The “Miracle on the Hudson” January 15th, 2009. Although the event will forever be ingrained in our; and certainly the passengers of Flight 1549’s minds, business realities of how to deal with the situation in terms of customer satisfaction come into the equation once the dust has settled, and everyone was confirmed safe (thankfully all of them are)
Behind board room doors, the fundamental question to be tabled and focused on in the wake of disaster is:
“What are we going to do for these people in the wake of this near fatal experience they endured?”
The reality and short answer of this question is: No matter how much or how little the hand extended will be, the offer will never be right.
Opinions will be divided even with the individuals reading this post, let alone how the situation was handled, and that’s ok, because like the challenge put forward to US Airways - there really is no right or wrong answer.
Dealing with these types of situations, the important factor organizations need to take into account beyond their balance sheets is public perception and how the form of compassion & compensation is associated to the overall “perception” of the brand or airline. In this particular case, the conclusion was $5,000 and privilege to US Airways Chairman Preferred club. The perks include among other things: automatic upgrades on mainland domestic flights, two upgrades on overseas flights, access to a special reservations number and double miles on every flight for survivors through March 2010.
Many reports show the general public is outraged with the compensation and even survivors of the “Miracle on the Hudson” have been quoted to say “the temporary tease of first-class perks is for the birds”
My Thoughts?
I believe the cash portion of compensation was in line with what would be deemed fair to the organization and the passengers involved. The reality many airlines are currently faced with is that they are cash starved and simply cannot fork over the hard dollars. That being said, if cash was not available the other forms of satisfaction then become drawn into the spotlight IMMEDIATELY.
The Chairman’s club offer went sideways the second they tacked on an expiry date and if I was consulting on the matter I would have encouraged a longer duration to be associated to these 150 people than 12 months if at all. Certainly airline rewards come with a price and are in fact the most costly form of customer satisfaction for an airline, however, it probably would have avoided the negative press and perceived lack of caring to the passengers.
