Excellent Customer Service

Crews Letter #2007 01 Excellent Customer Service

When the best of plans go to hell in a hand basket,

Good technical people are cool, collected and find a way.

Good Morning Ladies and Gentlemen:

We have settled in for our seventh season in the Med. Perception wintered well and she is in order, almost. The Cruise Plan is taking shape.

The flight from Dallas to Marmaris was not without problems. A light rain in Chicago was sufficient opportunity for the flight controllers to slow down the system. We think they are trying to get someone’s attention. The pilot kept telling us it was not much of a problem, as we sat, not so patiently, on the tarmac at DFW.

The following is a letter we sent American Airlines and Turkish Air. It tells the tale.

Dear Sir:

Our congratulations to you for the quality performance of your team. Given a less than an ideal situation, they provided excellent customer service.

The plan was

2007

DFW

ORD

IST

DLM

Wed,28 Mar.

1205

1425

AA2344

1700

AA6002

Thu, 29 Mar.

1200

TK #6

1720

1840

TK218

In execution, some bad weather in Chicago Wednesday morning held our flight on the ground in Dallas 3½ hours past scheduled departure. We landed in Chicago in time to see Turkish Air #6 still at the gate. The absence of any assistance from American Airlines personnel and long lines for the RED Phones at the Transfer Center seemed good reason to proceed to the International Terminal and the Turkish Air Desk. From the tram, we watched TK#6 taxi out to a runway. Next flight is Friday. Today is Wednesday. At the Turkish Air desk, we were sent back to American Airlines International Ticketing.

There we met Monika Postenak. She was truly a miracle worker. She ticketed us to Frankfurt on American Airlines, Frankfurt to Istanbul on Lufthansa and Istanbul to Dalaman on Turkish Air. She started the baggage guys looking for our luggage to get it routed to Dalaman the same way we were going.

It is hard to imagine how checked baggage ever gets where it is supposed to go. Watch travelers in an airport as they scurry from counter to gate. Watch them making connections from gate to gate or gate to another terminal to gate. Know that these travelers have some intelligence and motivation. It is hard to understand that the corresponding luggage, with neither intelligence nor motivation of its own, gets on the same plane.

Somewhere in the bowels of O’Hare, someone when asked, went looking for and found four of our five bags. These four bags were rerouted. He must have done this in very short order. We were rushed to make the departure. These bags got as far as Istanbul with us. There they fell through a crack.

Turkish Air and Çelebi personnel, Mehmet and Ömur, in Dalaman took ownership of our problem. Turkish Air called on Friday to explain that a Customs issue required that we drive back to the airport to clear Customs. The 200 km round trip was an inconvenience. Having our stuff was worth it. Turkish Air personnel met us at the airport and walked us through the process. The quality of the service was excellent. Even the Customs Officer was not too grumpy. That was Friday.

On Sunday morning, Turkish Air called to say the fifth bag was at Dalaman Airport. It had cleared Customs. They delivered it here in Marmaris 2 hours later.

A look at its baggage ticket shows it waited in Chicago for the Friday flight, TK#6.

For a while Wednesday afternoon, we thought we would be waiting with it.

Thanks again. Please see that these actions are properly noted in your personnel’s’ records.

Sincerely,

Phyl and Fred Denton

It is not fun to be held captive on a plane on the ground so management will see good metrics and flight controllers can ask for a raise. Nor is it fun to see from the ground your scheduled flight take off. Explaining that you are old and bring eight months of medication is not much fun either. Americans take way too many pills!

But, we are here. Some very good people in some key places made it happen.

Steady, as she goes,

Phyl & Fred

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