Who Cares?

When my daughter tapped into the US Airways kiosk at LaGuardia Airport, a screen came up informing her that she was too late to check in for her flight. This was perplexing because she was an hour early and this was just a shuttle. A closer look indicated that US Airways had made a mistake — according to the kiosk she was booked on the 3:00 pm flight but in fact she had a confirmed, printed reservation for the 4:00 pm flight. US Air’s response? A shrug.

Unfortunately, the 4:00 pm was fully booked so she’d have to take the 5:00 pm. The guy behind the counter said he had no idea why there was a discrepancy, that it must be a computer glitch of some kind. His supervisor said the same thing. Nothing could be done about it. Well, how about compensation of some kind, even a small gesture to show they care? Hah! US Airways’s indifference would be remarkable if it weren’t so typical.

It was quite a different story a few days earlier, when my computer’s hard-drive crashed. No warning — nothing. When I booted it up it just dropped dead, like a heart attack. My trusty Mac had let me down. The remarkable part of the story is that the guy at the Apple Store told me I shouldn’t buy my new drive from him, that I could get a bigger drive, cheaper, elsewhere. I bought the drive from him anyway. Yes, it’s true: Failure is a pivot point of loyalty. (your thoughts?) PS: Back up your hard drive — now! ~ Tim Manners, editor.