It's OK To Be Assertive

2010-08-26,

Midwest Airlines is using your good nature against you. At least this is what I have found from my experience today.

As I write this, I am sitting in a bar on a layover at the Milwaukee airport next to the gate having a Newcastle. It's not a bad place or anything, but it's not where I want to or planned to be. I'm supposed to be nearly to Dallas by now, where my family that I haven't seen for many months and I would be going to dinner. I have only a few days there before I fly back to Michigan to start grad school.

My second flight is delayed for four hours because a mechanical failure is delaying my flight crew. This means I can't have dinner with my family tonight (one of the four evenings I would have had in Dallas), and it's neither my fault nor the fault of Nature.

Long and boring story short: it's the policy of the airline to reimburse you the passenger for the cost of your time. But apparently, it is also the policy of the airline to not give you that reimbursement unless you make a fuss about it. I first got my ticket changed to a slightly earlier flight, and no mention or offer of the reimbursement was made. I decided I wanted to try to get on an earlier Southwest Airlines flight, so I went down to the ticketing counter to ask about a credit, and the first person said she could not issue reimbursements and that I had to call the airline. After 15 minutes waiting on hold, I was told that I had to talk to the ticket counter. After several minutes of "assertive conversation" with a second agent, I was finally informed that I was entitled to a $100 credit reimbursement for my long delay.

What the hell? This is actually what made me the most upset. Why? Because there were dozens of people in my situation that hadn't been informed of their entitlement to reimbursement of opportunity cost that would never be receiving their credit because they didn't go through the effort.

I turned to my left after the agent left and saw a passenger that was in the exact same situation as myself. When I informed this guy that he was entitled to $100 for his trouble, he said "I don't want to be a bother." Unfortunately, I think this is what most of the other people on the scheduled flight would have said, and I think the airline knows it and even counts on it.

I believe that by nature, 99% of people are good. If you treat others with respect and decency, they will do the same for you. People don't want to seem pushy because they don't want people to be pushy towards them.

Were all the agents just stupid? Hell no! It's not the agents' fault. I'd bet the agents are trained by the airline to follow a specific script and only give that reimbursement information when engaged. In today's business world, every action and policy is put through a focus group and and a simulation and run by countless consultants before being put into action. So if the airline isn't just stupid, they must be evil.

The bottom line: don't be timid when interacting with businesses! Be courteous and assertive to the people you're interacting with... it's not their policies that are trying to screw you and there's nothing they can do about it.