<p>Service Industry should take heed. I purpose that shareholders should look after its interest:</p>
<p>A bonus to the pilot and crew for trying.
A reprimand to the person in charge at the airport.
A penalty at the rate of airfare reimbursement that Continental paid their aggrieved passengers, to the group person in charge of Mesaba Air.
A penalty of estimated loss of good will to Mesaba and Continental levied Delta’s CEO.
A penalty of 25% bonus assessed to Delta’s Chairman for failure of leadership.</p>
<p>I think that will get the attention of the people-in-charge.</p>
<p>A reprimand to the pilot for requesting deplaning (which might have resulted in costly hotel rooms for the passengers)
A bonus to the person in charge at the airport (for successfully avoiding those costly hotel charges)
A bill to each aggrieved passenger for overnight accommodations (yeah it was on the airplane, but at least passengers didn’t have to wait on the tarmac).
A penalty for each aggrieved passenger, in the form of a defamation lawsuit (for making the airline look bad).
A bonus to Delta’s Chairman for putting management in charge that knows “the company comes first.” </p>
<p>Considering the circumstances, passengers should be THANKFUL they got their baggage back!!!</p>
<p>PS, Anyone who flies regularly knows that these passengers’ treatment was just slightly more egregious than that ordinarily inflicted on the flying public.</p>
<p>The Passengers Bill of Rights has been stalled in congress for years. Excuse after excuse. If a child, elderly person or ill person dies on one of the lenghty tarmac stays, it will also be the fault of our irresponsible congress.</p>
<p>It’s hard to imagine there isn’t some kind of written procedure somewhere to accommodate a scenario like this. Obviously the airport was ‘open enough’ to allow them to land so it should have allowed them to deplane. If it had no way for them to deplane they shouldn’t have been allowed to land unless it was an emergency which doesn’t seem to be the case - i.e it was just a weather diversion. And as the article states, it sounds as if common sense (and empathy) wasn’t applied by the people in the terminal. I’m not sure there was much the pilot or airline could have done though unless it was to ask the tower if the people would be permitted to deplane - maybe a question that wouldn’t have occurred to the pilot. I hope the pilot at least requested to speak to the senior management of Mesaba after the refusal by the staff.</p>