I have a very good Aussie friend who was flying to England 20 years ago with his wife and young baby.

It’s an airline he had used many times before (guess which one) and he had nothing to grumble about. In fact, he used them by choice.

Anyhow, his wife was asleep and he was holding the baby in his arms when the little tyke woke up – hungry.

Rather than disturb everybody he wrestled out the baby’s bottle and flagged down a passing air steward. The conversation went something like this.

Tim: could you just warm this bottle up for me, please?

Steward: if you just walk up to the front of the plane sir, there’s a station you can use.

Tim: Thank you for that but as you can see I’m holding the baby and my wife’s asleep. Could you do it for me, please?

Steward: well sir, there’s a station and you can use it to warm up the bottle.

You get the idea. In the end, he had to wake his wife and disturb his baby; who started to cry.

He didn’t use that airline for 20 years and with his air miles, that’s well over A$100k in lost revenue for the sake of a baby’s bottle.

I’m sure the steward never intended that to happen. Perhaps he was busy; perhaps health and safety wouldn’t allow him to; perhaps he was grumpy that day. Who knows, but it was handled very badly and turned an advocate into an adversary.

Sometimes a split decision can cost you BIG TIME.

The small things really do count.