There’s a right way and a wrong way to get 13 people off your flight and on to another one.
The right way is to have an auction, where you gradually increase the incentives to deplane, starting with an additional free flight (which was the end offer by Clueless Pacific Blue), and adding flights, cash and hotel rooms until the next passengers take the bait. Then you pay everyone that chose to deplane the same amount - which is whatever the last person to accept an offer got.
It’s mments like these that define the difference between lousy and great companies. If the staf had got it right, it would mean not just that they were well trained, but that they were allowed to use common sense and to do ‘the right thing’. Any CEO worth his or her salt would immediately back up those staff, as long as customer satisfaction came first. As it is, I’ll never fly Pacific Blue now unless I am forced to.
Simply put - if you screw up you put it right, and “it’s the putting right that counts”. I have recurring nightmares about that last phrase after years of LV Martin ads across different media.
Spot on Lance! This is the best commentary on this shameful event I’ve read.
The airline industry seems to have developed a poor customer culture, where they think that because people are paying discounted prices, they can be treated however the airline likes. Selling seats for stupid promotional prices like $30, has not helped.
This culture is defined by a focus on post-September 11 security ridiculous-ness and silly procedure, where customer needs and service take a backseat to profit.
The recent news that AirNZ plans to drop it’s prices does not bring me on. Why should anyone expect to be able to travel on a plane for $30? What service can anyone expect when paying such obviously unsustainable prices?