Monarch, a budget airline said that it would be rewarding passengers for being polite and those who have a good telephone manner. The reward will be upgrading the passenger to free upgrade, although some intricate terms and conditions will apply.
The airline, which was saved from the verge of bankruptcy last autumn, has embarked on a “year-long campaign to promote traditional values of chivalry, courtesy and respect”. Nils Christy, chief operating officer of Monarch said in a statement that they are often described as the nicer airline and holiday company and they take pride on this. he continued saying that their customer services staff are already nice – now they can reward those who are positively nice to them too.
The airline says it is “following in the footsteps of Pret a Manger”. Staff at the restaurant chain hand out around 20,000 free drinks each week as random acts of kindness to customers. The upgrades will be only offered to passengers who want to buy tickets by phone (costing £7.50 per person per flight above the web fare) or have an issue and need to talk to someone at the airline. Online transaction with Monarch or via a travel agent will not qualify.
The initiative follows research conducted by Professor Jonathan Freeman at Goldmiths’ College in London in which subjects were shown a sequence of video images — such as an overcrowded Tube platform, a traffic jam or a screaming child — while their facial reaction was measured. Professor Freeman said that Monarch employees tended to score a little higher on emotional intelligence than the rest of the subjects. Also, they scored significantly higher on agreeableness and empathy.
