on 28 January 2010 
(No Ratings Yet)
Little things — like finally getting your waylaid luggage — mean a lot and Twitter CEO Evan Williams sounded almost ecstatic this morning when his bags, checked in on a United Airlines flight from JFK to Frankfurt, finally found their way to his final destination in Zurich 42 hours late.
Williams, in Davos, Switzerland, for the World Economic Forum, issued the following tweet this morning: Luggage arrived! 42 hours later. Never been so happy to see a suitcase. (Thanks, @unitedairlines, Swiss Air, and anyone else involved.)
Business Week noted that Williams had been stuck in Frankfurt Tuesday, bound for Zurich, because of a snowstorm.
In tweets that were undoubtedly duly noted with trepidation in United’s boardrooms, the CEO of the impactful social-media site tipped off the twitterati to his plight starting on Tuesday morning.
Williams tweeted: “Aaaaand now we’re in Zurich, but our luggage is not.”
And, later that evening, he provided this update: “About to do my Davos panel in jeans and tennies. @unitedairlines says we might see our luggage tomorrow.”
United, which knows the pain of social-media outrage and has obviously learned that when it comes to apologies, speed matters, tweeted two mea culpas to Williams within minutes Tuesday.
First, United tweeted: “@ev We apologize. Given ATC delays, able to very quickly get you on different flts, but not bags. Bags are on the way.”
Then, within the hour, United followed up: “@ev Sorry for the inconvenience. Love opportunity to personally apologize when you’re available.”
When is the last time, do you think, that United offered “to personally apologize” to a passenger whose bags didn’t arrive with the passenger?
And, of course, United was ready to personally apologize at Williams’ convenience — when he’s available.
After the apologies — but before the bags arrived in Zurich — Williams vented his displeasure.
He tweeted: “@UnitedAirlines thx. understandable. just frustrating after being assured they’d be transferred. and then they sat at JFK until we called.”
Well, all’s well that ends well, for Williams, at least, who got a little special attention from United.
There was no word, however, if Williams had checked-in a guitar.
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United doesn’t fly JFK-FRA. They do codeshare on the LH flight though.
JohnK: Good point. Indeed I’m unsure of the exact itinerary. United Express/Mesa does JFK to IAD (Dulles), connecting to a United Flight to FRA (Frankfurt). Maybe that was it.