The following is the story about musician Dave Carroll, United Airlines passenger who had his guitar destroyed by the airline's baggage handlers and was declined reimbursement for damage.
Eight months later, following the final ‘no’ from United, the passenger wrote a song decrying their customer service and brand. It immediately went viral and, according to The Times Online "...within four days of the song going online, the gathering thunderclouds of bad PR caused United Airlines' stock price to suffer a mid-flight stall, and it plunged by 10 per cent, costing shareholders $180 million."
United surrendered, claiming that the company will “use the video internally as a unique learning and training opportunity."
The massive publicity finally triggered the compensation offer to the passenger, which was (on his request) donated to the charity.
The question remains: is it the social media that need to be used by passengers to help them protect their basic rights or, is it up to the airlines to start working harder to minimise number of unpleasant passenger experiences and show more respect for customer claims when things go wrong?
This guitar lesson will certainly help with finding the right answer.
