September 9, 1994
Frank M. Cumbert
Vice President, Customer Services
American West Airlines
4000 East Sky Harbor Boulevard
Phoenix, AZ 85034
Dear Mr. Cumbert:
I was on board Flight #564 on April 23. I appreciate your letter of April 29. Thank you for your personal apology.
However, your description of the “creeping delay” of Flight #564 doesn’t begin to express my discomfort, inconvenience and hardship. Mechanical postponements are difficult to estimate accurately, I’m sure, but there was an hour or more when zero mechanical work was being accomplished, none at all. Your boarding personnel acted quite like this was the first time in their careers such a delay had occurred. By the time we were offered unattractive alternatives, your airline’s response was a classic case of way too little, way too late. Certainly too expensive for me and much too inadequate. So, I waited. Trapped.
When Flight #564 at long last finally arrived at its destination, I had already missed my connections. Behind schedule. In the middle of the night, I climbed off Flight #564 in Las Vegas and was immediately taken into custody by two uniformed – and armed – officers. My airline tickets, identification and wallet were confiscated. Rudely. I was presumed guilty. I was held until a witness was brought forward and, no, I was not the guy who had assaulted a woman on another concourse. Confirming my own suspicion. A classic case of mistaken identity. In the middle of night in Las Vegas because American West couldn’t get the job done. Exhausted.
My next flight was a few hours off, so I was forced to wait in the Las Vegas airport. Just between you and me, the airport is an inhospitable pit at 4 a.m. Not the kind of place I want to spend any time, let alone the middle of the night. Stranded. Again.
In truth, the remainder of my trip didn’t improve much. I was so delayed, my friend was unable to pick me up at my final destination. Basically, a complete nightmare from Orlando to Portland. I sensed throughout the experience, the worst flight in a long, long travel career, American West couldn’t care less about its passengers. Like we were an unavoidable afterthought American West must endure in the normal course of business. Cattle.
A couple months later, my father suffered a massive coronary. He underwent a quadruple bypass, suffered a couple of strokes. The phone rings, it’s Mom, “you’d better come, looks like he won’t make it,” she says. I call a couple of airlines. In my panic, I should have known better, I guess, one of them is American West, the number was handy. A woman named Lois quotes me a round-trip to Tampa for $1100. I explain the situation and ask for some manner of emergency discount. She says such a discount is possible only if my father dies, then I can apply for a 10% refund.
No death, no discount. I flew another airline for $700, because emergencies, by definition, are for the living. The dead are in no hurry.
Dad didn’t die. After ten weeks in the hospital, cost $77,000+, they must have given him a quantity rate, he’s at home. He’s moved from a walker to a cane, and he’s already talking about bowling again with the boys. “The boys” are about 80-years-old, and he’ll never be able to keep score again, but it’s his big dream. Mom is already talking about my next visit, how soon can I be there? Good question. I haven’t yet paid off my last trip. Voodoo economics are still trickling down on me.
I might just be desperate enough to again fly American West. After all, I have a $100 transportation voucher, which you sent to me “as a special expression of goodwill.” While a $100 transportation voucher with no cash value doesn’t begin to compensate me for my unfortunate episode with your airline, I am not too proud to use it. Nervous, but not proud.
I have tried to put the nightmare known as Flight #564 behind me. Block it out like childhood abuse. But the idea of a corporate apology of no cash value and a time limit, I find that intriguing. Especially the time limit. My question, if you’ve been kind enough to read this far, is: why does your “special expression of goodwill” expire six months after the issue date? Why put a limit on your “special expression of goodwill?”
I wouldn’t be surprised to learn airline food has a longer shelf life.
Mr. Cumbert, thank you for listening.
Respectfully,
Jack D. Welch