Happy Birthday, Mom!
At my wife’s prompting, I agreed that going to visit my Mom up in Canada for her birthday would be a good idea.
After all, my wife promised to come along, and given that I’m 21 months into my 100,000 mile commute, it sounded like a good idea…
The plan was we’d both fly into Dallas (her from Phoenix, me from Houston) and then we'd fly up to Toronto together.
That was the plan, anyway…
Springtime thunderstorms changed all that, but my pilot assured all of us coming from Houston that nobody would miss their connection. So I boarded like the happy camper that I should be.
After almost 2 hours of sitting on the tarmac in Houston, the weather in Dallas cleared and we were able to take off for our 40 minute flight.
>> Airline Trick #1 – they pull away from the gate even if they cannot take off to secure “on-time departure” brownie points and avoid excess gate charges. Customer satisfaction is not important at this stage, since we’re all prisoners.
More reassurance and thanks from the pilot (maybe he gets a bonus for on-time departures?), and we’re on our way…
The short flight takes us to Dallas without a hitch – in fact, the weather is looking beautiful and all the pavement is even dry – was there even a storm?? Hmmmm...
Just before landing, the flight attendant reads off the connecting gate info, and with some more assurances that all flights are equally late, the plane lands.
Cellphones come out, and I call my wife – who by now has boarded our flight to Toronto and is sitting beside some man who has decided that my exit row seat is better than the seat assigned to him. (Argh!)
Just as we get to the gate, however, my wife calls to say that the door on her plane has closed and they are pushing away from the gate.
...I feel some frustration coming on!
At the counter they tell me the solution to my problem is to catch the next flight to Toronto the next morning. No offer of hotel, since the problem is “weather-related”, regardless of promises or commitments made by the airline or the pilot.
>> Airline Trick #2 – they blame the weather for anything that might look like it would get them off the hook for extra costs. Again, customer satisfaction is secondary.
After some discussion – and it was quite a lot of “discussion” – the airline suggests an 845pm flight to New York and then on to Toronto the next morning at 725am.
Without many options, and wishing to arrive on time for mother’s birthday party, I agree.
Unlike the flight to Toronto, which suffered only a 30 minute schedule delay (even when the airport itself was supposedly shut down for an hour), the flight to New York is delayed by about an hour and a half.
After arriving in New York (Newark, actually) after 2am, I discover that my “connecting” flight to Toronto actually departs from La Guardia airport – about 60 miles and $84 taxi-ride dollars away.
>> Airline Trick #3 – separate in/out airport locations are all minor problems; they are after all drawn as one and the same location in the back of the airline magazine. A minor detail for the airline, a major issue for customer satisfaction.
Now I can begin to imagine what homeless without your own bed is like.
In all my years of traveling, with countless domestic and international flights, I have never once had to sleep at an airport.
Until today.
The benches are too short (no kidding, check out the prior blog), the window sills are too hard, and the stupid security announcements play non-stop, even when the airport gates are closed.
Oh well...
Happy birthday Mom – I hope you enjoy my visit to make my trip worthwhile.
And as a closing note, let us at PAS never take the airlines as an example of how to satisfy customers.
At least not American Airlines!
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A reader tells me that a flight attendant friend of his confirms Airline Trick #1 - apparently, the flight attendants on most US airlines can NOT record any working time until the plane has left the gate - another reason why the airline crew want to get going with the flight even if they are going nowhere!!!
Posted by: Roland Heersink | July 10, 2007 at 04:58 PM