How a company handles a bad situation is the key to maintaining customers, which I experienced first hand this past weekend. Due to a death in my immediate family, I had to fly to San Antonio from TX. I searched high and low for a reasonable rate, which was a challenge when buying a ticket at the last minute. I finally found a ticket on American Airlines that had times that fit my schedule needs. That was a load off my mind – at least temporarily.

Right after my purchase, the airline started pulling their MD 80’s out of service leaving a ripple affect across the country and horror stories being told on the news of upset customers, crammed airports, etc. A sinking feeling began to set in, but I was not leaving for a few days so I felt things had to work themselves out.

Long story short, they were still cancelling flights up to the day I left. However, what I experienced when I got to the Columbus, OH airport, Dallas and San Antonio was an airline that displayed calm and a great deal of class. The airline stepped up and were willing to place people on other airlines in the event they had hesitation to fly on an MD 80.

After the funeral, I got to the San Antonio airport early for my flight and was approached by a gate agent to see if I wanted to get on an earlier flight so I wouldn’t have to rush to my connecting flight in Dallas.

I did not experience any employee pointing fingers at the FAA or blaming others. They took an unfortunate situation, dealt with it, and had made attempts to satisfy as many customers as they could under the circumstances. They took efforts to reduce the black eye that the airline industry was already dealing with up to this situation.

Hats off to you American Airlines for taking customer service to the next level despite a bad situation. Taking an unfortunate event can sometimes be a good thing for a company from a customer service perspective. It helps set you apart from your competitors by showing your customers your commitment to your customers.