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Most of the time, people will use social media to bitch about something or some brand online. Rarely will people take the time to write a blog post PRAISING a company.
Hold your breath, folks, I’m about to do just that. The Facebook F8 Conference was amazing. A McDonald’s employee went OUT OF HER WAY for me in a big way on Sunday. And United made me breathe a sigh of relief, I’ll tell you why.
So, I have a 9:50am flight out of San Francisco, headed back to Kansas City. My alarm went off at 6:30am, and I hit snooze for 20 minutes. I figured 6:50am gives me three hours to flight time. I recheck my itinerary when I awaken and instead, my flight is actually at 9:05am. What the hell? When did I become dyslexic with numbers? Now apparently.
My time frame has now been seriously compromised. Damn you snooze button!! Damn Yoooouuuu. Damn me. 🙁
I was in San Francisco earlier in the week, to go to the Facebook F8 Conference and meet with a PR Firm in the city. At the F8 Conference, they give us a ridiculous swag bag with tons of cool gadget in an expensive FjallRaven Kanken backpack. Best swag ever from a conference. Thanks Facebook. We got a Nokia 570 Windows phone, Raspberry Pi, A Mophie Charger, a notebook with a bunch of Facebook related stickers and other stuff. Big props to Facebook on an amazing conference.
They had Diplo as the headline music gig at the after party. This conference was unbelievable. I even had the pleasure of having a 3-5 minute conversation with Mr. Zuckerberg himself. Made him laugh twice, btw. My favorite part is that I made him laugh, not once, but twice. Such a good experience with Facebook.
Here’s my recap of the Facebook F8 Conference on Technorati.
And the awesome backpack… it’s great. Only problem is, I brought a backpack with me, and I have a carry-on bag with my luggage. Now, I have THREE carry-ons. I’ll have to check a bag on my way home. #FirstWorldProblems.
At the United customer service area, I check in my bag with my clothes in it. The nice lady was rebooking my missed flight from earlier. My precious nonstop flight from SFO-MCI, San Francisco to Kansas City, 2 hour and 50-minute direct flight had just become a 3 hour and 37 minute connection flight to Chicago with a 4 hour layover along with a 90 minute flight back to Kansas City.
It’s amazing how a few minutes in the morning turned into a few hours later in the day.
I was one of the last people to board the flight from SFO to Chicago due to my Boarding Group Five distinction, and as a result, my old backpack had to be checked-in under the plane. So, I put my jacket in the backpack and take out my plane tickets and put them in my pocket… however, my wallet and ID were forgotten in the backpack that I just checked in. I was informed that I’ll get my backpack back in Kansas City.
After arriving in Chicago, I’m resigned to the fact that, without my wallet, I’m getting no food until 9pm. I find my Gate, and then go sit and play on my phone. My stomach is growling.
“I left my what in my what?”
I had no breakfast as I was going to grab something at the San Fran airport, but my replacement flight was shortly after my original flight time. So I got no breakfast and now, no lunch.
It then dawned on me, wait, I know my debit card number and info… maybe I can talk to a vendor and get them to manually type my credit card information in? It was worth a try.
I wasn’t going to beg a stranger for money to feed my fat ass. But, I definitely felt vulnerable. It’s a shame that no vendor used Dwolla, Bit Coin or Pay Pal. I could have totally paid via my phone. But, I had no access to Federal Reserve Notes, and so I was hosed.
I go up to the pretzel people at Auntie Annie’s, and they said they couldn’t type in my credit card information. Damn. OK, I figured it was a long-shot. I go up to the group at McDonald’s, I said, “Hey, I had to check my bag on my connection flight, my wallet is in there, however, I have my debit card number here, can you just type it in? I didn’t have breakfast, and my connection flight doesn’t land in Kansas City until 9pm.”
“Nope. Sorry sir, we can’t do that.”, said the McDonald’s lady. So, I say thank you and leave to walk back down to my gate.
When I get there, the same McDonald’s lady is there and says, “Sir, we can’t type in your debit card; however, I will comp you a meal, what would you like?”
“Really? Wow! Thanks!”, I said, “I’ll just grab a chicken sandwich, thank you so much!”
She then brought me over a grilled chicken sandwich and a unsweet tea for free.
What an amazing kind gesture by the worker at the O’Hare Airport in Chicago. I’ll never forget that act of kindness. Thank you. Big Kudos to McDonald’s to give her the liberty to do a customer a solid favor. I was blown away, amazed and extremely grateful.
I boarded my flight to KC with my stomach no longer grumbling and my concern shifts towards the belief that I’m going to get my backpack back, and my wallet will be ransacked and all of the information that I’m going to have to replace. UGH! I just knew that it would be gone…
At baggage claim in Kansas City, I spot my backpack. I open the pocket and BOOM! My wallet, ID, all credit cards and cash are safe and sound. Thanks United employees for being awesome and not ganking my stuff. 🙂 Big Kudos to United Airlines.
Sometimes, the best marketing you can do, is to be good to your customers and show them the love. Great experiences with three brands this week. Amazing conference and swag at the Facebook F8 Conference. Thank you and great job to the United Airlines team. And much, much love to McDonald’s for that chicken sandwich. I’m lovin’ it! Give that manager at O’Hare a raise! Thanks!
