The Missing Heir(82)

                Roth opened his mouth, but Cole spoke right over him. “For the moment, Ms. Welsley has made a few decisions about passenger compensation.”

                “Thank you, Cole,” said Amber, her tone crisp, her posture straight. “As most of you know, new guidelines on passenger compensation were developed by the U.S. Consumer Association in October of this year.”

                “Voluntary guidelines,” said Roth.

                “Roth,” said Cole. “If you could please hold your comments.”

                Roth’s eyes blazed at the rebuke while Max obviously fought a smirk. Sidney also looked like he was enjoying himself.

                “Accounting has done a comparison between overbooked flights, passenger compensation and lost passenger revenue due to last minute cancellations. Bartholomew, can you put up the slides?”

                Bartholomew, who also looked a bit smug, brought up the graphic slides on the side screen.

                “As you can see,” said Amber, “with a change in our policy on flight overbooking, actual monetary loss will be manageable, while the marketing and social media attention, not to mention the customer confidence and goodwill could be significant. Therefore, we’ll immediately adopt the new guidelines on passenger compensation and suspend the policy that allows overbooking. That way, our customers can be completely confident in their travel plans.”

                She stopped speaking and looked levelly down the table.

                Cole felt an immediate surge of pride. She was damn good at this.

                “May we speak now?” asked Roth, sarcasm dripping from his tone.

                “Yes,” Amber answered, even though the question was directed at Cole.

                Cole’s pride in her increased.

                “The monetary losses will be significant,” said Roth.

                “Loses will be compensated for in the long run,” said Amber.

                “Maybe in a best-case scenario. But passengers don’t want certainty. They want low prices. If you drive our prices up by even ten dollars a ticket, they leave for the competition in droves.”

                “I’m not suggesting we change our prices,” said Amber.

                “You’re living in fantasyland,” Roth all but shouted. “Do you have any idea what kind of a mess you’ll leave for me to clean up?”

                Though he was trying to let Amber take the lead, Cole couldn’t help himself. “You?”

                Roth seemed to catch himself. “Us.”

                “Well, us,” said Cole, “is Ms. Welsley and me. And I agree with her assessment.”

                “I agree with it, too,” said Max. He looked to Sidney. “Can you work up a marketing plan? We’ll need to hit the ground running as soon as the announcement is made.”

                “I want to announce right away,” said Amber with both clarity and confidence. “I want passengers to know their remaining holiday travel plans will not be disrupted by overbooking.”

                “The Friends and Family campaign is nearly finished,” said Sidney. “We can easily incorporate this as a marquee element.”