
Southwest Airlines pilot holds plane for murder victim’s family - yock
http://www.consumertraveler.com/today/southwest-airlines-pilot-holds-plane-for-murder-victim%E2%80%99s-family/
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rewind
Although I commend Southwest and everyone involved, I'm more bothered by why
he couldn't have been afforded even basic additional attention to get him on
the flight on time without having to delay take-off. I'm not saying they did
the wrong thing, but once you delay a previously on-time flight, you start
affecting other people on that flight who might have tight connections.

The fact that they couldn't get him pushed through in the two hours he was
there before the flight is the problem. The pilot just fixed the problem that
shouldn't have been an issue in the first place. The entire support/service
system let this guy down until the very last possible moment.

~~~
watchandwait
Do not complain about a two-hour security line for a domestic flight. Do you
want the terrorists to win? I will wait 15 hours and submit to a TSA full body
cavity search if it makes the flight safer.

~~~
nanexcool
Some may argue that waiting 15 hours and being submitted to a cavity search
means the terrorists have already won.

~~~
Natsu
It's hard to know these days, especially online, but my sarcasm detector went
off for the grandparent post.

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donohoe
Google cache link:
[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?sourceid=chrome...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=cache:http://www.consumertraveler.com/today/southwest-
airlines-pilot-holds-plane-for-murder-victim%25E2%2580%2599s-family/)

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scottyallen
This is a great example of what happens when you give your employees the
freedom and authority to do what they think is right, instead of enforcing a
blanket set of rules. People are naturally compassionate and willing to do
extraordinary things. It often is mostly a matter of getting out of their way
to let them do what comes naturally, and rewarding them when they do something
amazing.

Imagine what his experience would have been like had the other people he'd
encountered had felt similarly empowered.

------
edw519
Chicken: Does great customer service make a company great or does a great
company insist on great customer service?

Egg: Who cares?

I aspire to build a company with raving fans like Southwest's.

Nice story. Thank you, OP.

~~~
symesc
Well put.

And all great companies have great people, which is yet another chicken/egg
question.

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meterplech
Incredible story. So happy this pilot got the proper recognition and
appreciate he deserved, instead of scolding him for making the plane late.
Southwest really is just far and away the best run airline of its class. They
don't treat the people who fly on the airline like crap, and they are rewarded
for it.

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phuff
This kind of story does a lot to assuage the sort of misanthropic "it's-end-
of-the-world-and-people-don't-care-about-each-other" feeling I normally get
when often dealing with big corporations. It's awesome to know that people
still do the right thing to help other people even when those helpful things
might inconvenience their business. It's just heartwarming.

Also, it makes good business sense. Especially for Southwest to say they're
"proud" of the pilot for doing it. They ought to be proud. It shows they
actually care, and that's what builds long term relationships with customers.

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rookie
Looks like it's already loading slow.

Alternate source: [http://www.elliott.org/blog/southwest-airlines-pilot-
holds-p...](http://www.elliott.org/blog/southwest-airlines-pilot-holds-plane-
for-murder-victims-family/)

------
mrkurt
So I think the bigger story here is not that the pilot held the flight
(really, it's not all that exceptional for a pilot to hold a flight for a late
arriving passenger), but that Southwest is sophisticated enough to relay "hey,
this dude's grandson was just murdered" to the pilots and flight crew.

It's also worth stating that even though other pilots on other airlines
_would_ have done the same thing, good for that particular pilot for doing it
on that particular day.

------
nopal
If only every employee was so empowered to provide such a high level of
customer service.

------
aneth
I fly Southwest almost exclusively because their policies make me feel like a
human - particularly their no-change-fee / full-credit policy. Don't charge me
$100 for changing an entry in your database!

~~~
acangiano
> Don't charge me $100 for changing an entry in your database!

Maybe they use Oracle. :-P

------
msmith
This is not hacker news.

~~~
scotch_drinker
Short version: Given the fact that it's sitting on top of the front page with
87 points, the community seems to disagree.

Long version: I don't specifically come to HN to read about why Google stopped
doing something with H-2xx in Chrome. I don't specifically come to HN to read
about Clojure 1.2. I don't specifically come to HN to read about a fantastic
human interest story based on excellent customer service and human decency.
What I do come to HN for is the over all quality of the content whether it's
technical in nature or not.

It is an extremely narrow view to hope that articles submitted to HN are only
technical or related to whatever narrow "belongs on HN" viewpoint you hold. I
enjoy reading about Clojure but I also enjoy reading about a tiny little thing
going right for humanity because one person (and by extension a huge company)
did what was right and I think the community at large does as well.

~~~
nir
>Given the fact that it's sitting on top of the front page with 87 points, the
community seems to disagree

Since we can't downmod, it just means 87 people in the community were really
moved and upvoted.

I don't think HN should be strictly tech either (though I do absolutely think
"how I built/sold X" is much better than "here's my opinion on Y"), but I
don't see how this story is HN material.

~~~
scotch_drinker
>Since we can't downmod, it just means 87 people in the community were really
moved and upvoted.

Sure but certainly that's one of the risks you accept as a community member
here.

The guidelines here say "Anything that would gratify one's intellectual
curiosity". Maybe it's a stretch but I have intellectual curiosity about how
businesses treat their customers. Seeing a large, successful corporation like
Southwest treat a customer with dignity and humanity satisfies my curiosity in
the same way. Granted, this is a very specific case but I think the concept is
generalized to the bigger picture. It just happens to be wrapped up in a
reasonably heartwarming anecdote.

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shasta
What a coincidence that Nancy was the step-mother of the ticketing agent!

~~~
brown9-2
The storytelling isn't very clear, but I think the author meant she is the
step-mother of the mother/daughter that lost the 3-year old son.

