I cant remember the last time I wrote something nice about an airline. Generally speaking, the loudest people are the pissed off people. Satisfied customers rarely make a lot of noise.
Waking up at 4am to catch a flight can screw up my entire day. I’m not a morning person. At all. Tack on a slow line at the ticket counter, security process as organized as a bunch of monkeys fucking a football, and more than a few grouchy people, and things proceeded downhill quickly.
I rarely fly Continental. Especially now that they’re not an Alaska partner. This trip was last minute, however, so I didn’t have much choice. All I wanted to do was get on the plane and sleep from Philly to Houston. I didn’t find anywhere between security and my gate where I could buy a bottle of Coke Zero, so there was no way I was going to stay awake. I boarded the plane with one of the last groups (another downside to not flying an Alaska partner–my elite status doesn’t mean shit,) and settled into my window seat.
I was asleep before the plane left the ground.
When I woke up a half-hour later, I saw the drink cart… Finally, my morning Coke. The seat next to me was empty. Things were starting to look up.
I remember flying back in the day when airlines offered complimentary meals. The first time I flew was a trip from Great Falls to Bismarck 1993. I don’t remember which airline I was on, but I do remember getting a free lunch. It wasn’t until I moved to Oregon in ’96 that I flew again–a quick trip from Portland to Spokane. They had a cart at the top of the jetway full of bag lunches. It was just a given that if you were going to be airborne during a normal mealtime you’d get fed. For free.
Now, unless you’re in first class, a bag of peanuts or pretzels that wouldn’t fill a hamster is the typical complimentary “meal”. Soft drinks and juice are still free, my standard in-flight vodka tonic runs about $7. The food that is available for purchase is often just a “snack box”… A box of assorted nuts, chips, dried fruit, etc.
Not so on Continental. In addition to a full can of Diet Coke, I was served a complimentary bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios and a granola bar. Did you catch the keyword there? COMPLIMENTARY… As in, free… Like the good ol’ days. It may not sound like much, but a bowl of Cheerios, a 4oz. carton of milk, granola bar, and a full can of Diet Coke is so much better than a bag of nuts and a small cup of Coke. I don’t know what it costs Continental to offer complimentary meals to its customers, or how it affects the cost of their ticket prices, but I hope they are able to stick with it. Other airlines could learn a thing or two about such a simple gesture.
It’s the little things that add up when we’re talking about customer service. I don’t need grand gestures, just a bowl of Cheerios in the morning. Kudos to you, Continental.
