the FA? Isn’t that what you tell us to do?
Anyway, assuming you did, send a letter to the VP for Customers and put it simply:
“On 4/6/08 I was a pax on flight XXX from MSY-MCO. Due to a misconnection on another carrier, I was a last minute traveler on your flight.
I was the last pax on board. I had a standard roll-on bag with me that I wanted to put in the overhead. I discovered that there was room, if a small pouch was either relocated or shifted around. I discovered the small bag belonged to your flight attendant, insert name here, who refused to make an effort to accommodate my needs, refusing to move her personal property to allow a paying passenger room to put their carry-on in the overhead. I was forced to check my bag even though, with a small amount of effort, I could have been accommodated.
Regardless of what the F/A could have done to be helpful, I believe that customer needs should come ahead of employee needs. I understand that WN has a deep employee culture, but, without my needs being met, there are no employees whose needs require space on board. She also made a snide comment about ‘checking in earlier,’ and that ‘if you have a C boarding pass do not even THINK of bringing luggage on board.” None of those comments were helpful in resolving the situation.
I am not seeking compensation, an apology, or anything other than an explanation of what is WN’s policy on employee use of carry on space when a customer requires it? Is there not space in the cockpit and in the closets in the front of the aircraft designed for employee personal item storage?
Thank you for your prompt attention.
Yes, good advice. Thank you. I think if the airline had lost my bags, I would have done that.
If I were you I would have told her off right there and then, gotten her name, and *then* I would have written a letter asking for the policy and such. NO CUSTOMER DESERVES TO BE TREATED THE WAY YOU DID.
ah, but the issue is not one of whether they lost your bag, but the priority with which customer needs are reflected. . . they pull non-rev passengers off to accommodate paying customers. Should the onboard service not also reflect that customer needs have to come first. If you do not tell them, because they didn’t lose the bag, then the next person who needs the space will not get it either. . . service should not default ‘they didn’t lose my bag, I should be happy. . . “
Chris,
For someone who advocates about customer rights, why are you not fighting a little harder for yourself?
I know you should pick your battles for the most part, but obviously you were following regulations and still received a lecture from someone…
To be honest, I was just exhausted after my trip and I think the blog entry was payback enough.
Ah, but you’ve taught us to politely and respectfully stand up for ourselves and write those well-crafted letters. You’re our role model…we want to know that you would do the same thing that you would have told us to do, had we written to you with that story.
Writing the blog entry is all well and good, but there’s no reason for the F/A to change her attitude because of it.
Of course, now we know to be more careful on certain airlines…
Point taken. I should note that the airline in question has not responded to any of my recent queries on behalf of other customers. I think something is going on at Southwest. The hearings and FAA fines have not been good for company morale. But I think there’s more happening than just that. I don’t know what, but my sense is, it’s not good.
This is good stuff; I just started reading your blog even though I’ve read your magazine columns for a while now. I have believed for a long time that SW is only marginally better, if that, than the major U.S. airlines. I get some flak for that sometimes, but my sense is that most of the people who “luv” SW don’t get out all that much.
As someone that worked and got married in Bermuda not too long ago, I’d just be pissed I didn’t get to the archipelago (sorry, Chris, my fellow ex-Eastportican, but it’s not considered an island).
Anyway, I would make a STRENUOUS argument that they owed you a RT fare to Bermuda and an overnight stay at the Hamilton Princess!
“I get some flak for that sometimes, but my sense is that most of the people who “luv” SW don’t get out all that much.”
I dunno ’bout that. I like Southwest. I fly a couple times a month. Part of why I like it is that most of the people at Southwest I encounter seem awfuly happy to be working there. Southwest is, as Chris said, pretty employee-oriented. Some employees are bound to take that the wrong way.
Chris, when you wrote the article you should have named the airline, the flight number, the FA and disclosed how much you paid for your ticket. After all what is the point in having a well read travel blog if you’re not going to take advantage. I am sick of airlines and their employees thinking that the paying passengers don’t count.
Good Day:
Awdsome information you have here. Thanks for sharing.