About eight months after Delta assisted Lee Janzen with a custom sole grind on his tourney clubs, Delta's Best-in-Class Athlete's FriendŽ service assisted pole vaulter Kati Davis by playing "hide the poles" for four days.

Mindful of meeting their own high standards, and after making sure that Davis' poles were in Denver just in time for the competition (in Pueblo), Delta cheerfully refunded Davis's $200 oversize baggage fee.

• Good customer service: No mistake
• Acceptable customer service: Recognizing mistakes when they infrequently occur, acknowledging the inconvenience to the customer and dedicating the necessary resources to ameliorating the problem
• Best-in-class customer service: Screw up and make your customer fight through the phone tree to hear that the baggage should be here any day now...any day now...