Last night's Delta cattle car...

OK. So I flew on an airline today. So yes, it is no surprise that this is a post about customer service.

I had to fly to Las Vegas to do a little business and attend a wedding. Living in Atlanta, I flew Delta. So, greetings from seat 35A.

And my seatmate says hello too. (Delta thought it would be fun to pair the two tallest guys on the plane right next to each other…)

While this post may seem to be a hit on Delta, it likely represents most airlines. Most I say, there are some airlines that are profitable. I better understand why.

But three things happened. Three things, in my opinion, that shouldn’t have happened. Three things that left me as a customer, stressed and frustrated.

One, when I booked my reservation, Delta didn’t give me a seat assignment. When I checked in, I was instructed to go to my gate to get my assignment. Why?

This doesn’t happen all the time, but often enough that I got really frustrated about what it meant. Stress. (Did they overbook?)

Now I asked several Delta employees the reason for this, and got no explanation. Why not? Tell me the story. I might understand. And at least I would have answers. Instead? I’m blogging and tweeting my frustrations.

Two, when I finally did get to my gate to get my seat assignment, I was forced to deal with a gate agent who could not have cared less that I was frustrated. Not one bit. Not one damn bit. She acted as if she had total job security. I mean, I don’t think she would have acted any differently if her supervisor was standing behind me in line…

When she ultimately got me my boarding pass, she hit two buttons on a keyboard and the thing printed in seconds. Yet she made me wait over five minutes whilst she messed with other paperwork. Never mind the growing, tense line behind me.

(The only benefit to my five+ minute wait was that I had more than enough time to tweet my Delta frustrations…)

Third. In the air, 31,000 feet. So my seatmate needed to use a credit card to pay for stuff. His headset, his meal, and his drinks. Early in the flight when they were passing around the headsets ($2) he said he only had credit, and the flight attendant said to use the honor system and tell her about it later when he bought snacks and cocktails.

So after he ordered his drinks and she was conducting the transaction, he reminds her of the $2 headset. She had forgotten them, but actually canceled the transaction to redo it including the $2. (She actually said, “Good boy! Good job remembering!”)

Maybe if I was looking at Delta’s balance sheets every day I would feel differently, but I can’t believe she didn’t comp him the headset, especially since he proved to be an honorable fellow.

Am I nuts here? $2 for a crap headset? And even after he spent one thousand dollars on a plastic container with three grapes, four crackers, and a slice of apple. And drinks. And a damn plane ticket.

Delta, for God’s sake, empower that flight attendant to comp a $2 headset…

The lessons for you here?

1. When you have a policy that ends up agitating your customer – have an answer that explains why. Give them a reason why. We’ll probably understand. And if you don’t have an answer, then you probably shouldn’t be doing it.

2. Really profound here, but treat your customers with respect. Don’t be rude. Care, or at least pretend you care. Treating them wrong leaves such a bad taste…

3. Don’t nickle and dime your customers. But more importantly, reward honorable behavior. Trust me, this goes a long way towards building a little customer loyalty. Especially when you need it, like airlines.

I hope you apply these experiences in ways to improve your customer experience. Thanks for letting me vent about my flight experience. I look forward to writing a post about a positive experience on an airline.

But I trust I will have to come up with other topics in the interim…

Be Intrepid.