Thursday night in PlaneBusiness Banter as I was bringing subscribers up to speed on where I thought the Southwest/Cover-Up fiasco stood, I wrote,
“While traditionally airlines are loathe to go public when an employee is involved with a passenger dispute, and while clearly there is litigation involved, I think it would have been a good idea if the airline had “gotten out in front” of this one with an accounting of what went down (sorry). Part of the problem with this PR nightmare is that by not coming out publicly with a response — Southwest has left the story to be managed by its accusers.
If the flight attendant did in fact overreact and handle this situation improperly, then go ahead and admit it, and apologize.
But, if the airline believes that we’re not getting the whole story, then it’s time to get its version of the whole story out there.”
Today it appears that someone at Southwest read our latest issue, as apologize is exactly what the airline did.
But the apology came only after Southwest President Colleen Barrett told a group at Texas Christian University Thursday, where she was speaking as part of the Tandy Executive Speaker Series that she doubted the airline would apologize, saying, “I just can’t do that to the customer service supe (supervisor),” she said. “He handled the situation discreetly and with patience, and he did not deny her boarding.”
Today, the airline’s stance took a 180, and as we had suggested, the airline apologized. It also issued a release that tied “shrinking fares” to getting caught “with our pants down” — in reference to the negative publicity the situation has caused.
CEO Gary Kelly, who has apparently been out of town, told Dallas Morning News reporter Terry Maxon today, “I don’t think our people did anything wrong. I don’t think Kyla in our evaluation of the facts did anything wrong. I don’t think either party did anything wrong. But I do think we could have handled it from beginning to end this week better,” Kelly said.
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