Last night I was flying back home from Chicago to Hartford. Due to the weather, it should have been a full flight. As we were boarding the co pilot told the flight attendants there were people banging on the window who wanted to get on this flight. The gate agents told the co pilot they could not reopen the gate, they would get in trouble. The co pilot told the gate agent there were open seats and with the weather we need to accomodate as many people as we can. The gate agents said no, they would not help. Instead of helping people who needed help, the gate agents stayed on the plane telling passengers to sit down so we could leave "on time".
We left on time and landed in Hartford, but as we were flying I couldn't help but think of those people stranded back in Chicago.
When those gate agents came back into the terminal can you imagine what may have happened? I've seen it before and it's not very pretty. People can get pretty angry especially when the plane is still sitting there in front of them and the gate agents are telling them they can't reopen the gate.
Who do you think those passengers will blame? Yep, the airline. The co pilot, the flight attendants and even the pilot tried to convince the gate agents to let more people on the plane.
Who are your front line people? When your clients call, who do they talk to first? Do you provide First Class service, or Limited service?
