I’m glad that American Airlines learned something from the two recent viral incidents that United Airlines woefully mishandled. At least it knows how to apologize.
Earlier today I wrote about another onboard altercation that has gone viral this morning. Unlike two recent incidents on Delta and United, a FA appears to be responsible for this incident.
But let’s be real–facts often don’t matter. The video and initial narratives from onboard passengers are enough to crucify the FA no matter what happened before the camera started filming. AA is smart to realize this and quickly issued the following statement on a page entitled “crisis alert”–
We have seen the video and have already started an investigation to obtain the facts. What we see on this video does not reflect our values or how we care for our customers. We are deeply sorry for the pain we have caused this passenger and her family and to any other customers affected by the incident. We are making sure all of her family’s needs are being met while she is in our care. After electing to take another flight, we are taking special care of her and her family and upgrading them to first class for the remainder of their international trip.
The actions of our team member captured here do not appear to reflect patience or empathy, two values necessary for customer care. In short, we are disappointed by these actions. The American team member has been removed from duty while we immediately investigate this incident.”
Three Things AA Does Well
AA does three things well here. First, it apologizes unequivocally. Stating “we are deeply sorry for the pain we have caused” is so much better than the usual sorry if we offended you line. Second, it has acted decisively. The statement came out quickly and the FA has been removed from duty. Third, AA showed compassion. Whatever happened was clearly traumatic for the mother of twins. AA says is upgraded the family to first class for the remainder of their international trip. That’s great customer service.
So from the start, AA is showing that it can handle controversy better than United.
CONCLUSION
AA learned from the mistake of United and acted to quickly diffuse the situation. We’ll see over the next couple days if this story dies or proliferates, but for now AA is doing all it can to minimize damage.
I’m not sure if the guy in the blue shirt was crew or a gate agent, or what precipitated the situation, but the guy was out of line in how he interacted with the male passenger. You never, ever, engage the way he did. If it had gone pear shaped, it’d have been because he failed.
++ to the Captain. Even though he didn’t do anything overt, he was front and center watching what was going on. I wonder how much his AAR to Corporate influenced their response.
Why do people care how United/AA actually responds. They are just responding how they know the public wants them to. In general people are pretty stupid to give a crap either way. American DOES NOT care.
It’s not really fair to compare the incidents. In this case it’s pretty apparent that regardless of the ultimate investigation the employee was way overboard in his response and thus the airline is clearly in the wrong, so of course they must apologize.
In United’s case the passenger was the one refusing to get off the plan – whether it be for a relevant reason or not – and it was the police that were involved with him being injured and removed from the plane. Ultimately i would say the passenger caused far more of an issue by refusing to get off the flight, than United did by offloading him.
I suppose that calling the police to kick off paying customers is an acceptable behaviour for you.
Whether for a relevant reason or not, I mean.
When they upgraded the family to first class for their international leg, I wonder who they dragged off the plane to accommodate them 🙂
The sad fact is that if the UA incident had never happened the AA FA probably would have called the cops who would have dragged the mother holding the baby off the plane and smashed the good Samaritan over the head with the stroller.
Seems to me a pretty darn apathetic Captain looking on at what is CLEARLY a traumatized mother of two young wailing children. What are the Captains’ prime responsibilities for their passenger and crew safety? Is there one? Whatever the reason, American Airlines obviously doesn’t understand the concept of customer satisfaction. As the largest US airline company, AA seems to behave like it is doing their paying passengers a favor to fly with them.