— ahhh… THATS the most important one. But it needs to be REALLY being nice.

There are things Airline employees MUST do, as far as what the company/Law require… and there is what they CAN do if they want.

What they CAN do is not the passengers “Right”

In fact, what they CAN do can often backfire and get an employee into trouble.

Things like “You guys brought me in late, I am sure you can upgrade me” being an example… SURE they CAN, but if they just do that it may be strike one of 3 strikes and you are out for them.

It is unfair to try and insist on service that is outside of what an agent is allowed to do. They are there to do a job, have their rules and should do at least that.

If a passenger expects more, he should take it up directly with the airline, and believe it or not, the airline is mostly not at the airport, the airline in this case is actually customer relations dept and can probably only be reached by mail.

Every now and then an agent has a really nice guest, they may decide to stick their neck out and slip the guest a goodie… but it is not a right. It is up to the agent to know if he wants to stick his neck out for me….

Imagine the scene… totally POd guest after being rude for 5-10 minutes while being rebooked due to snowfall….

“You gonna upgrade me now for all the trouble youse guys have caused?”
“Sorry sir, cannot do that”
“Dont give me that bull, I know you can if you WANT to , happened to my friend Bernie last week. Its called going the extra mile… you just dont WANT to”
“You are right sir, I dont want to. Its called taking a risk, and ask yourself the following question, if someone had been talking to YOU for the last 10 minutes like you have been talking to me… would you bother to take a risk for them? Have a nice journey sir… next customer please!”

I had that very conversation a time or two when I was a ticket agent…

Only thing that works is NICE… and not phony nice… :-)

If I have to make changes (whether weather related or my own stupidity), being nice is always appreciated and get you bonus points from the harrassed, stressed-out airline employee. I am surprised how many times a fee gets waived, a “miracle” upgrade appears, or I’m able to be accommodated on a different route when I don’t yell at them or make their lives miserable.

But, it’s always good to know that, when all else fails, I can send a letter to CE!

“I want to see a manager!” “I am going to sue your Airline!” “I will never fly XX again!” “I am the customer!”

it may work at a small airport in the midwest, but at a major hub most of these have a ho-hum effect on the staff.

Added to that, maybe Christopher DOES get better results through customer relations, maybe passengers do as well… it probably has to do with the fact that by the time they sit down to write they are more rational then the slobbering pack they belong to that lay siege to ticket counters on heavy irreg days.

The folks that INSISTED on flying to new york on 9/12, those rebooked due to snow chaos on a flight to a Bahama vacation that complain because they are loosing MILLIONS., those that are not capable of finding a ticket counter in the middle of a terminal building then arrive all ticked off because “Everyone was sending me wrong!”

For every passenger that is a victim of airline injustice there are 20 that are victims of their own stupidity… “where on the ticket does it say I have to be there before departure time… and now you expect me to PAY!”

I realize C.E. is there to help the “Victims” but I see many of the above backfire every day… :-)

I’ll be including a link to this post in the next issue of Optimal Persuasion Insider.

Paul Hancox