Police Rap Airline Boss at Manchester Airport

[Nigel H-J]

Have been sitting at the back of the room reading the responses and just feel that I have to reiterate what I originally said in response to Leif and Chris.

Leif, you wrote that you

feel sorry for Mr Meeson -- his airline will in time fail because of lousy customer service......

I am not going to include what followed as I know nothing of the company that you mentioned but....for any-one in a management / supervisory role, to berate a member of staff in front of customers or members of the public is not best practise for two reasons.

Firstly, it brings on resentment from those affected and in return moral will sink very rapidly therefore customer service will undoubtedy decline.

Secondly, management and staff should work closely together with an open door policy, any failings in the system should brought up with those in authority and be dealt with before they are allowed to decline to the point where Mr Meerson became involved in the way it was alleged. Equally, and this is probably where I am going to be shot down from a great height...Having seen some of the programmes such as Airline and Airport and of the problems staff are faced with through passengers turning up late and then trying to argue the point only adds up to stress and or frustration. Equally it can also be said 'double booking' of seats (in the hope of cancellations to hopefully ensure aircraft are filled) don't exactly help the patience and understanding of the passenger who cannot fly his/her booked flight and to this point I have to ask......what policy do management/airlines have in place for members of staff should they become threatened or abused by passengers through no fault of their own? or is it a case of 'put up with it or leave?'

I know nothing of how airlines operate but I do know that through my experience of work in varied roles after changing career that if management wish to improve their service then it is time they paid more attention to 'Service Needs' not only from the customer perspective but also to that of their staff.

Regards
Nigel.

[DispatchDragon]

thank you Nigel for the education

and NO , you wouldn't know who I work for. Suffice to say its a successful medium sized US scheduled carrier.
After thirty years in the business its nice to be going out on a winner......of the ten or so carriers I have been employed by over that period
Not one is still in business....so I guess that says something about this industry doesnt it? Oh sorry -- TUI (nee Britannia Airways)


leif

[Charlie Bravo]

Nigel - In response to how staff act etc with problem passengers....

I worked on checkin at Stansted for just shy of 2 years. There were many days when we got shouted at, sworn at, several of the girls were threatened, stamping of feet (yes really!), the list goes on. First thing I used to do was stand up, this gives you presence over the passenger. Speak to them in a normal calm manor and if they persist, inform them that you will walk away should the behaviour continue. There were several times when I simply turned and walked in the opposite direction.
A checkin agent can contact the gate staff or Dispatcher to inform them of problem passengers and in turn the Dispatcher and/or Captain can refuse travel. You can of course call the airport Police to attend.
I recall an incident at STN when the Police were called as 2 Spanish guys had missed their flight. They became very angry and one of them climbed onto a baggage belt to access the ticket desk. It wasn't long before both guys were lying face down on the terminal floor.

I also spent 3 years as a Dispatcher (UK and US Dispatchers perform different roles). There were a few times when I told passengers I would offload them although it was a different class of passenger.

[airboatr]

well I came back to edit a post but since the remark was removed in the aforementioned thread
... nm

cheers

[Nigel H-J]

Charlie Bravo many thanks for the information you have given in respect of the problems faced with awkward / angry customers and how you effectively deal /dealt with them, I had only posted what I consider to be constructive and rational points as far as 'management and worforce' go to ensure quality customer service without bringing in the 'them and us' attitude that can still be found in some areas of employment.

Having watched these fly on the wall documentaries of airports I can only think of one other service that faces that amount of abuse from members of the public.....The Police....I have seen first hand the abuse and threats they have to put up with and it can be quite un-nerving at times when actually present at one of these incidents as apposed to watching it on TV.

I would certainly not want to work on the 'Desk' and put up with that sort of abuse.

Nigel.

[TobyV]

One time last year I was at a semi-mjaor european airport in a major European city hoping to be able to check in with a major national carrier (none of ours but I believe on the worldwide scale, one of the larger in existence).

I asked a couple of ground stewardesses which check in desk it would be for my flight and they pointed me in a general direction of some desks and told me it wouldn't open until 90 minutes before the depature time. So I went away, did some shopping and came back. Still no one there. I found another ground stewardess and explained there was no one there (in the local lingo no less) and asked her where I could check in. She told me the desk would open 1hr before departure.

Not too impressed with this but with seemingly not a lot else we could do at this point, I spotted other people (both for my flight and other "local" flights) standing around wondering what to do. One woman decided to stand in front of the desk we had been directed to and being British, I decided the best thing to do was for us to form an orderly queue behind her. And then the other people who had been standing around looking lost queued behind us. Before long, someone from Anonymous Flyways obviously noticed this and duly opened a desk or two. The queue for security was enormous and we only just made it through on time although we were by no means last onto the flight.

So I can understand someone getting a ticking off for this sort of thing. The guy probably did it in front of the customers to make a point that someone was at least going to do something about it. However not having been there, not knowing whether the staff really were that incompetent or how severe an earbashing it was..... etc etc

Hope you enjoyed the anecdote either way, and now you know, if this ever happens to you, form a queue

[emfrat]

I was always taught that "the hallmark of a good supervisor is his (or her) technical knowledge".
So, anyone in the management team should have known how to operate a check-in station, and a management professional would have simply identified himself, and signed in to the next terminal to help deal with the queue. Once the immediate problem has been dealt with, you find out how it happened and put things in place to make sure it doesn't happen again. You don't just jump on the nearest employee and blame them without establishing the facts.
There are managers and there are bosses. Bosses generally have not matured emotionally since they were first year high school bullies. They behave like alpha males displaying in front of the herd and blame everyone but themselves for poor business outcomes.
Personally, I would not consider Mr M a manager, if he behaved like that.

Nuff Said.
MikeW

[Chris Trott]

I'm sorry, but it's really sad that you guys are basically "slogging off" this guy (to use your own terms) with ZERO information beyond this -

1) He confronted the staff with a 200 passenger queue standing there.
2) The Passengers in said queue generally cheered his actions.
3) ONE PERSON called in a "tip" about the action
4) The police showed up and issued a warning about his "behavior".

We do not know how loud he was, we do not know what he said (whether it was professional or not), we do not know what REALLY HAPPENED, yet you're ready to throw him under the prison. Having unfortunately had friends given "warnings" for their behavior in the UK before, I can tell you that it tends to be too often that the warning is issued simply because there was a report, not because anything actually happened or anyone was actually "out of line".

BTW, you guys talk about management methods. There are many methods to manage and manage effectively. Unless you were there or there was actual, factual reporting of what really happened (not just accusations and innuendo as is the case with the above story), then your opinions are based on little or nothing other than it seems to fly in the face of those whom were there who apparently thought his actions and words were appropriate.

[TSR2]

I'm inclined to agree with Chris, unless one of us was actually there, we don't know the facts. How many times ahve you been in a store or resturant or other place of public service and the staff were arsing about and you wished someone of authority would come allong and sort them out. I'm not saying this was the case in this instance, the only thing we know for certain as that we don't actually know anything for certain, other than the police were called.

All management aren't bad, and all staff aren't good. Like everything else in life, there are examples of good and bad everywhere

Anyway, I think this thread has run its course.

[Charlie Bravo]

Chris, there is more than zero information, there is the link as posted in the opening message. We don't know how correct the info is but until anything else comes to light then that is what I/we shall go on.
The number of people waiting at checkin is irrelevant. The fact is that whatever he said to whoever he said it to, he shouldn't have done it, he is not their superior.


By the way, thanks for calling us all sad. I find it sad that after a year away from this forum I come back to find you still disagreeing with everyone elses opinions. Amazing.