You’ve probably noticed by now that the story has gone viral today. It’s been picked up all over the country, including the AP and USA Today. It’s been covered in far too many places for me to list even a fraction of them. The Consumerist story has over 40,000 hits, the story on my blog has over 8000 hits, and Google News reports almost 300 related articles.
Nothing is definite, but I will probably be appearing tomorrow morning on Good Morning America, the Early Show, and Fox News. At some point in the future I may be interviewed by Inside Edition.
Aside from those, we’re turning off the spigot. My goal was to make this incident so public that Continental would have no choice but to address the failures which allowed it to occur, and that has clearly been achieved. It’s time for our family to return to our private lives.
Everyone who has covered the story has asked to interview our daughter on camera. We have politely but consistently denied such requests and will continue to do so. The incident on Sunday was far more traumatic for my wife and me and her parents than it was for our daughter. Letting reporters stick cameras in her face and ask, “Were you scared?” would produce a harmful self-fulfilling prophecy.
Nina: Bologna. Mr. Kamens did the right thing — by forcing this into the media spotlight, Continental and the other major airlines will have little choice but to make changes. I think he’s singlehandedly made flying safer for all unaccompanied minors — because, let’s face it, inattentive and/or incompetent airline personnel are a hell of a lot more of a threat to flight safety than a 12 oz can of soda. If you had a kid and Continental lost him or her, I imagine you’d be shouting it from the rafters, too. I sure would. I say, bravo.
Nina,
You are soooooo off base on this one. The media may have a bad name, but one good thing about it is that common citizens such as Jonathan can expose big corporations for misdeeds without the corporation being able to sweep it under the rug.
It’s sad, but sometimes corporations figure doing the bare minimum that is expected of them is acceptable. Only when their stock prices might be affected or the loyalty of other customers do they finally get it.
I am glad to see that you have denied the media access to your daughter and I commend you for having the courage to make this mishap public knowledge and not just accepting Continental’s lame excuse for an apology.
Nina, Jik has a good point, Continental never would have done anything besides say “I’m sorry” if he hadn’t gone public. There would not have been any investigation into the fact that two planes left Logan with an incorrect number of passengers on them.
He’s not looking for fame, he’s looking to make sure it doesn’t happen to anyone else.
any self respecting father and reasonable person would keep their interactions between them and a Company private…not post it as a play by play of “look at what I’m getting out of this!”
I’m sure Continental would have been every bit as responsive if I hadn’t gone public.
Yeah, right.
And, of course, if I hadn’t gone public, the Houston Chronicle wouldn’t have discovered that the exact same thing happened to another girl just one day before it happened to my daughter, which makes it rather obvious that this is not an isolated occurrence.
you are now on the yahoo homepage too..
Well, this has definitely gotten you your 9 of 15mins of fame. Tomorrow will bring in the remaining minutes and then you can sign up for a made for tv movie. It’s clearly understood that Continental made an error and you’ve made your point, but any self respecting father and reasonable person would keep their interactions between them and a Company private…not post it as a play by play of “look at what I’m getting out of this!” This is not a reality tv show which pretty much has become a way of life here in the US of A. How sad for all of us!