A few days ago I had to fly one of my least favorite brands. Let's call it Del. My favorite airline brand did not fly to and from my business destination. Let's call it Southwest Airlines. Days before, during and after my trip, there were snow storms throughout the United States, making travel difficult for everyone. Passengers, airline employees, airport personnel and others had to endure challenging times.
The day I was to return home, the ripples from previous day's flight cancellations were still hampering travel. Before heading to the airport I figured I might be one of those affected. I was right. While on my plane, the captain announced that there was a "mechanical" problem and that our departure would be delayed. Check. After about an hour or so, the captain mentioned that there would be another delay and that we would need to board another flight with the same aircraft model at another gate. Check.
What no one mentioned, did not know or did not want anyone else to know until we started boarding the other plane was that the new plane was a smaller plane with less first class and economy rows. Check. You can imagine the panic that entered the employees and passengers minds when that missing fact was discovered. At which time the gate agent announced general seating. Check. You can imagine the panic that the flight attendants (or cargo loaders) experienced when she made that announcement.
These are just some of the silly situations that made a challenging situation more tense for everyone involved with Del that day. It occurred to me between stress sessions that Del simply does not have an internal brand strategy that allows everyone to make decisions on-brand, not off-brain, especially in a crisis. Interesting that Del's tagline is Building a Better Airline, Not Just a Bigger One. That is weird even if they had a brand strategy.
Del, remember, it's about the people. And I don't mean those guys in the military garb that sit in the cockpit. I am talking about your other employees and your passengers. Del, you can be honest with people and simply inform them that your system is still backed logged from weather problems and that you are doing the best you can, and ask for everyone's patience. You do not need to be compelled to using 20th century terms like mechanical problems and I hate to tell you this but...
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