United Airlines: Conditioning Your Customers to Expect Less
Paul Greenberg wrote a lengthy piece about his complex relationship with United Airlines and their potential for service downgrading as a result of the merger with Continental. But…I still fly United. I like to say that the reason I fly United is because I’m already so vested in the frequent flier program that I just [...]
United Airlines – Redemption or More of the Usual
As you probably know, by now, I’ve been a none too happy United Airlines flyer for many years, usually working to the point I get to a Premier Executive status and then I start flying other airlines. I’ve spent a lot of time using United Airlines a…
Rearden and Southwest Team Up — A Prescient Spend Management Travel Combination
Earlier today, Rearden Commerce (click here to see our recent commentary on this unique provider you should know about if you don’t already: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3) announced it was teaming with Southwest Airlines to expose “d…
Eat That Cookie! & What I learned from a chance meeting at the airport
Service organizations can have toxic qualities and some of these are indeed changeable. Positive attitudes can be transformative. If your service organization isn’t all it should be, here is a very personal story and a review of a book that can change the business results your firm experiences.
The Southwest Airlines excerpts
I saw Jan Marshall, CIO of Southwest Airlines present this morning at the Tibco TUCON conference about sophisticated events-based functionality in baggage tracking and customer communications. On the flight back, I saw a column in the in-flight Spirit magazine by its CEO, Gary Kelly which was titled “Technology is our friend”. That is quite a [...]
Travel Tuesday: The Supply Risk of Market Consolidation and Air Travel – US Airways and United
As I got ready for a trip to Philadelphia this week and investigated my travel options, three choices emerged with any regular frequency — United, US Airways and Southwest. All the tickets, about a week in advance, were about $500 and change, or roughly 2X what I’ve paid in the not-so-distant past (a sign certain [...]
Bad Processes? Great Service Makes Up For A Lot
Every process blogger loves to write about their own good and bad process experiences, and I’m no exception. This weekend has been a case of incredibly bad processes, but really good customer service that made up for it. I’m stuck in Frankfurt on my way back to Toronto, and I’m actually not unhappy at all, [...]
Giving disruptors a bad name
This blog celebrates disruptors and on a couple of occasions in the past I have mentioned Ryanair as one. Now I regret having done so. They developed an operationally efficient airline like Southwest and passed along savings to consumers. But…
