ACI-NA members are dedicated to providing the best customer service for passengers! Thank you to the Miami International Airport team for going above and beyond to help a family in need. After being stranded in the airport, the team ensured the family were housed, fed, and on the next flight out. Congrats to those involved on their well-deserved Employee of the Month awards! 🌟✈️ https://lnkd.in/es-qi27r
Congratulations to all! Great team work done by wonderful people.
How do we define and compare outstanding service versus unacceptable shocking service? Let me provide a simple example to illustrate: Outstanding Service - You call an airline, and the phone is answered promptly, or you send an email and receive a timely reply, thank you Airlink Shocking Service - Imagine calling Virgin Atlantic and spending hours on the phone without any human answering or resolving your query. Frustrating, isn't it? From personal experience, the lack of manners and respect for customers extends from the ground to the air, as encountered with rude cabin crew on a JNB / LHR flight. This disrespectful attitude seems to be pervasive among the staff. Despite facing mobile costs and multiple setbacks, including incorrect ticket bookings and unprepared Passenger Name Records, the expectation of waiting 24 hours for a resolution is simply unacceptable. All passengers desire is efficient service after paying substantial amounts for their tickets. In such instances, it becomes evident why one may question choosing to fly with Virgin Atlantic. 21h22 - Held for 1 hour 10 min, no response 22h53 - Held for 46 minutes, no repsonse 00h02 - Held for 10 minutes, call answerd, they cut me off 00h12 - Held for 15 minutes, call answered to be told I have to call back as ticket is not ready to be issued Marc Harding Laurn Baldwin Steve Ridgway Estelle Hollingsworth Corneel Koster Siobhan Fitzpatrick Liezl Gericke Shai Weiss Juha Jarvinen #tickets #Travel #Flights #Hotels #London #Johannesburg #Service #DiabolicalService #Frustrating
When Airlines Roll Out the Red Carpet Bonnie Crawford was in danger of missing a connecting flight last week when a United Airlines rep rebooked her on a pricey Air Canada flight for free. Why? She has United's exclusive Global Services status, reserved for top spenders. This semi-secret status offers perks like expedited customer service, automatic rebooking, lounge access, and luxury transfers. Similar programs exist at American (ConciergeKey) and Delta (Delta 360°). Airlines don’t reveal qualification criteria, but high spending (over $50,000 annually) and frequent international travel in premium cabins are common traits among members. Key Perks: - Priority Assistance: Quick help during travel disruptions. - Luxury Transfers: Chauffeured rides to the gate. - Exclusive Customer Service: Immediate responses and resolutions. These elite statuses, though shrouded in mystery, provide unparalleled convenience and comfort for the most valued flyers. #TravelPerks #AirlineLoyalty #FrequentFlyer #Travel #Aviation
Growth Advisor for Electro-Mechanical Projects. Consultant for Project/ Contract/ Operation Management.
Customer "end to end" experience. on this subject, I will first give background. I have been a frequent traveller of #emiratesairline for past 9 years, so have travelled many other International airlines. somehow I developed liking for couple of them #emirates , #qatarairways and #gulfair . last experience making me convinced #emiratesdontflybetter. They don't get tired saying #emiratesflybetter. i travelled on 18th December, 2023, Mumbai-Dubai and had issue with seat allocation. Issue listed below. Customer Care executive helpless. wrote mail as probable "Grievance " on 23rd Dec. Automated reply, will come back in 30 days. Today time over being 24th January, 2024. As expected no revert. I am more than convinced my so called "Greivance" is lost among many other serious complaints and will never get revert as they are more than sure who will wait for 30 days. Well , this is one part. Bigger question related to hospitality industry. Which customer will hold you in high esteem? The one who has had good experience which is short living or the one who had issue but resolved beyond his expectation. You may be world leader, please remember the world is shrinking and customer expectation going up rapidly. #emirates #cutomerexperience #frustrated #ceoemirates
Growth Advisor for Electro-Mechanical Projects. Consultant for Project/ Contract/ Operation Management.
