Tale of Two Airlines: Case Study
In the Tale of Two Airlines case study, Professor McPherson discussed how two different airlines handled passenger travel, and in this case, booking issues caused by weather coupled with mechanical problems which contributed to flight delays. The initial delay began when an airline arrived late to Hartsfield Airport in Atlanta, the busiest airport in the country. Professor McPherson was able to make it to the gate for his connecting flight to London, with what he thought was just enough time, only to find that the airplane had pushed back early and he therefore missed this connecting flight to make an important meeting in London. When the gate agents arrived, they happily booked him on another airline with another flight to London which should have allowed Professor McPherson to arrive only 30 minutes late.
Unfortunately, this airline also experienced delays due to mechanical problems upon departure and was delayed. Only this time the airline used the technology at hand and quickly accommodated his new itinerary and forwarded him to Frankfurt since he had missed his meetings entirely in London.
Professor McPherson also reflected back to a previous flight prior to the network age where he was scheduled to make a connection in London to New York, and due to flight delays was also late. Even though modern IT was not available at the time, the London based airline quickly resolved the issue. He spoke to a first class flight attendant who simply made a call to arrange gate transportation and they held the plane until he arrived. The airline’s quick and positive response to Professor McPherson’s concerns permitted them to gain a loyal passenger for a decade.
In the case of the first airline, one can assume the Atlanta based airline used IT to support their specific value discipline. Their chosen value discipline appeared to be