They Really Didn't Want My Money

(This follows a piece of yesterday's post.  Reading that will fill in any gaps.)

All the relevant parties being vaccinated and on vacation and available for hugging, it was time to buy tickets to see our grandchildren.   My excitement was tempered with the overwhelming number of choices and decisions to be made.  Which airline?  Which airport?  Which days?  

I gathered my thoughts and my phone as TBG watched the NFL Draft, hour number nine zillion and twelve, and failed dramatically to purchase round trip airfare on Allegiant.  Yesterday's post was written before I rewarded myself by opening the tabs and choosing flights and dates and seats and once again being rejected.

After the third time the laptop reset itself to the box for my email and refused to accept the reservation, I began to take things personally.  The Live Chat Now told me it was my devices' faults and not their system at all.  Sometimes people have to clear their history and their caches and turn the computer off and then on again......  it was the on again that made me scream out loud.

Plus, the fares were now $400 more expensive than they had been when I started way back on Saturday night.  We began considering our options - wishing that COVID didn't preclude our taking the train from Midway to South Bend.  I decided to enjoy the sunshine and stopped trying.  

This morning, armed with an even more detailed description of my daughter and her family's activities for the foreseeable future, fortified by the hummingbird considering the crepe myrtle outside my window, on my turned off and then on again computer I logged on to my profile, chose flights and seats and used my points and my voucher (amazingly not rejected as it had been a few times during this odyssey) and was, once again, reset to the email box..... over and over and over every time I clicked on Purchase.

I dialed the appropriate phone number even though the Chat person said it was less busy between 9pm and 4am Pacific time,  She must be right.  I just got a busy signal, not even voice mail.

I was seriously pissed.  

Channeling all that energy into my iPad, I went through the very familiar steps, having memorized the voucher's numbers and letters by checking everything to be sure I hadn't made a mistake at every step along the way.  If nothing else, it was excellent mental exercise.

Miraculously, the price was lower than it was yesterday, and - even more miraculously - it stayed that way until I clicked on Purchase.... held my breath.... and was rewarded with a confirmation number and an email and an itinerary that only took five days and $200 to acquire.  

High speed rail is looking real good right now. 

A Happy Ending

Well, you were right.  I've never been so glad to have send a scathing email.  Allegiant Air has restored my faith in the business world.... at least, their little part of it.

After being poorly treated by flight attendants and encouraged to report the incident by you, my faithful denizens,  I put the matter behind me.  As usual, writing it down had taken the edge off the angst. I assumed my email would wind its way through a bureaucratic maze, resulting an nothing more than a we received your email and thanks for telling us response.

I was so wrong. 

I sent the email off on Thursday evening, less than 24 hours later I was on the phone with Adam G, a member of Allegiant's Management Review Team in Las Vegas.  Apparently, I ignited quite a firestorm with my little post.  "A lot of people have seen this," was one of the first things he told me.

I must credit Chris Elliot, the Travel Troubleshooter columnist whose run-to-the-rescue articles make me smile every Sunday in The Arizona Daily Star.  He lists the contacts for all sorts of companies on his website, and encourages people to document their issues in writing.  I found several big-shots at Allegiant, and cc'ed them all on a cover email (which included the names of those who'd offended us, which I didn't need to publicize to make my point in the posts) linking to the two blog posts I'd written.  Apparently, Mr. Elliot is correct when he says that those at the top will listen; at least it was true at Allegiant.

Adam G was incredible.  Kind, thoughtful, patient, funny, sympathetic, he used the word unacceptable in every third sentence.  This was not the kind of behavior Allegiant condoned, and he wanted to be sure that I knew that.  He wanted me to know that everyone, from Customer Care to In-Flight Services to the Management Review Team was upset about it.  

He told me that the issue had been discussed with the crew.  He told me that I was remarkably restrained in my response.  (That was the second time in two days people complimented me on being calm; there may be something to this for me in the long run.)  

We agreed that everyone is aggravated with the airlines these days, and I noted that I hadn't said anything about the seats that don't recline or the narrowness of those seats.  I knew what I was getting when I bought an Allegiant Air ticket - direct service to my desired location on an airplane that wouldn't fall out of the sky.  He was upset, on behalf of himself and his company, that polite was not part of my experience that day.  He said it often.  He said it with feeling.  There was no doubt that this was more than just a shut her up contact.  He cared.

We serve a wide variety of travelers, and we have to be aware that not everyone is having a good day.  There it is, in a nutshell.  

Plus, he gave me goodies!  I have a travel voucher and lots of points added to my credit card, both of which we'll use to visit FlapJilly.  But, as I said in my thank you emails to the Vice President of In-Flight Services and the Director of Customer Care, the stuff is less important than the message

That message was received loud and clear.  Allegiant was not proud of the behaviors we witnessed, and it did something about it.  That is corporate responsibility, customer service, and the right thing  to do.

I wish there were more I could do, but, as I told Adam G, our family already does most of its flying on Allegiant.  I can only share with you the facts as they unfolded, and leave you with the idea that there are some really good actors in the corporate world.  I was lucky enough to be cosseted by them last Friday.

I'm so happy that Allegiant is back to being my favorite way to fly.