#EmiratesDontFlyBetter My wife (60) and I (63) booked and paid for the seats, as we wanted seats closer to the exit. The purpose was to avoid my wife walking much due to her foot and knee injury. We were deeply disappointed by the kind of service Emirates provided this time. Neither did we get the seats we had purchased, nor were we intimated of this change of seats during check-in. Upon asking, rather questioning, that these were not the seats we booked, we were ignored. The staff was quite rude and inconsiderate during the check-in process. Many airlines willingly accommodate senior citizens for the additional weight of check-in baggage, which unfortunately was not done by the airline. This was unfortunate as I mentioned that my wife had an injury, and to top it off, she also had to walk up to aisle 45 where our new seats were allocated, at the tail end of the aircraft. At the counter, since the person who checked-us in did not inform us of the change of seats, this came as a rude shock to us upon entering the aircraft. Being a frequent flyer and a once Skyward member as well, I did not expect this sort of unprofessional behaviour and lack of hospitality from an airline that boasts itself of providing top-notch sky hospitality. I've never had to face such a rude adjustment during my in-flight experience. After raising the concern on 23rd December, today on 28th we have just received a standard response that they will get back to us in 30 days. #customerservicefail #emiratesflybetter Emirates
Vanderlubbe Unpacks TICO Refund Rules for Air Canada Vacations, Should Pilots Strike Canadians who booked trips with Air Canada Vacations are eligible for full refunds if there’s a pilot’s strike or job action at Air Canada, TICO says. Richard Vanderlubbe of TripCentral ca offers tips for advisors. #traveladvisors #tripcentral #aircanada #pilotstrike #TICO #passengerprotection #refunds #cancellations
Great success
May was United Airlines’ tenth month in a row ranking among the best in on-time departures. 🎉 It was also our busiest May and busiest Memorial Day weekend on record, and the weather didn’t make it any easier for multiple of our hub airports. To put it in perspective, more than 30% of Chicago’s operational hours were impacted by weather over the holiday weekend, but only 3% of our flights were canceled. And that’s not all I’m proud of. We also saw our highest May NPS score post-pandemic — a testament to our resilient employees who take care of customers and each other.
Check baggage recovery at its best
Along with Julianna Hill, our CEO in the USA, we were delighted to have welcomed Matthew Forman and Biddy Kemery from Blue Ribbon Bags to our Miami travel trade event last week. Their presence allowed us to showcase the incredible benefits of the Blue Ribbon Bags delayed baggage service, which we include with every ticket issued on our APG Network 275/GP interline code.
🟡 Marketing | Communications | Engagement 🟡 Winner AMI Certified Practising Marketer of the Year 🟡 Chief Executive Women Scholar 🟡 Non-Executive Director 🟡 Expert Author Community 🟡
Qantas lost us. From brand advocate to detractor in less than a working day. Booked flight to New York via Melbourne last year for this coming May. Got a message this morning to say flight was changed. From landing to connecting flight now only 55 mins on the ground in Melbourne to disembark, change terminals, clear customs and get to the gate. Phoned Qantas. Asked for an alternative flight when it was confirmed by the staff member that making the connection with the time allowed was now going to be impossible. Informed by staff member that no alternatives were available on that day or the preceding days. What to do? Could see online that alternative seats were available for sale. Pointed this out to Qantas staff. Asked them to sort out an issue they had created. After all their job is to get people to the place they have bought a ticket for ~ right? Escalation to supervisor. No solution could be found. Stood firm. Reminded them it was their job to find a solution to a problem they had created. Rinse and repeat. Stayed on the phone. One hour later secured an alternative flight. So grateful my husband has run large scale sales teams and contact centres because I would have had, quite literally, no hope. #customerexperience #customer #customerfeedback #customerservice
Hotel Marketing CMO | Saving busy hoteliers' time and money while driving revenue results. 13+ years of delivering marketing solutions that get more bookings at a fraction of the cost of big agencies.
The 2 lessons I learned from 2 United Airlines flights yesterday. It's not what you may be thinking. I flew from Kalispell, MT, to Denver and then to Nashville with United Airlines. The weather wasn't great. The winds were howling. Storms were across the country. For the first leg of the flight, the incoming plane was late due to high winds, which meant that departure from Montana was nearly 30 minutes late. You could pick out the passengers who had connecting flights in Denver by the stress and worry on their faces. We've all felt that. ***Here comes learning lesson #1: Tapping into collective empathy The boarding gate announcement went something like this. "Together, we are going to make up time. Please organize the items you would like to have in your seat now. Pack up all items that will be going in the overhead bin before boarding. Take your seat as quickly as possible and allow your fellow passenger to get to their seat." The message: consider others, and we will all get there faster. Brilliant. Tap into the collective empathy. Best boarding ever. ***Learning lesson #2: Transparency Have you ever been on a flight that was late and you didn't know why? Have you ever sat on the tarmac wondering