I think United Airlines’ social media team is pretty competent, and I love a new video that came out today that humorously reminds us not to say “you too” when the gate agent wishes us a nice flight.
Most of us know the situation: we are standing in line to board our plane and have to go to the front to have our boarding pass scanned. The gate agent wishes us a nice flight and instinctively, without thinking twice, we reply: “You too!”
(and then we realize our mistake a moment later as we walk along the jetway…)
Luckily it’s been many years since I did that, but I definitely did it… and I love this video because my reaction is very similar when I make these faux pas…
I was at a class reunion recently and I completely lost track of one of my English teachers. I just walked past her while she was talking to another of my English teachers and didn’t even acknowledge her (and it wasn’t because she had aged poorly…she had aged pretty well). Then, like an idiot, I asked her if she was the other English teacher’s daughter (in my defense, we were all wearing name tags, they had the same name as the daughter, and she had gotten married when I was in her class and had a different last name). She said, “Hey Matthew, don’t you remember me?!”
Oh god, I still think about it weeks later and I blush. I pride myself on being good at remembering names and faces… but I totally failed at this. It was SO embarrassing and we actually had a great conversation afterward.
This was definitely much worse than saying “You too” to the gate agent, but it was on the same scale as Rick Perry moments…
Well done, United. You made me laugh… and you made me cringe. Because I’ve made that mistake too, and worse ones…
Image: United
