ata airfare increase

[4formickey]

Last month ,we booked with ata for $350 roundtrip for 2. This morning the fare was up to $1,500.The cost of the airfare now is more than the cruise. It is amazing that the price of airfare is going up. Book as soon as you can!

 

[staylor]

Did you look at Southwest?

 

[pooh luver]

When I started looking to book air before Christmas it seemed like the price jumped everytime I looked. I was waiting for it to go down. Southwest finally came on with the dates I needed so booked right away. Southwest was at least $150 per ticket than anyone else.

 

[4formickey]

after watching swa tv show ,i would be hard press to fly with them.They really treat their customer bad. As much as we fly I haven't seen an airline act like them. I hope that the things that they show are a small edited segments that they blow up to make it look like big every day events

 

[996turbos]

I've watched those shows as well and IMHO they deal well with a wide variety of people that are in a stressful situation. They also have to maintain a degree of control given the service they provide. Yes that means saying no sometimes but some of those people I would prefer not be let on an airliner flying a long distance in a confined space with me. All and all I think they do well. I've been in a customer service buisness for 25 years and find that most of those poor situation arise from customer ignorence of what the job requires, or unreasonable customer demands. Yes there are times that the service agent needs to be tune up, if you will, but in my experiance the ratio is 3 to 1. Thats why customer communication and education is so important. I think you get more flies with honey than vinager. Some may say the squeeky wheel gets the grease, but in China the says is "the proud nail gets hammered down". Lets all move to China shall we? LOL! Just my opinion .

ps: Just to keep this post Disney related, I think the cruise staff is a great example of fantastic customer service. I've used some of thier approch in my own customer care situations as well. It all starts with a smile!

 

[inkkognito]

Don't let that show influence you too much. We fly out of Midway a couple times a month on ATA, and often we've either passed Southwest or been sitting near one of their gates while it is being film. From what I've seen, many of the incidents are "enhanced" for television. The people know they are being filmed and therefore react in certain ways. Don't take it as reality.
Barb

 

[CarolA]

I would not base my decsions on a TV show. Let's get real... why would a TV producer have ANY incentive to show you nice situations, where is the drama in that? Would you watch? I mean the whole point of most of these so called reality shows is to show people being cutthroat and mean.

 

[HappyLawyer]

I've watched those shows as well and IMHO they deal well with a wide variety of people that are in a stressful situation. They also have to maintain a degree of control given the service they provide. Yes that means saying no sometimes but some of those people I would prefer not be let on an airliner flying a long distance in a confined space with me. All and all I think they do well. I've been in a customer service buisness for 25 years and find that most of those poor situation arise from customer ignorence of what the job requires, or unreasonable customer demands. Yes there are times that the service agent needs to be tune up, if you will, but in my experiance the ratio is 3 to 1. Thats why customer communication and education is so important. I think you get more flies with honey than vinager. Some may say the squeeky wheel gets the grease, but in China the says is "the proud nail gets hammered down". Lets all move to China shall we? LOL! Just my opinion .

ps: Just to keep this post Disney related, I think the cruise staff is a great example of fantastic customer service. I've used some of thier approch in my own customer care situations as well. It all starts with a smile!

When you are doing a job and you work in the service industry, your personal feelings and the staff's personal feelings do not matter, if it is reasonable and within teir job description then tey should accomodate the customer, people crack me up, they knoew the potential stress factor when tey took te job, the customers are paying for a service, if it is yourb job to do that then do it, i am not heartless but i learned a long time ago leave personal feelings at home or in te car until you get back there. This also does not mean the customer should not use ett/ or manners or class in teir requests,

I think some of disney's service is not what it used to be, not the cruise staff since i have not yet had the pleasure but when calling into the resv center, to me some of their standards have lowered

 

[996turbos]

If I understand your post, you do not feel the service agent should have any feelings? Sorry but it is human nature to feel and react. Its the control of those things that can drive good customer service. It sounds good but you can not "leave your feelings at home". People are not built that way. I do think that how workers feel can affect the encounter for good as well as bad . Do you think I'm going out of my way for some rude jerk that makes unreasonable demands? NO. But I will bend over backwards to help people who treat me with respect and give me the dignity all humans deserve regardless of my job description or postion of the customer. Again to rephrase there are bad eggs at all jobs but people who pay the bill often want more than the goods provided they seem to want a piece of the workers hide as well. Don't expect people to bow and scrape to the tune of good customer service if the customer wants to be rude or "OVERLY" demanding. In the long run you will get better service and that service will be given gladly not begruged. FYI my wife works in the reservation center and has encountered the best and the worst of customers. She has 18 years of service. She, for one, does a great job IMHO. A different question to ask might be: What do companys do to help or hinder the employyee's ability to provide good customer service. Sometimes the employee has no empowerment. They can follow the policies of the company and tick off the customer or exceed the policy and be fired. That would make anyone a bit testy.