~ Service ~

by Tina~in_ut

I've had my fill of flying lately~  Yesterday was my last flight for a while (I hope!).  I was waiting to board my flight home when I heard the gate agent try to stop a man from boarding with too many carry-on bags.  He stopped long enough to tell her that he was carrying his son's bag as well and kept going.  She called him back.  He wouldn't come back.  She kept walking toward him asking him to come back thru the jetway to the boarding area.  It took him forever to come back and work the whole thing out.  I didn't hear the outcome, but he acted like an ass toward the agent and was eventually able to board.

I was one of the last to get on the flight.  Right in front of me, the same gate agent stopped a woman from carrying on 3 bags.  As I passed her, she tried to talk the agent into "just letting her go this one time!"  She added that she's a Platinum member (someone who flies between 75,000 to 125,000 miles a year).  The agent was very polite both times, but stuck to her guns.  The flight was in danger of running late and we didn't have time for this.  The next thing I know as I'm entering the jetway, one of the pilots is carrying the coffee he had run out to get for the crew, and one of the lady's bags.  He completely diffused the situation, had the lady laughing, and as he made his way thru the line of passengers with his "coming through....wide load", he had the rest of us smiling.  Right then, I decided to send in a compliment for him.  I just had to get his name. 

Well that turned out to be easy.  Once everyone was on board, the same pilot, Harv, came into the cabin to say hello to those in first class, and the high fliers in the front of the coach cabin.  Since I was sitting in the second row of coach, I read his name tag.  He saw me staring at him and said, "Hello to you, young lady!"  I just smiled.

He is by far, the nicest and most engaging pilot I've ever encountered.  Most of them are so full of themselves that I just want to smack them.  And it didn't stop with just him.  He set the tone.  The flight attendants were fabulous too.  The two male flight attendants took care of the front and there was a female in the back that I didn't have any contact with.  Both guys were great.  Very friendly, smiled, listened.....I mean come on....one of them apologized to me for the delay in getting me my drink!  Everyone knows that Diet Coke takes FOREVER to fill in a cup cuz of the dang carbonation.  duh!!!~  I wish all our flight crews were like this, especially the flight crew on my outbound flight!  Then maybe, just maybe, we wouldn't be known as the airline with the worst customer service!  sigh~