Over the years, I've probably contacted most every U.S. airline's customer service at one time or another. The only airline's CS who has either responded to me with an email indicating that they didn't read my email and/or in a manner that dismissed my concern was CO. And CO has does that consistently, in my experience. So consistentcy is one thing CO has, but not in a good way. Frankly, I can't think of any airline that has ever behaved this way, and across other industries, I can't think of another reputable company that behaves this way either. Well, maybe an insurance company, but they wouldn't necessarily be reputable.

In a couple incidents, CO left me in a pickle, and if it weren't for CO Insider, I would have likely sued CO to get it resolved. In fact, I encouraged a fellow FTer to do this once in the pre-CO Insider days, and once he filed, CO legal called and resolved the issue.

From a CS perspective, I think the goal should be two-fold: 1) to encourage the customer to return; and 2) to accurately aggregate data and report it so that management can act on it. I think that CO fails at both of these areas, has for years, and continues to do so.

All it takes to do the job well is an acknowledgement of the issue, an apology for a screwup, compensation if appropriate, and accurate reporting of the issue so that management can review aggregate data.

I could care less about the ability to call. In fact, in one recent issue, I called CO, and the rep couldn't be bothered to document the concern. She told me to write it in instead. I didn't, if she couldn't be bothered, I couldn't be bothered to write it in either. So data was lost.