When hospitality fails : a lesson from Gate 9 at Manchester Airport

The Cost of Cold Service: What a Manchester Airport Encounter Taught Me About True Hospitality

Here in Dublin my alarm wakes me at 05:30 this morning - and the first thought that appears in my head is a recollection of that horrible exchange I witnessed yesterday afternoon, between a gate assistant at Manchester Airport and an elderly couple who didn't understand her.

I posted across my social media channels as I boarded my flight (see graphic above) and also discussed how I felt with my taxi driver last night, with my wife before I retired for the night - and here I am starting my day by reliving the event with you.

My emotions are running high on this because:

1. I had spent my lunchtime at home, watching Sky News coverage of the VE-Day celebrations and the grace with which our Royal Family interacted with the Veterans invited to sit with them and watch the parades in London;

2. I'd already had my dose of Manchester Airport's complete disregard for hospitality when I arrived at The Escape Lounge, an hour before my flight was due to be called, to find the room hot, smelly, crowded and disgustingly untidy - cue a reverse turn - I walked straight out again;

3. Part of my remit is to train teams on hospitality - I've done three such practice visits in the last month and it's featuring on my current workshop tour - so as an evangelist for the book "Unreasonable Hospitality" I'm on red alert for the opposite.

   
   
   
   

But I reflect this morning on the fact that the events I witnessed at Gate 9 in Terminal 1 yesterday cannot be explained away.

"Blame a system, not a person?"

I appreciate that we have to include "be nice to people wherever possible" in our systems.

I appreciate that it may be tough to have a shift on a Bank Holiday Monday, when your family are at rest.

I appreciate that some airline passengers (like patients) can be challenging to deal with.

But that gives nobody the right to be (as I said in my social media post) rude, ignorant, monosyllabic and disrespectful.

I was sorely tempted, when I reached the gate assistant, to ask "How do you think your mother would feel if she has heard that conversation?" - but the risk of being refused the flight for my behaviour was to great.

After all - "don't wrestle with a pig in sh*t - because the sh*t smells and the pig loves it."

I'm not pulling the "respect for the elderly card" because "I am one" - just because it's the right thing. What I witnessed feels like an injustice - it feels as if Aer Lingus have cheated.

Airports and hospitality - is this the world's number one oxymoron?