Sunday, July 28, 2013

Traveling on a certain airline

As you are probably aware, I have done a good bit of flying.  And airlines are not created equal.  And unless you have spent the last ten years under a rock, airlines have changed.  Most now charge you for everything.  To take your luggage with you is a fee.  To have a meal on a flight generally involves a fee.  I know of an airline, haven't flown with them yet, which may charge you a fee based on your weight and the weight of your alleged free carry one.  And I don't really quibble with much of that.  I try to fly as luggage free, and fee free, as I possibly can.  


Ultimately, it comes down to providing a service.  Seriously we pay for them to take us, safely, to the places we want to go, or at least as close as they can get us.  Some of them seem to have forgotten that point.  But they are service providers, and we are receiving their service.  Now I will be the first to admit that people paying for and receiving a service can, on occasion, be as nasty as they can be, and there is no excuse for that.  Stranded in a city because of a weather flight delay, I had received a fistful of neat coupons from the airline, basically everything they could have thought to provide me with I had received.  The woman next to me was not as fortunate, and was given the bare bones.  When she quered my hand full of delight, she asked "why didn't I get all that?"  And I told her,  "maybe if you had been more pleasant, "  She had actually blamed the young person at the desk for the weather.  So okay I get that, but at a company level, my choosing you makes your profits possible.  


Now some get it.  And I will name names,,,  Korean Air.  Now I have only been on four Korean Air flights, but have logged about 50 hours with them.  Yep, that long flight from Dallas to Soeul, that.s a humdinger. Some of there sevice is clearly a part of there culture, but they understood being in the air together and how to make you as comfortable as possible.  But my personal favorite -- Southwest.  Yes, crazy Southwest.  Now I do admit the bus like atmosphere of their waiting areas and their crazy lets line up and get on board.  But under all that craziness, is an absolute desire to serve others.  It is in their corporate DNA.  Employees that do well in their structure are the ones that provide "service with a smile."


How could this possibly be a thin place?  I am coming to an understanding that we are all bascially providing a service, whether it is air travel or teaching, if we contact and connect with others in our daily journey then we are somehow being service providers,.  How am I going to be a person that doesn't hinder the walk of others, but becomes part of their conduit to heaven on earth?


How can I be a thin place?



No comments:

Post a Comment