When Tech Stalls, Human Service Holds It Together

When technology stalls, your team’s response becomes your brand.

It was a Friday night at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam.
We were due to fly to Copenhagen on a 9 pm departure, already delayed an hour, when the announcement came:

“We regret to inform you that this flight has been cancelled. The staff here cannot help you. Please refer to your airline app for rebooking.”

It was after 10 pm. Dozens of us stood at the gate, watching an aircraft we weren’t getting on, with no service desk, no one offering hotel vouchers, and no way to speak to a real person.

I pulled out my phone. The app still showed the flight as scheduled. I refreshed again and again, hoping it would catch up.
When it finally updated to reflect the cancellation, a new frustration set in: the only rebooking options available were three days later.

Three days.

No alternatives. No way to flag our situation. Just a cold screen that, if followed, would have meant missing our entire Copenhagen weekend and arriving late to the family wedding in Sweden that followed.

The App vs The Human

Having worked in travel myself, I knew the best option was to call before the rest of the passengers did the same.
So we sat on the airport floor, phones to our ears, waiting on hold.

When the agent finally answered, something shifted.
Unlike the app, she listened. She understood the urgency of our situation, and she got creative.

The solution wasn’t perfect: a connection through London the following evening, arriving in Copenhagen close to midnight. But it meant we could still make it, and it saved our trip.

That outcome would never have been possible through the app alone.

The Service Lesson

Technology can streamline service, but when it falters, human capability is what holds the experience together.

Clients don’t expect perfection; they expect care.
They want to feel someone is on their side, especially when things go wrong.
That’s what creates loyalty, even in the face of disappointment.

AI, automation, and apps will continue to shape the future of service. But for now, they can’t replace the reassurance of a human touch when things don’t go to plan.

That wasn’t the end of the story.
Because once the flights were sorted, we still had to face the ripple effects, including our hotel booking in Copenhagen.

And that’s where I experienced the opposite: not abandonment, but consistent care (stay tuned for the next blog post: When consistency becomes the calm in the chaos).

→ That’s the balance that separates efficient service from resilient service.