Kairos in Apologies

In class last week we talked about how the timing of an apology is almost as important as the apology itself. Some examples of this: Countrywide and their faulty mortgages, and more recently Southwest Airlines and their brush-off from corporate in regards to their throwing a mini-skirt wearing passenger off of a flight. At first they ignored the media attention it was getting, then at the last minute, they did this sort of "aw shucks" shoulder shrug off. They tried to make it into a big joke, but the passenger surely isn't laughing. Then there was the issue with heavier passengers: they issued a policy that passengers over a certain weight have to purchase 2 seats. In a country that is riddled with obesity (latest studies have shown over a third of the population of the United States is obese) is it really a good idea to alienate your plumper clientele? There also seems to be a real rise in the trend of companies having fake blogs, or flogs, in order to promote their organization. Morally, this seems atrocious: it is dishonest and tricky puffery. Now, in perhaps a last minute dash to get some good spin out there, Southwest has announced this week that they will be changing the way they do business in a good way: they will now make it easier for passengers to hop on flights at the last minute without standby hassles. So, the kairos of Southwest reveals just how badly they are botching their relationship with the public: they need to deal with the "shit" as it hits the fan, or perhaps even beforehand, so their apologies don't seem half-hearted and vacuous.