I think too many people blame us for everything. We can bend over backwards and try to give them the best experience ever, but I think writing letters are more effective than yelling at crew members. Thats a lot of peoples frustrations. Its not that we dont care. You give a person an inch and they run with it.
I don't think that apologizing to the man you had the police come on the plane and beat constitutes giving them an "inch."
If you went to the store, bought some milk, paid for it, then as you were about to pour a glass, someone from the store came in and said, "hey there, sorry, but our contract of drinkage states that we can 'bump' your ability to drink milk up to the point that you drink it when our employees are thirsty - sorry, here's a voucher for future milk availability and a coupon for more milk," wouldn't you be pissed? It's a big inconvenience, it's an annoyance, and not only that but when you say, "are you serious? I just bought this?!" They call the cops so you can't drink it.
I get that that analogy is stretching it a bit - but regardless, this sort of thing is ridiculous and that's exactly how the public sees this. How would this fly in any other industry?! - that's what people are upset about. It wouldn't, when people buy something, they expect to be able to use the service they purchased. When they can't, I believe they are rightfully upset. It's not just the actual violence anymore either - it's the threat of violence. That guy coming out of Lihue in first class had the same issue. It's BS.
Flying is already a dehumanizing and awful experience on most airlines. You show up way early, because the lines - Jesus the lines. You get your "papers" checked after standing in line for an unnecessary amount of time while dealing with the mandatory and idiotic security theater we call the TSA - which, by the way has an absurd amount of body pat downs and groin touching and power-tripping maniacs. After you put your shoes back on, you trudge to the gate so that you can sit in an uncomfortable pressurized metal tube for several hours. They board - so you stand in line like cattle again, go down the jet way, climb into an unbelievably uncomfortable seat designed to jam as many people as possible into the tiniest space. You're jammed into the middle seat between the 350lb dude with a glandular disorder in the window seat and the businessman on the right who passive-aggressively refuses to share an armrest. If you want to eat - they charge you. Too much baggage? Pay up. Want to watch a movie - headphones are only $5, what are you complaining about?!
And on top of all this, you're going to be subjected to employees that are rude or think it's ok that the threat of a beating from the police will help keep you in line.
But no - it's totally OK that United did this. If you give those passengers an inch they'll take a mile.
Face it - at most carriers, flying sucks in the back. While cheap fairs are what the customer "wants" - they also want to feel like a customer and not like some moderate inconvenience between layovers. Having "good" customer service isn't that hard, but it has to come from the top down, and front-line employees have to be empowered to make things better for the people they're serving. A lot of airlines do a damn good job...many do not. Why is it so hard to treat people like...people and not self-loading freight? There's more to providing an excellent experience than "Oh, I went around the turbulence, and kept the deck angles comfortable the whole flight." Smile, greet your people if possible (I know sometimes you can't), and
care about why they're on the airplane. They're why you're showing up to work.
And I should add, I'm fine with them bumping the gal wearing the Yoga pants - she was non-rev, she knew the rules or at least should have. I recently got bumped from a flight, it sucked, and because I had an appointment, I ended up having to buy a ticket on the next flight, but them's the rules, that's fine I'm grateful I had the possibilityt. When you're a PAYING passenger, you should at least be able to count on not being bumped off of your flight because crew scheduling didn't have their • together.
