My flying day yesterday started out poorly. I flew from Manchester, New Hampshire to New York City, en route to Columbus, Ohio. Only, due to weather problems, New York’s LaGuardia airport was a mess (if you travel, this is like saying “and there was air outdoors”). They delayed my flight a few hours before canceling it entirely and pushing me onto a later flight.
When I got on that plane, we started to taxi, and then at the exact moment I looked out the window and noticed that there were approximately 579,320 jets sitting around on the runway, the captain came on and said, “Uh, we’re like…45th in line to take off.”
Seriously. He said 45th. That’s like saying, “We’ll take off next week, if that’s just the same to you.”
I flipped on my phone to tweet a bit of steam-venting (as all whiny bloggers do), and the flight attendant came over and reminded me we had to have our phones off. I pointed out the window a bit exasperated and said, “Um, we’re not going to be flying forever. Is this really going to disrupt the universe?” After a bit of back and forth, I acquiesced like a sheep and cracked open my book.
I never blame flight attendants for stupid rules. She gave me a very apologetic look. It was all she had.
Not much later, the same lady came back through the rows handing out cookies. You know, a stupid sweet treat isn’t going to change my mood around. I thanked her politely, though. It’s what she could offer, and I knew that.
She then stopped and talked to me about how her mother and grandmother had bought her son a second XBOX 360 because his first had started suffering technical problems. She was frustrated because she’d heard that XBOX had a recall on some faulty boxes, and she knew her son didn’t need another XBOX, but who listened to her?
The story had nothing to do with today.
But you get it, right?
She became instantly human. We talked. She knew that I wasn’t happy, and she knew nothing she said about the situation mattered, so she just acted human. She knew that she had me, too. I changed body language. I responded. I reacted well. Before leaving, she said, “I’ll just ring the captain and see if we can get the okay to use cell phones.”
Moments later, the captain comes on.
“Uh, so I couldn’t get a word in edgewise with ground control, but I texted my supervisor. We just figured out that the tower’s not letting anyone depart on a westbound route…” (and listen, if you’re a pilot and I’m getting my routes wrong, this isn’t the point of the story) “…but we just plotted a course from a southbound runway, and we’re cleared to go. Flight attendants, please take your seat immediately.”
Huh?
Basically, our captain did the equivalent of jumping the curb and scooting down the breakdown lane to get us out of the traffic snarl.
We were airborne in less than two minutes after the XBOX story.
So, what went down?
USAir wasn’t responsible for bad weather. The flight attendant wasn’t responsible for the rules. The pilot wasn’t responsible for a 45-plane lineup.
But our flight attendant gave us a cookie. She disarmed a few frustrated passengers (me included). She didn’t go on and on about the situation, but instead did what she could with what she had. The pilot did the same, and further more, he got creative and went around a few roadblocks.
In all, it felt to me like a really great customer service turnaround, and judging by the looks of other folks on the plane who’d endured an equally bad travel day, we all felt similarly satisfied by what went down.
Do the best with what you’ve got. Be human. Connect.
It’s good stuff. Thanks, USAir.