Tuesday, February 20, 2007
We've All Been There
Posted by: Executive Producer, Julie Fike
No doubt you've heard the nightmare flight where JetBlue passengers were kept waiting nearly 11 hours on the tarmac. In some form or another, if you've ever flown, any airline, you've probably been there. But I have a positive airline story to combat the one that's now prompting a customer bill of rights in Congress.
It was October, I was flying back to OKC from Chicago. It was 6am on a Monday. I wasn't feeling my usual perky self, you see, I had been having fun after the Chicago Bears beat the Buffalo Bills. I was running late to O'Hare International. The train took longer than I anticipated. I was organized through kiosk check-in, security, and then I ran as fast as I could to the gate.
I get there, breathless, although thankful for my half-marathon training, to see the gate doors were closed. I run up to the American Airlines worker and ask (very nicely) if there's anyway I can get on that flight and if it's pulled from the jetway just yet. If not, when was the next flight to OKC. She told me the next flight is 2pm. 2pm! It's 6am! But I keep all that inside.
The worker is fastly typing (it's now 6:15am), you know how they do, and I tell her, "You are so great for even looking. I will serve peanuts, air the tires, just anything to make the 6am flight, I appreciate you."
Next thing I know she's handing me a boarding pass and calling the plane to wait. I landed back home in OKC to nurse my good Chi-town experience by 9:00am. While I think sometimes customer service has gone out the window, in my case, that AA worker remembered.
No doubt you've heard the nightmare flight where JetBlue passengers were kept waiting nearly 11 hours on the tarmac. In some form or another, if you've ever flown, any airline, you've probably been there. But I have a positive airline story to combat the one that's now prompting a customer bill of rights in Congress.
It was October, I was flying back to OKC from Chicago. It was 6am on a Monday. I wasn't feeling my usual perky self, you see, I had been having fun after the Chicago Bears beat the Buffalo Bills. I was running late to O'Hare International. The train took longer than I anticipated. I was organized through kiosk check-in, security, and then I ran as fast as I could to the gate.
I get there, breathless, although thankful for my half-marathon training, to see the gate doors were closed. I run up to the American Airlines worker and ask (very nicely) if there's anyway I can get on that flight and if it's pulled from the jetway just yet. If not, when was the next flight to OKC. She told me the next flight is 2pm. 2pm! It's 6am! But I keep all that inside.
The worker is fastly typing (it's now 6:15am), you know how they do, and I tell her, "You are so great for even looking. I will serve peanuts, air the tires, just anything to make the 6am flight, I appreciate you."
Next thing I know she's handing me a boarding pass and calling the plane to wait. I landed back home in OKC to nurse my good Chi-town experience by 9:00am. While I think sometimes customer service has gone out the window, in my case, that AA worker remembered.
posted by Anonymous at 5:59 AM
1 Comments:
Glad you were able to get aboard that fight. Your experience is a rare one for flying anymore.
Last summer, I flew to Chicago's Midway Airport via Southwest Airlines. What a mistake! I cannot begin to list the problems I had dealing with this airline. It turned out to be yet another lesson of 'you get what you pay for.'
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