A legally blind man named Albert Rizzi was kicked off of a US Airways flight Wednesday night after flight attendants became upset with his seeing-eye dog. Sources say a flight attendant asked Mr. Rizzi to command his dog to go under the seat until take off. Mr. Rizzi says his dog became restless after the flight took almost an hour to take off and moved from under the seat. When the dog wouldn’t comply the pilot kicked Mr. Rizzi and his dog off of the plane. The other passengers didn’t agree with the way the disabled man was treated became irate and ultimately all kicked off the plane, canceling the flight.
US Airways did not have good communication tactics and were flawed in many aspects of this issue. Offering a statement via Twitter was good but it lacked sensitive statements and bragged about what they do contrary to the incident at hand. Their twitter handle was also very quiet during this issue which is terrible for the credibility and authenticity of the brand. Tweets were sent out but it was later revealed that the airline’s social media manager tweets incessantly on a daily basis and 25% of the tweets actually addressed customer complaints.
All in all, majority of the backlash came from the 30+ passengers that were aboard this flight with Mr. Rizzi and the way they handled that was to cancel the flight and pay for a bus service to their destination. US Airways should have better solutions for accommodating their passengers, especially when they are in the wrong. I would recommend that they acknowledge the fact that the pilot and the flight attendant were wrong. Revising the standby statement by apologizing for what was done wrong and give insight to how they will find ways to make it right is also a strong recommendation. US Airways should do things to appear more sincere and transparent with the public. They should also create a team that tries their best to answer the negative comments that get posted to their social media sites. Not answering at all just makes the brand look guilty and they lose their credibility minute by minute.
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