I was finally returning home tonight after a week away, arriving from Houston into the Philadelphia airport. Unfortunately, the Philly airport has a reputation for pretty slow baggage handling, and it's not unusual to have to wait 45 minutes or more for your bags to show up. Expecting the worst, I settled in for the wait.
To my surprise, not much more than about 5 minutes after I reached the baggage claim area, the bags started to come down the chute onto the belt. And to make it even better, mine was one of the first ones out.
In the few minutes that I had to wait, I noticed the activity at the US Air baggage claim office. This is where you go to report that your stuff didn't show up and to figure out what to do next. I was thinking about what a tough job that must be, always dealing with people who are tired, cranky, and frustrated. That gave me an idea.
I decided that it might be nice for them to hear something good for a change. So I went into the claim office with my bag, went up to the counter, and explained that I just wanted to say that my bag came in quickly, that I had no problem at all, and that I appreciated it. And then I gave the guy behind the counter a Starbucks gift card to show my appreciation. He was pretty surprised, and he'll probably tell that story to a few people over the coming days!
Most of us are pretty quick to complain when there's a problem, and we're usually silent when there's no problem. From time to time, though, it's nice to acknowledge people when things happen the way we want/expect.
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