Bad Service or Bad Standards? The State of Today’s In-Flight Customer Service

I just completed a 24 hour transatlantic journey with Karam (my 2-year old son for you newbies to Momaboard). I flew from San Francisco to Frankfurt on United and then from Frankfurt to Mumbai on Lufthansa. This was a particularly grueling journey because Karam is at an age where sitting still for more than 10 minutes is virtually impossible and I am five months pregnant. Luckily, I had my nanny traveling with me to lighten the load. Literally.

With 18 hours of flying time, I had plenty of opportunity to ponder over the small things airports and airlines could have done to make my journey easier. But reality for the most part scraped the absolute basics of customer acknowledgment (in sharp contrast to service), and I was left wondering, is this bad service or is this just the standard we should come to expect from airlines these days? Here’s a recap of what we experienced:

Our check-in process was amazing : the United representative was genuinely apologetic that they couldn’t upgrade me because of a lack of availability in business class, and tried very hard to find us a seating configuration that would give us most comfort. Mind you, this was all because we were at the 1K desk because of my husband’s status with Star Alliance. I shudder to think what would have happened if we had checked in at the common people’s desk.

The stewardess on the United flight we boarded was very pleasant and immediately guided us to our seats with an encouraging “stretch out” as soon as she saw my baby bump. But the pleasantness was all she seemed capable of doing, actually appearing limited by the system more than anything else. For example, I asked if a toddler meal had been reserved for Karam and she said it was something that we had to do before hand. Fair enough, may have slipped my mind because he is such an easy eater. But she did add: “They don’t know if he’s 2 or 22 when you book”. Not entirely true because it’s a different (lower) fare. A minor tweak to the database that would automatically assign a kid’s meal to children as identified by their age or by the 10% discount in their fare would just make things so much easier. But no one’s thought of that apparently.

Karam slept through this controversial lunch and something inside me told me not to wait for the next meal service even though we were about 2.5 hours away from landing. I was right. On a 10 hour international flight, we were served one hot meal and a “no choice” breakfast of a danish, a yogurt and a banana, which meant that we skipped dinner at our departure city, and were given the most minimal meal they could get away with before letting us off at our destination. Karam got cold, leftover pasta. Not sure which one was better.

More fun awaited us upon arrival. The captain announced that we would be landing at a “remote” gate which meant deplaning via steps into almost freezing temperatures and boarding a bus to a terminal and another flight of steps. Hmm.. tough to do with a 3 carry-ons (which the only able bodied person in our party would have to handle), a stroller, a baby, and a pregnant lady. I called the stewardess and said that we would need some assistance getting of the plane, to which she asked, “What kind of assistance?” I explained that we needed help with our bags and she said “We don’t do that, you can ask ground staff”. Umm.. ground staff is on the ground lady, that’s the whole point!

So I approached a man in United staff uniform who was seated in the row in front of us (our original seats btw, but we didn’t mind moving one row behind since he had already settled in before we boarded). He actually sighed and begrudgingly nodded his head like I had asked him to accompany me to hospital and massage my back though 36 hours of labor. I was pretty disgusted with his attitude – you are in uniform so your actions cannot completely be disassociated from the company and any decent human being would be willing to help in our situation. Plus you are in my seat, jerk!

The grand finale was that as we landed the captain announced that all children had to be sitting up, which I understand because of the arm rests, etc. but also that they had to be “wearing all their items: clothes, shoes and socks”. Whaa? I would get “pack up all your belongings and loose items like shoes and sweaters”, but they “have” to be wearing them? Is this some sort of airline dress code mandate? In a final act of defiance I hobbled down the stairs with my 30 lb son in one arm waving his Nike sneakers conspicuously in the other.

Our second flight on Lufthansa was definitely better, but not by that much. They were more sensitive to our particular needs like bringing me a bottle of water to keep me hydrated and giving Karam a jigsaw puzzle. She even smiled when he watched the pieces come apart and said “It’s broken!”.

Neither of the planes had in-seat entertainment which felt very 1990′s, and thank God for the iPad. But I made it to my final destination with a nagging feeling. Neither of my experiences were horrible or egregious. But the airplane staff was so comfortable delivering the minimum possible standards of service, it’s obviously become status quo, and I for one am having a hard time accepting that. I will continue to demand what I think I deserve as a full paying customer, and to seek out providers who will give it to me. And keep you posted of course.

Happy Weekend, and if you happen to be on a plane, speak up and ask for what you need. Or you ain’t getting it.