The man, whose grandson had been murdered only days earlier, arrived two hours early for his domestic flight. Thanks to the complete indifference of the security staff he encountered, he was given no assistance as he struggled to make it through security in time for takeoff. Finally, having arrived at his gate in his bare feet, 12 minutes late, he was greeted with the following: “Are you Mark? We held the plane for you and we’re so sorry about the loss of your grandson.”
The pilot, informed of the family’s loss, had delayed the flight by 12 minutes to allow the man to board. When the man’s family thanked the pilot, he, in a line that I’m sure will be delivered in the film version by John Hamm, replied only: “They can’t go anywhere without me and I wasn’t going anywhere without you. Now relax. We’ll get you there. And again, I’m so sorry.”
It’s not often you get to call an airline classy – or really anything other than completely awful, but way to be the exception Southwest. [Elliott via Consumerist]
Photo by gTarded
nawww
Thursday, January 13, 2011 at 10:24 AMThe world needs more people like this.
Shane
Thursday, January 13, 2011 at 11:11 AM+100 to that
wsDK_II
Thursday, January 13, 2011 at 12:03 PMhear hear!
Shane
Thursday, January 13, 2011 at 11:12 AMIt’s nice to be reminded that we live in a world of people, but time tables, schedules and metrics
Steve
Thursday, January 13, 2011 at 12:25 PMgood advertising for the airline too!
Keith R. Kelley
Thursday, January 13, 2011 at 12:30 PMThat is what is called “Compassion”, but I wonder if the airline saw it that way. I hope so for the pilot’s sake.
P4ND4
Thursday, January 13, 2011 at 12:33 PMGive that man a new!
Steve
Thursday, January 13, 2011 at 11:05 PMThere’s no H in the Jon of Jon Hamm.
LucasF
Sunday, January 16, 2011 at 2:51 PMYay! Good 1, Evil 0.