On the way to Denver the other day I noticed problem solving and customer service in action. After sitting down in my tiny (read: coach) seat, I turned on my Notable Business Responses radar and observed. A flight attendant made room for another passenger’s luggage by removing pillows from a reserved space. The passenger put his luggage up and that’s when the radar went off.

Rather than taking all the pillows to the rear of the plane and finding some 4 cubic inch space to magically store the pillows, she started offering them to anyone who wanted one.

Now, I know it’s not a new concept to offer the passengers pillows. But, usually, the pillows aren’t distributed until later in the trip. In essence, she solved 2 problems at the same time. I congratulate her for 1) not just denying the passenger’s need for luggage space just for the, no matter how small, space for pillows and 2) finding the positive customer service lining to the cloud of reality to how small the plane really is.