I found a blue man

For almost 6 months,

I have been in the fritz with a company called Allegiant Air.

To make a long story short,

we bought discounted plane tickets from Knoxville to Vegas.

We thought that we would visit my parents in St George in December.

Because LG had to retake his bar prep course, we had to prolong the trip.

Allegiant Air customer service

would only give us an Allegiant Air credit,

but because they stopped their Vegas/Knoxville service,

this airline credit would do us no good.

I called, I wrote, I faxed...

nothing was working towards getting our money back.

Nothing worked, until I found a blue man.

A blue man is my way of associating this cool photo

with a guy who actually breathes and listens.

In my own weird logic,

my favorite man of today is a blue man.

Because he is an excellent human,

he must have blue blood running through his veins, right?

Who is the man?

The man is Mr. Gallagher, Allegiant Air, CEO.

Here is the e-mail I received over the weekend

because of Mr. Gallaher's commitment to customer service:

Mrs. Gold:
I am in receipt of your letter dated May 11, 2008, to Mr. Gallagher and I apologize for the delay in responding to your inquiries. As a courtesy I have refunded back to the original form of payment $1171.50. Because we no longer fly into Las Vegas we took this into consideration when refunding. However, the $50.00 per person per segment ($100.00 per person) cancel fee does apply per our Terms and Conditions because you declined the Travel Protection.
Again I apologize for the delay in answering your letters.

Sincerely,
Joe Schrider Manager, Customer Relations

"Leadership is the art of accomplishing more than the science of management says is possible"

WOW! I was so impressed.

If I could go to Vegas and shake the man's hand personally I would,

but because Allegiant doesn't fly there from here any more, I can't.

I guess this blog post will have to accomplish my deepest compliments.

Thank you, too, Joe Schrider.

Oh, and thanks to that Reader's Digest article.

It taught me that if all else fails,

write the CEO,

sometimes they can make action happen faster.

And fast, was an understatement.
I just sent the guy a letter in the mail last week.

I am thrilled that I now have enough money

to drive to Utah this summer.

I don't even plan to leave for a few more months,

and Mr. Gallagher was finally able to put my travel money back in my hand.

Yeah for Mr. Gallagher and Allegiant Air!

I am so glad that I waited to post about this situation until the happy ending.

I can now tell you all to go there and buy some tickets.

Just be sure to also buy that travel insurance,

so you don't lose $500, like we did.

Oh, and you will have to go somewhere besides Vegas,

they don't fly there from Knoxville any more.

But, hey, we finally have our $1171.50 back. I cannot complain. I won't do it.