Airlines, kingly customers and the Nigerian experience

On November 26, 2011, Mrs Salamatu Lami Yusuf sat in a waiting lounge of John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York, anticipating her con­necting flight to Washington DC with a Delta Airlines ticket, on a journey that had commenced from her country, Nigeria, on board the Emirates Airline. Jetlagged from the first leg of her journey, she dozed off into a slumber, so deep that she could not hear any of the broadcasts calling on passengers on her flight for boarding.

She woke up later, startled that her flight details had disappeared from the giant schedule-monitor hanging overhead, strongly sug­gesting that the flight was already gone. The airline officials had a la­borious, but successful task of calm­ing down an agitated woman who believed that the airline didn’t do enough search to fish out the miss­ing passenger before departure. Having been scheduled to attend a training programme the follow­ing morning in Washington DC, her frustration had heightened on learning that there was no other flight scheduled to her destination for that day, as explained by the air­line officials.

She was asked to wait for a mo­ment while the officials, having tak­en responsibility for the problem, swung into a beehive of actions in an attempt to remedy the situation. For all the attention and treatment that she got henceforth, she could have been Nigeria’s First Lady or even the Queen of England.

She didn’t wait for long before an airline official came with in­structions delivered intermittent­ly with apologies: A taxi would be waiting to take her to Doublethree Hotel, where she would be given ac­commodation and made comforta­ble – all services paid up by the air­line; the taxi would pick her up the following morning and take her to the airport where she would board a plane to Washington DC – if she didn’t mind.

All instructions were carried out as described – with bonuses. The five-star hotel continued the queen­ly treatment, handing out many vouchers to their guest for all sorts of treats – to her awe. In that Eldora­do, she had forgotten what the prob­lem was with the airline!

The taxi was punctual the follow­ing morning. She was chauffeured to another airport different from the one earlier scheduled. She didn’t wait for long before her flight was announced and an airline official took her away for boarding – again with apologies. The VIP treatment was as awesome as it was becoming confusing and suspicious. All air­line staff, even the pilots, swarmed around her courteously – still with apologies. Even inanimate objects also apologized to her, as her new ticket pouch boldly stated in print, “OUR APPOLOGIES”. Could they have mistaken her for someone else, VVIP? Where were they taking her to? Was something sinister fishy? Stuff like this happened only in the movies, she thought. However, she was enjoying herself, though anx­ious to see how the series would end.

“Wait a minute! Where are other passengers on this flight?” she won­dered as the aircraft began to taxi for take-off. To Lami’s amazement, the air hostess replied with a smile, “Ma’am, it’s our pleasure to inform you that you are the only passenger on this flight…”

Delta Airline flew Mrs. Lami from New York, as a lone passenger in that passenger aircraft to Reagan Airport, Washington DC, just to show loy­alty and retain her as their custom­er! Most importantly, she was right in time for her training programme.

Reality check, Nigeria

The narrative above, which de­scribes a typical situation in which the customer is king, throws up many issues and problems which characterize the local air travel ex­perience in Nigeria, where passen­gers are at the mercy of local airlines with regards to their itinerary and time of travel – a situation that is aid­ed by poor regulation and supervi­sion by airport authorities, and also passengers’ passiveness or ignorance over their rights and benefits.

Regular local air travellers in Ni­geria will agree on the existence of a myriad of issues and problems that are mostly encountered with local airlines in Nigeria such as: Sudden rescheduling of flights without good notice and reasons (if any); cancella­tion of flights without sufficient rea­sons, palliatives or compensation; rigorous procedure for refund; flight delays after check-in without good reasons and apologies; non-recovery of tickets to missed flights; selling of air tickets online to passengers for unscheduled flights; landing passen­gers without landing their luggage; merging of different flight into one with attendant delays for some pas­sengers; non-announcement or un­clear broadcast of flight schedules at the waiting hall, leaving passengers at the mercy of their clairaudient and telepathic skills; to mention but a few. It is common at the Nigerian local airports to behold embarrass­ing scenes of a group of passengers having a squabble or heated dispute with airline officials over a schedule or flight problem which could have been prevented or resolved through a proactive and efficient process, while airport authorities appear lost on ways to effectively mediate on the issues and/or enforce compliance. The only thing that seems to work just fine is the cashpoint. The beg­garly behaviour of some uniformed officers at the airport is an entire sto­ry for another day.

At the backdrop of some of those highlighted issues is the hostility of airlines officials to passengers/customers, from one point of ser­vice to the other. Condemnable, in this regard, is a trend of aloofness of front-office airline officials from their back-office or management – a bad practice which usually leaves passengers helpless with unresolved travel problems that could have been resolved with an exchange of phone calls, emails or online chats between the front desk officers and the back-office/management. Desk officers seem to prefer “discharging” or dismissing their customers with unresolved issues to doing their best possible in ensuring that they (cus­tomers) leave with relief and a smile. They probably know that the back-office and management do not like to be ‘troubled’.