It’s been reported that a flight attendant on a delayed American Eagle flight (part of href="http://www.americanairlines.com" target="_blank">American Airlines) began lashing out at passengers, daring them to leave the plane and essentially telling them to stop complaining.

A passenger taped the incident, so there is no doubt some of this happened. It’s right there on tape.

From href="http://travel.usatoday.com/flights/post/2012/06/american-eagle-flight-attendant-lashes-out-at-passengers/793468/1" target="_blank">USA Today Travel: “I don’t want to hear anything,” the New York Post video catches him saying. “We will not hear anything once we close the door. So if you have balls, this is your time. Otherwise you’re going to have to fly with Jose.”

href="http://www.360connext.com/site/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/american-eagle.jpg"> class="alignright size-medium wp-image-2170" title="american eagle" src="http://www.360connext.com/site/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/american-eagle-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" />Now the debate is about if he had the RIGHT to lash out when many passengers were complaining and taking their frustrations out on him.

I have witnessed many passengers behaving badly. I’ve been seated next to “it’s-my-right-to-push-the-call-button-50-times” Charlie. I’ve seen Ms. “I-can’t-believe-I’m-flying-coach” Mary. They are not nice to be around.

I’ve also observed Grumpy George gate attendant who didn’t have time for me asking a simple question about the flight. I’ve had the displeasure of flying with Surly Sue flight attendant who seems to go out of her way to knock knees with the cart, scowl at whomever she’s addressing and basically make the entire flying experience unpleasant.

Of course, they are not all like this. Most of us, both passengers and airline employees alike, are just trying to do our jobs, get from point A to point B, and carry on with some sense of dignity and decorum. Humor helps, too.

But I’m going to go out on a limb and wonder aloud here. Some airlines, href="http://www.southwest.com" target="_blank"> Southwest comes to mind, seem to have employees AND passengers who take things a bit more in stride. I swear the “we’re all in this together” attitude is more present on those flights. And some airlines, title="Customer Experience v. Customer Service" href="http://www.360connext.com/customer-experience-v-customer-service/" target="_blank">American and title="Really, United? Twitter Version of Hanging Up." href="http://www.360connext.com/really-united-twitter-version-of-hanging-up/" target="_blank">United come to mind, seem to have adopted an “us v. them” mentality that is palpable in some circumstances.

My theory is that the way title="Expectations Set Emotions" href="http://www.360connext.com/expectations-set-emotions/">policy is written has something to do with this. So I looked up some mission statements, and here is what I found.

align="LEFT"> href="Monday, September 19, 2011American Airlines Inc Mission Statement " target="_blank">Southwest Airlines:
align="LEFT">Our Mission Statement: The mission of Southwest Airlines is dedication to the highest quality of Customer Service delivered with a sense of warmth, friendliness, individual pride, and Company Spirit

align="LEFT">And then there’s this:

align="LEFT"> href="http://darwin-smartblog.blogspot.com/2011/09/american-airlines-inc-mission-statement.html" target="_blank">American Airlines Inc Mission Statement:
align="LEFT">AMR Corporation is committed to providing every citizen of the world with the highest quality air travel to the widest selection of destination possible.  AMR will continue to modernize its fleet while mantaining its position as the largest air carrier in the world, with the goal of becoming the most profitable airline. AMR is the airline that treats everyone with equal care and respect, which is reflected in the way each AMR employee is respected. AMR recognize that its employees are the key to the airlines success and invest in the futures in lives of its employees.  by investing in tomorrow technologies and by following a strict adherence towards environmental regulations, AMR demonstrate its commitment to the world environment.

 See the difference?

Southwest is all about CUSTOMERS and how they will feel. They offer warmth and friendliness as part of their mission statement. Plus, it’s one sentence.

American Airlines offers a title="Customer Experience Investigation: Talk the Talk" href="http://www.360connext.com/customer-experience-investigation-talk-the-talk/" target="_blank">corporate-speak, completely self-focused paragraph. It’s all about employees, technology and modern fleets. Most telling: It doesn’t even have the word CUSTOMER or PASSENGER in it.

I say this is pretty telling. Culture, attitude and values are what create the experience. Yes, passengers were out of hand, I’m sure of it. Yes, the American Eagle flight attendant was upset and out of line. But did he act out of accordance with this mission? You could argue that they were still providing the “highest quality air travel” by following the rules and flying (or, in this case, not flying) safely. How does AA define quality? The mention of treating “everyone with equal care and respect” could be argued that in this case, everyone was treated with the same lowest level of care and respect. I guess that’s equal.

Southwest is simple and focused. American Airlines is corporate and all over the place.

What do you think? I think it’s high time every mission statement everywhere mentions customers. Otherwise, what’s the point?

Photo Credit: href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bribri/" target="_blank">BriYYZ via href="http://www.creativecommons.org" target="_blank">Creative Commons license

class="evernoteSiteMemory"> href="javascript:" onclick="Evernote.doClip({title: 'Customer or Company Mission? on 360Connext',url: 'http://www.360connext.com/customer-or-company-mission/',contentID: 'post-2169',suggestTags: 'complaints,culture,Customer Experience,linkedin',providerName: '360Connext',styling: 'text' });return false" class="evernoteSiteMemoryLink"> src="http://static.evernote.com/article-clipper.png" class="evernoteSiteMemoryButton" />

class="evernoteSiteMemoryClear">