Posts in the category "Assistance":

Sometimes the yin/yang of the inbox is entertaining.

Today, for example, I received an urgent reminder to vote for America’s Best Restroom and a warning about staying away from the World’s Scariest Airports.

Let’s do both.

Each year Cintas takes nominations for the Best Restrooms in Canada and in the United States.

You can see all the past winners in the Hall of Fame, but here at StuckatTheAirport.com we’re still celebrating 2005, when Fort Smith Regional Airport in Arkansas took home the potty-prize.

Winning bathroom at Fort Smith Regional Airport

This year, no airports are on the list of ten finalists, but the restrooms at Santa Monica Pier are on the list as are those at New York City’s Muse Hotel and Bryant Park, where the amenities include attendants, flowers, scented oils and electronic seat covers  – amenities we’d be happy to see at all airports..

Take a look at the best-loo finalists and cast your vote for America’s Best Room by August 31^st.

Once you’ve voted for the best restroom in the U.S., take a look at the airports SmarterTravel.com has put on its list of World’s Scariest Airports.

In my book, scary airports are those with icky bathrooms, overpriced food or pay-to-use-WiFi. But this list defines scary airports as those where geography and/or weather make take-offs and landings dicey.  Which airports are on the list? In the U.S. the authors list New York’s LaGuardia Airport, Yeager Airport in West Virginia, John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana, CA. – and the airport in Nantucket, MA.  International airports that make the list are in Guatemala, Scotland, New Zealand, Bhutan, Gibralter and Honduras.

What makes an airport scary for you?

Categories: Air Travel, Airports, Assistance, Bathrooms
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Lots of airports are using Twitter as a tool to interact with travelers passing through.

London’s Gatwick Airport has been one of them.

Now the airport is kicking its social media program up a notch by integrating Twitter messages into the physical space of the airport. Throughout the day, Gatwick passengers will see this message on the check-in monitors.

Airport officials say reaching out by Twitter is part of an overall airport upgrade and rebranding program that will improve facilities but also “provide passengers with a more human and personal experience.”

That sounds promising.

The goals is to monitor and respond to in-airport comments 24 hours a day.

But not yet: while Twitter works round-the-clock, Gatwick’s social media team does not. So for now you can talk back to Gatwick on Twitter, but the airport will only Tweet back during working hours.

Categories: Assistance, Complaints, Twitter
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Noticed some extra nice lately?

For airport employees around the country, courtesy and empathy are becoming part of the basic job description.  Not just because those are nice traits in workers, but because in these belt-tightening times, airports are hoping better customer service can help shore up the bottom line.   In my Well Mannered Traveler column this week on MSNBC.com, I take a look at some of the ambitious customer service programs underway at airports around the country. Here’s a preview.

Polite in Portland

Oregon’s Portland International Airport (PDX) regularly wins awards for its services and maneuverability.  But customer relations manager Donna Prigmore says that’s just not enough anymore. “The economy being what it is, we can’t afford to lose passengers.”  So this month the airport rolled out a “roadway to runway” initiative that challenges everyone who works at the airport, including taxi drivers, TSA staff, and shop employees, to be nicer.  Those who do, can win prizes.

Mindful in Minneapolis

The Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (MSP) also regularly wins award for its services and amenities.  Volunteers staff eight information booths but, as you know, not everyone will stop to ask for directions.  So the airport is training a team of roving ambassadors whose job it will be to approach passengers who seem like they could use a bit of assistance.

Lessons at LAX, Plans in Pittsburgh

Around the country, many other airports have signed up for the Tom Murphy’s Resiliency Edge program, which is based at New York’s Fordham University. Scores of workers at the New York City-area airports (Newark Liberty, JFK, and LaGuardia) have already taken the course, which teaches employees strategies that can help them deal – calmly and effectively – with passengers who are apt to be stressed out, clueless, irate, confused or, often, all of the above.  I had the opportunity to sit in on one of the classes at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), and watched a role-playing exercise that pitted a gaggle of needy and insistent passengers against a customer service employee.  Murphy’s advice to the class: you can’t solve every problem but try to be empathetic, a good listener, adaptable, and a creative problem solver.  “If you can do that well,” says Murphy, “You’ll be more resilient, less stressed yourself, and better able to neutralize the irritations in a customer’s experience. We call that N.I.C.E.”

During the recent winter storms, nice-training benefited some arriving passengers at Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT). Late on a snowy Friday night, planes were still landing and passengers were still arriving, but taxis and hotel shuttle buses had stopped running.  Instead of allowing about 125 people to spend the night stuck at the terminal, several airport workers arranged for one of PIT’s employee buses to drive those travelers to area hotels. “It will cost the airport a couple of hundred bucks to cover that,” airport executive director Brad Penrod to me, “But they saw a problem, solved it, provided a needed customer service, and created a great deal of good will.”

Nice!

Have you noticed airport employees going out of their way to be nice? Please share you story.

Categories: Air Travel, Assistance, Etiquette
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First impressions are important, especially if you’re a city and you’d like folks who are just passing through to come back and stay awhile.  So you’d think every city would want its airport – its front door – to be all pretty and nice.

Like, say, Auckland Airport. Check out what greets visitors arriving on international flights:

No one is going to mistake this for an airport in Omaha, now are they?

And here’s another nice touch:  volunteers at the Auckland airport greet every international flight with complimentary coffee, tea, and travel information.

Categories: Air Travel, Architecture, Art, Assistance, Etiquette, Exhibits
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I had loads of fun touring Singapore’s Changi Airport today and wanted to share a few photos of the some of the fun, unusual, and very useful amenities this airport offers.

In addition to free wireless Internet access and more than 500 free Internet terminals, Changi Airport has five lovely and restful gardens, including a cactus garden, a fern garden, a sunflower garden, an orchid garden and, my favorite, a butterfly garden:

There are napping areas throughout the airport, including some lounge chairs that include alarm clocks (!)  and I found these ladies enjoying some of the airport’s complimentary foot and leg massage machines.

And, in case you’re not quite awake, I guess, this giant coffee cup is around to remind travelers that on Monday mornings through mid-February, there’s free coffee for everyone.

Categories: Art, Assistance, Entertainment, Exhibits, Free Stuff, Fun Stuff, Massages, Sleeping, Wi-Fi
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