Weather Happens!

If anything brings out the Grinch in people its weather delays. It’s December 16^th. It’s snowy and icy in several of the major cities major cities along the east coast. Flights are being delayed and canceled. Thus travel plans are being short circuited. All this equals highly stressed and irritated passengers.  But what are the airlines/airports to do???

Well it depends on who you listen to. As I set at the gate an announcement is made “Flight xxxx has not left their airport because of weather. It appears that they will arrive at least an hour late. Please come to the counter if you have any questions or need any assistance.” If you travel as much as I do this is not an unusual situation to be in. Maybe because I do travel frequently I know this is going to happen. I try to plan my travels to include time for just such situations. Especially in December in the Northeast or Northern Midwest states.

As I sat and watched people (one of my favorite past times in the airport) I couldn’t help but over hear the conversation at the counter. The passenger was really upset because the flight was going to be late and they might miss their connecting flight. As I listened further I learned that her (we’ll call her Ms. M) plans included her husband, son and mother. They were going to a graduation of one of her other children. The airline representative informed her that there weren’t any other seats available at this time but they could guarantee them a seat on an early flight the next day. Ms. M went on to lecture the representative on the fact that they had been waiting there for 6 hours on standby (because their earlier flight had been canceled) and now the airline was suggesting that she take her family home and get up at 1:00am to come back to the airport. “Would you want to do that to your mother?” she asked repeatedly. Along with trying to make them feel bad because Grandma was going to miss the graduation.

Now I realize this was a tough situation however what was the airline to do part the skies and melt all the snow and ice so the plane could magically appear at the gate? Were they to create an extra plane, get a flight crew, plan the flight, register it with the FAA , and the airports in the next 30 minutes? I am sure she would have said yes to all of these.

Why do we expect that all our problems can be made to go away if we are condescending and arrogant with people who are trying to help? Are we the only people that are having issues? Maybe someone else has a more serious reason for getting to their location? When did we become such a rude society? I watch several people go to through the line and treat the representatives as if the representative was purposefully trying to ruin their lives. Did they really want all the flights to go out as scheduled? If the flights did take off as scheduled, when they really shouldn’t have, and an accident happened then everyone would sue the airlines for making a bad decision. Do travelers not realize that winter weather happens?

Maybe instead of getting pushy and obnoxious when things don’t go as planned we should take a breath and work with people to find solutions to the problems.Especially the ones that no one can control. Last time I checked no one can control the weather. There are things in your organization that you cannot control (like a break down in equipment, illness, etc.). Some of these situation require all the creative juices you can pull together to overcome. Getting angry and stressed will not help the situation. In fact it usually makes the situation worse. I have to give credit to the United Airlines staff for keeping their cool and working as efficiently as possible to get people to their desired destinations. My trip took 6 hours longer than I had planned but the important point is that I made it home safely. Thanks United Airlines.

Merry Christmas to all and safe travels!