How was your weekend?
The weather was grand around these parts. Sergio Garcia won the Masters, golf's biggest tournament, in dramatic fashion. For a lot of folks, the weekend was sunshine and smiles.
Unless you had an airline ticket across the South, that is.
Jay Greeson
Delta Airlines canceled more than 3,000 flights across its system starting last Wednesday and the ripple effect carried well into the weekend, with delays measured in days and frustrations measured in hundreds of thousands.
It happened during one of the busiest weeks of the year. The Masters in Augusta, Ga., sent thousands of passengers from around the world into (and ostensibly out of) the Atlanta airport, as well as tons of students and families traveling for spring break.
How bad were the delays? Well, there were waits of up to four hours, and that was simply for folks on the telephone looking for customer service and a chance to speak to someone.
The pin-the-tale-on-the-donkey weather excuses from Delta COO Gil West took a large chunk of the blowback from customers and social media. Yes, there was bad weather across the South last Wednesday, but the lingering effects - notice that other carriers were not staring at these types of failures - into the weekend scream of system breakdowns.
"The specific track and intensity of weather like this is often difficult to forecast," West said in remarks Thursday. "We are grateful for your patience and want you to know that we, as always, learn from these experiences. While we can't control the weather, we understand the resulting recovery has not been ideal and we apologize for that."
The social media fallout was endless. And brutal. After all, if you are stuck at an airport, what better way to vent than on social media? On Twitter the hashtag #Delta Meltdown was trending for most of the weekend. Here are some of the examples from the social media outrage:
"You are not allowed to continue to call it a weather delay on Saturday when the storm was on Wednesday. #deltameltdown"
"BREAKING NEWS: @Delta airlines was responsible for losing Kevin McAllister twice in the #HomeAlone movies. #Deltameltdown"
"#deltameltdown Canceled flights & left us stranded; forced to rebook on another carrier. Profit over people. That's the Delta way."
And of course, "If we want to ground the Syrian air force we should let Delta run it."
Ouch-standing.
This, of course, was a two-way street of frustration. Could you imagine being someone who worked behind a ticket counter with fewer answers than a first-grader staring at the SAT?
When's the next flight? What time will you know? Don't you understand that I have to be in (insert whatever location all passengers believe makes their trip most urgent and their time most valuable).
Can you imagine the Delta public relations staff meeting Monday morning? Egad, that would feel a lot like every episode of "ER" combined with a Trump staff meeting.
Picture screaming executives with zero ideas and terrified underlings afraid to speak considering the stock dividends the bigwigs lost over the last six days.
BigWig A, adjusting his belt: "So, what can we do to solve this? I've got BigWig Jr. going away for the summer in the Hamptons."
Underling A, sheepishly: "We could apologize and admit our mistakes."
BigWigs, collectively in one voice with hands raised and fingers twisting the edge of their mustaches: "Absolutely not. It was THE WEATHER people."
Underling B: "We could vow to refund the tickets and make good on people's time."
BigWig B: "What? Are you crazy? Did you not hear the story about BigWig A Jr. going to the Hamptons? That is not cheap."
Underling A, sprinting into the room with a smartphone: "Look United is dragging passengers off their planes and they look like they have been beaten up. This one is a doctor."
BigWig A: "Brilliant son. That's brilliant. I can see the commercial now
"Delta, we may ignore you and emotionally drain you, but we did not physically assault anyone last week."
Well, that they know of, anyway.
Contact Jay Greeson at jgreeson@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6343.