Monday, August 16, 2010

No screaming or passenger unrest on this flight, just a birthday song

We've all heard about the meltdown on JetBlue last week involving flight attendant Steve Slater and his intercom tirade and quick chute exit. As all the details are still being uncovered, I am not shocked to learn that he has already hired a Hollywood publicist to sort through all the "offers." My personal belief is that no matter what may or may not have happened on that flight (most of his account has been seriously discounted from many passengers thus far), his actions were most unprofessional. However, in today's society, little details like the actual facts of what occurred are less important to many people than the immediate, viral momentum for many to consider him a hero. I think not. I hope his 15 minutes of fame are over, but I suspect there will be the made-for-cable-tv movie hitting the airwaves before the year is up. Even if his story turns out to be true, I still plan to skip that flight.

Anyways, upon just returning from a family vacation to Maine (Bar Harbor, Acadia, Freeport, Camden), New Hampshire (Portsmouth) and Rhode Island (Newport), I wanted to share a little "rich customer experience" that won't ever receive any media attention. On our Southwest morning flight from Chicago to Boston, the flight attendant announced that someone special on board was having a 7th birthday that day. She then proceeded to instruct all the passengers to turn on their overhead light to "turn the plane into one big birthday cake with candles." Then she delivered him the most charming birthday crown, made up of peanut packages and coffee stir straws. It actually looked like a King's crown! We all then sang happy birthday to this most appreciative little boy. It was a real great experience for this kid and his family, as well as for the rest of the passengers knowing they were welcome, appreciated and valued.

Does ayone else have any good or bad travel experiences they would like to share?

1 comment:

  1. As an interesting follow-up, there was a good article in today's Chicago Tribune about how some of the major airline carriers, like Southwest, have customer programs in place to apologize for bad customer experiences...

    Airlines employ professional apologizers
    http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/feed/sc-biz-0825-airline-apologies-20100824,0,5587814.story

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