David Feldt. Finding meaning in the noise. Innovating within the social business web. Proud father. Entrepreneur. Builder.

I spent most of Tuesday flying across North America going through three airports and traveling on two different airlines. Those of us who travel frequently (seem to) have resigned ourselves to the inhumane travel experience:

The atrocious TSA experience which resemble human assembly lines … people lining up, taking off their clothes, putting on their clothes, being scanned, prodded, searched and treated like criminals The planes which resemble the cliched old Greyhound buses with broken seats, broken lights, smelly toilets Flight departure delays; seemingly endless circling on arrival that adds 15 – 30 minutes to your flight The list goes on and on …

The last one hour flight I took at 9pm revealed the missing link in air travel.  All the logistics, planes, terminals and gates have made us forget the key ingredient : The Human Connection.  Air travel is fundamentally a service industry and the power to innovate and improve this experience lies in the hands of people – many people in many roles. There was one key person who actually made that human connection on Tuesday: The flight attendant on my United Express flight out of Houston was phenomenal. She’s been in the industry for 20 years and one would have expected her to be jaded, tired and robotic. Instead, she was funny, energetic, helpful and caring. She engaged with passengers with an authentic empathy and I saw her actively solving problems and helping people. As she walked by me, she saw that I was struggling to read my book in the poor light. Without being asked, she unscrewed the light fitting so that I could have more light to read. “Don’t tell the maintenance people I did that”, she said. A simple human gesture that literally shone Light on my day.  Thank you. Tweet