Originally Posted by Wasatch Phantom

Back in the day a frequently asked question during the pilot interviews was "Who pays your salary"? The correct answer was (and still is, IMHO) "The passengers".

Maybe a month or two ago I was in DTW on a Friday night flying the last flight to DCA. I saw the gate agent head down the jetway with our final paperwork and maybe 30 seconds later I saw four passengers show up hurriedly to the gate, now with no agent.

It was maybe D-3 and I hustled up the jetway, met the agent and told her I was going to grab the passengers. I think we still pushed on time, but honestly I was more concerned about getting all of our paying passengers to their destination. I told the agent if we were late to blame me.

Perhaps I don't "have the big picture", but those folks got home on Friday night instead of late Saturday morning. They were very thankful when saying good-bye. To me that's customer service, and that's the business we're in.