It’s true. I messed up. I blundered and I goofed. I tripped-up and I boobed.
Yes, I permanently deleted that I file I needed and as a result – oh woe is me – I’ll be inputting boring old data onto a boring old Excel sheet for the next four hours.
Yawn.
But hey, no matter how much I messed up, I’ll never mess up as much as low-cost Irish airline Ryanair did this week.
Talk about a travel industry faux pas… Ryanair’s travel industry faux pas beggars belief.
The airline has cancelled 2,100 flights over the next six weeks. 2,100: Let that sink in for a moment. That means that some 285,000 passengers are effected.
Whoops. That’s one BIG mistake from the BIGGEST airline in Europe.
The carrier says it is cancelling 40 to 50 flights every day for the next six weeks because it has “messed up” the planning of pilot holidays.
The airline has a dubious reputation at best – in the past it has considered charging passengers to visit the washroom! – but it is now crystal clear that customer service and loyalty are very much at the bottom of its priority list. Passengers simply can’t be fooled into thinking the customer experience means anything to the carrier whatsoever anymore.
So I’m going to forgive myself for my database mess-up, because in the big scale of things in the travel industry, it really isn’t so bad. And someone, somewhere, who works for what is a pretty awful airline in my opinion, is dealing with a much bigger mess-up.
The moral of this travel industry horror story? Don’t sweat the small stuff. Keep on trucking, because somewhere, someone has the ruined vacations of 285,000 clients on their conscience. And at the end of the day, quality travel professionals like yourself put the customer experience before cost-cutting.
Sky Blue Vickie x
