We at Elite are extremely excited about this opportunity and look forward to continuing to provide Omni with the best possible training solutions.

The question we at Elite would like to have answered is:  As a consumer, do you find this practice to be fair or would you rather know the real cost of the ticket up front?

My compliments to the 30,000+ employees at Southwest Airlines for providing consistent quality service.   Working within the airline industry, you find a lot of people with opinions of Southwest and it’s business model.  Though there are thousands of people who don’t like the planes or the way they board them, very few ever have anything negative to say about the customer service that airline provides.

Here is the article from the Wichita Eagle.  Definitely worth a quick read.

Each time something big or embarrassing hits the media, the typical reaction is to make a policy or bring serious light to a policy that’s already in place.  Is there a “No Fighting” policy within the company training syllabus?  If you were the CEO of a company, what actions would you take within your company if you had two employees competing for for Heavyweight Championship in front of your customers?

If you are highly frustrated with the actions of the government, fight with your voices and your votes. Violence or flying planes into buildings isn’t going to fix a damn thing.  As a matter of fact, violent actions will only end in more regulations for those innocent and potentially frustrated fellow pilots you leave behind.  There are currently thousands of pilots in the country who love the freedom to take off into the skies and enjoy all that the atmosphere has to offer.   Please, just remember what it was like when you started flying.  Remember the joy and the freedom that you experienced when you took your first solo flight.  Think about the days when you could spend less and fly more, or when  you flew slow just because you didn’t want to land too soon.  Earning a pilot’s license is one of the greatest accomplishments that so many of us hold dear to our hearts.  Don’t be selfish and cut short those same dreams and emotions that new pilots would love to experience.  By committing a violent act, you are not “Teaching” the people who caused grief any “Lessons.”  After all, how many times before you has some idiot done something violent or stupid and you had to pay the price.  You’ve got a voice and you’ve to a vote.  For the sake of all of your fellow airmen who still passionately love to fly, use the voice and the vote to their greatest capacity and let the rest of us enjoy the sky as you once did.

Best Regards,

The pilots who love the freedom to fly and hate the regulations that keep holding us back.

@Southwestair responded and apologized via Twitter to Kevin Smith.   This was a way they could do some damage control given how many people view their tweets as well as the followers of Kevin Smith.  Unfortunately for United Airlines, they responded conventionally to the guitar victim.  Millions of people have no idea that United not only sent an apology letter, but they also bought the guy a brand new guitar. The world is becoming more transparent and businesses that will continue to respond to service failures that become highly public must also be ready to resolve them in a more public manner.  This should be a wake up call to any of us who provide a product or service.  This wake up call is also not limited to companies as individuals can quickly be deep fried and served up on a plate of public humiliation.  Since we are all imperfect and human, we’re all eligible for potential disgrace.  Being ready to respond to a public smack down based on something you did actually do, by understanding the power of social media will at least give you a leg up when it comes time to clean up.  If you’re being obliterated publicly for something you didn’t do, well, there are always eager trial lawyers waiting in the wings.