From Los Angeles to London I had the treat of flying under the command of United Airlines Captain Alberto Diaz, who is not just the star of United’s current safety video but a wonderful man who showed such genuine empathy and conscientious customer service when we encountered an extended mechanical delay.
Captain Alberto Diaz Of United Airlines: An Amazing Gentleman
You’ll recognize Captain Diaz from the current safety video:
But he’s not just a captain (recently promoted from a 737 to a 787): he also runs airport operations at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). And I quickly could see why.
We boarded our flight to London on time and Captain Diaz welcomed us onboard, but then came back a bit later and apologized preemptively for a looming delay. He explained that the firmware on the 787-9 aircraft had to be updated. This process ended up taking about three hours.
Rather than hide in the flight deck, Diaz rounded the cabin, speaking to passengers.
We were allowed to exit the aircraft, but had to remain on the jetbridge. Captain Diaz did not have such a restriction and left to get some coffee. My wife and I were standing on the jet bridge with our kids and he stopped and said, “Can I get you anything? Maybe a cappuccino?”
What a kind gesture.
Later on (for this was toward the start of the delay), we had a great conversation with Diaz spanning a wide-range of subjects. His wife and my wife share a lot in common and the delay just flew by.
Diaz is a Cuban immigrant with a compelling life story. He grew up just a few paces from me in Burbank, California. He was handed nothing, but his diligence and hard work have paid off:
He is the American story.
A word on the delay and customer service. With Diaz not only keeping us updated, but going through the cabin (even to the rear of the aircraft) and talking to passengers, the delay became far less annoying. Diaz showed how delays can be perfect opportunities for customer service to shine. You’d think many would walk away complaining about United and how silly it was that the software update was not performed earlier, but instead, you had people walking away praising Captain Diaz.
And the entire crew on the flight was great. For example, the pursuer David Leonard delivered hand-written notes to the 1K and Global Services members onboard before landing in London:
What a beautiful touch.
I’ll chronicle the flight details in my coming flight review, but the takeaway from the flight was how great customer service makes all the difference when a delay occurs.
OK – nice guy. But who let several hundred people board an aircraft needing a 3 hour firmware upgrade?
Yes, that’s a great point. sounds like LTA preparation by United.
I really think it was a situation like we sometimes get on our phones or computers – we keep hitting “later” and it goes away for a bit, but suddenly it becomes required to proceed. I certainly would not blame this flight crew.
Another United cluster…
Reminds me of people talking about being on flights with Sully back in the day. That said, some (Opie & Anthony) reported the plane was intentionally dumped in the Hudson so he could throw his laptop discretely in the water as it was due to be turned in upon arrival.
I personally don’t believe that story but it is certainly an interesting theory.
What was on his laptop?
I assume for liable reasons they never exactly said but certainly they implied it was something he didn’t want his employer to find on it. But like Stern at the time, they said plenty of things that wouldn’t fly today and were just for shock value.
If every crew member could be so relatable and kind in a delay, passengers would be certainly more accepting that stuff happens. It’s just nice to know that people acknowledge your temporary inconvenience.
Like every major U.S. airline United has some truly superb people as this clearly illustrates. It’s a shame that top management is not attuned to the passengers though. If United could again (like Oscar) get a CEO that would build an airline people wanted to fly then you could have capable bean counters like Kirby handling purely financial matters.
Super neat – when I worked at a commercial airline, my job surrounded the strategy & execution of disruptive weather events. When the weather had passed, long after my bedtime, I often helped stranded passengers waiting in line. In a way I felt a little responsible. People sometimes told me I was the only helpful person that day. Incredibly sad, but airlines stay afloat on mandatory overtime.
Did they give any reason for not letting you off the jet bridge? I guess they didn’t want to deal with the off-scanning and re-boarding, especially with bags if anyone didn’t return. Though your delay didn’t cross 4 hours, I wonder if DOT would consider that a “deplanement” for long tarmac purposes.
It seems craazy they wouldn’t let you off the jet bridge. I had to make an emergency landing in the 80s and we were able to get off the plane and hang in the terminal before getting back on.
The whole immigrant thing is a bore. Immigrants aren’t better than native borns and really immigration needs to be curtailed.
Immigrating from Cuba is rather unique.
How funny! Just last week I flew Virgin LHR-SFO. I saw another celebrity captain in T3 and I went off to the lounge. After boarding “Hi, I am captain Chris….”
I asked if the FAs if that was the Captain Chris. Sure enough it was. We ended up chatting for an hour in the lounge on board while he was on break. Got a nice post flight cockpit tour.