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I recently had the opportunity to
fly a new airline called Skybus. They are a startup
based out of Columbus Ohio. They fly into Portsmouth New
Hampshire which is just a 45 minute drive from the Portland
area, and about the same from Boston. Their business
model is they fly only point to point. There are no connecting
flights. Twice a day a plane flies from Columbus to
Portsmouth and back. That's it. They do the same
to several other cities.
Their corporate staff has several people who served at
Southwest Airlines, and Ryanair for quite a few years, so I
thought these folks would understand operating a discount
airline that provides good service and low prices. I was
right.
On my recent trip to Ohio, I
flew out on a Thursday evening and returned Sunday night.
Night in this case was the operative word. Our flight
was scheduled to leave Columbus at 7 pm and arrive in
Portsmouth about 8:30. When I arrived at the gate on
Sunday evening around 6pm. I learned (along with about 140
other people) that our plane had a mechanical problem and
could not fly. That's when the fun began.
Naturally a lot of people were
upset, and a huge throng immediately gathered around the gate
attendant. I felt bad for her because she had just
learned of the problem and now had to immediately deal with
it. She did. She calmly explained the problem,
listened to the chatter of several upset customers at one
time, and clearly explained the situation as best she could.
Within a few minutes she also had several viable options for
our crazed crowd. We could take another flight the next
day, we could cancel our flight and get our money back and
then be free to see what another airline may have available,
or we could wait for a later plane. None of the options
were great, but that's what we had to deal with.
I was impressed by the fact
that she took the time to talk with each passenger that had a
question, and she remained calm and professional throughout
the process. My attitude is that sometimes "Stuff
Happens" and you have to go with the flow. I chose to
wait for the next available plane, We flew out at 3 am
and I was home in bed by 6 in the morning. I was up by
nine for the day.
The lesson here: The gate
attendant did a good job of communicating with us, she gave us
the straight scoop....No BS...she kept here sense of humor,
(more than some of our crowd) and we were presented with what
I thought were the best choices available. I plan to fly
Skybus again.
I also learned that 3 hours of
sleep did not hurt my golf game later that day....it was
mediocre as usual. |