what was going on? After getting to our seats, the Captain's address came on. It went like this, "I've been crossing the US today and have had to go through several storms. We will do our best to get you to Nashville on time, but for your comfort, we may choose to go around the storm because, well, it's nasty out there." Could the Captain have said..."winds are XYZ knots from the southeast, etc. Yep, but no one would have understood or cared. In short: Speak to people, not at them. Use common language to increase understanding. Hotels! Keep this in mind when handling crises, challenges, even amenity closures. An empathetic, sincere letter goes further than "sorry for the inconvenience." Airlines and hospitality - two words that aren't often in the same sentence. Well done, United Airlines - you've got some great people working for you. TL:DR We all do better together when we seek to understand and share sincerely to be understood. #hotelmarketing #marketing #hospitality #hotels
Airline industry executive with 30 years’ experience in leadership, commercial and operational roles
It’s a 50th birthday celebration today – for an airline, since British Airways officially came into being on 1 April 1974. Although it might not have a corporate celebration – it could be a tough gig for comms folks when you celebrated your ancestral 100th birthday five years ago – it’s a milestone worth marking. Especially so when measured by yardsticks of Pan Am, Sabena, East African, Swissair, Eastern Air Lines and now Air Malta. A dig around this weekend unearthed the very first BA timetables for 1974 – when the “World’s Favourite Airline” actually did fly around the world, although it probably wasn’t a hugely economic exercise to do so, even then. Three times a week, the BA591 westabout VC10 set off from Heathrow via New York JFK, Los Angeles, Honolulu, Nandi and Sydney to Melbourne. Another VC10 set off eastabout to Melbourne – typically via Frankfurt, Doha, Calcutta and Singapore. Some excursion: the VC10 which left London at 13:00 on Tuesday would arrive back at Heathrow from this epic trip at 21:50 on Friday evening. Blantyre saw a weekly VC10 service (via Nicosia and Nairobi); Rangoon also had a weekly VC10 service via Rome, Dhahran, Abu Dhabi and Calcutta, then continuing to Hong Kong. Darwin saw four BA flights a week; Bandar Seri Begawan and Kuala Lumpur were connected - with KL rejoining the BA network later this year. Lusaka, Dar-es-Salaam, Auckland, Entebbe? No problem: “We’ll take more care of you”. Even in 1974, airlines were in the ancillary revenue game. You could select your seat on a BA Trident departing from London to Belfast, Edinburgh or Glasgow for a £2 fee (£26 in today’s money). Today’s charges are good value by that measure. Not so for others. The 1974 BA timetable helpfully lists car parking options: at Heathrow, it was 65p to park for a day (equivalent to £8.49 today), and for short-term parking, you’d be set back by 5p for 30 minutes (65p in today’s money). Cor blimey. One of the most surprising things is a reduction in service to Germany. In 1974, Heathrow-Dusseldorf saw three BA Tridents each day; by 1994, four daily 757s. Fast forward to 2024, and most days see just two A320 roundtrips. Flights to Bremen have disappeared; Hamburg, Hannover and Stuttgart have grown and then shrunk. It’s a hint that this market holds little in the way of profitability for BA today. Spare a thought for 1974’s travellers though. 1970s gourmet in-flight dining might be a thing of the past, but thankfully, so is the in-flight entertainment. On 747s and 707-336s (entertainment wasn’t available on other long-haul types), the timetable lists April’s movie as the snappily-titled “A Tall Blonde Man with One Black Shoe”. The French spy-comedy was such a box-office smash that if you’re on today’s BA590 - no longer a worldwide expedition on a VC10 but a more mundane A320 from Heathrow to Milan Malpensa - you couldn’t even download it to your iPad for a nostalgic watch. Probably just as well. Happy 50th, BA.
Senior Sales & Business Development Leader | Revenue Producer | Strategic Thinker | Pipeline Growth Expert | International Territory Executive | University Student & Young Professional Mentor
Please SHARE this post. They say that long flight delays bring out the worst in people. While I certainly have seen many examples of that in my decades of business travel, sometimes the opposite happens. Sometimes, people shine. Take yesterday, for example. Despite multiple multi-hour weather delays across two airports, I saw: 1. A businessman reading to a child that was not his, just to give the Mother a chance to feed her other child. 2. Several of us giving up hard to find seats to provide them to some older travelers. 3. An agent at the American Airlines Admirals club working tirelessly to solve my ticketing issue caused by a "glitch in their system" 4. The pilot of our delayed flight coming out to the gate to explain exactly what was happening and taking the time to answer all of our questions. 5. Passengers actually remaining in their seats so that others with tight connections could get off first. 6. People placing their bags on the floor rather than taking up a seat at the gate. 7. Even the woman who was truly flabbergasted that the gate agent tried to assign her a coach seat made many of us smile ("I do not sit in coach", was her comment I will not soon forget). The last 24 hours were not pleasant, but could have been much worse, were it not for the decision of so many of my fellow passengers to just be decent human beings in light of a situation completely out of their control. Thank you. #humanity #customerservice #airport #airtravel
Customer Experince - Dammam Airports Company (DACO)
2moWell done! Really great job 👏🏻 👏🏻 👏🏻