Just back from Los Angeles, where I gave a keynote talk for an amazing group of women sponsored by Navigant. I've been on what seems like one continuous road trip this month. Continental, my most recent carrier of choice, sent me a note wanting to know how I would like to "improve their handling of a delay". The delay, over two hours long, involved an overnight flight. They knew it was going to be delayed from about 8pm…but here's the thing that drives me crazy. In the same message in which they say the flight is going to be late, they further say that we, the passengers, are not supposed to leave the gate area! So you can't really do too much with the information they give you.
So how about this: We all have mobile phones and many of us have handheld devices. If the plane ends up being unexpectedly earlier than they thought, what about giving us a call? And letting the passengers do something else than wait around in ever increasing frustration.