Alex Hopmann’s Blog

Amazing. A friend just booked a flight on American and they booked her through Dallas Fort-Worth with a 40-minute layover. Considering that they give your seats away 30 min before the “flight time”, close the doors 20 minutes before the flight time, and that it usually takes a minimum of 15 minutes to get between gates there (30-40 if you don’t do a full out run) this is crazy.

I CAN’T BELIEVE THESE GUYS ARE STILL IN BUSINESS. The only explanation is to again recall that these policies are designed to be intentionally consumer unfriendly by forcing you to miss flights and thus helping them avoid bump-charges.

A few weeks ago we flew out to Washington DC. This time we took Alaska Airlines. So same pair of airports (Seatac, National). But the difference couldn’t be more striking. The Alaska flights were non-stop. The airplanes were in good condition compared to the American ones. The staff was friendly and helpful- this guy had forgotten his day-planner at the check-in station, and not only did they make 3 announcements in the gate area for him, but they actually brought it down through security so he wouldn’t have to run back to the check-in area and back through security. The cabin crew was nice, the pilots gave us helpful advice. And we were a few minutes late into Seattle so they asked people who didn’t have connections to let the 17 folks with tight connections off first.

Now, let me be clear. It probably doesn’t actually make a real world difference. But if you are that person stressing about your connection, just the simple fact that the crew is expressing sympathy and a desire to help with your plight makes 1000% difference in how you feel about the situation. After letting the folks with connections off I thanked the crew as we left- they said that what they did was against policy. And its a shame that its against policy, but the more important thing is that their employees aren’t taking their frustration out on customers and actually seem to recall they are in a service industry. They were friendly and helpful. And that makes all the difference.