Customer Service is our number one priority at Reagan National Airport.  To ensure our employees are providing the best experience possible, we have a customer service employee recognition program called "GEM" or "Going the Extra Mile."  We need your help recognizing those employees who "Go the Extra Mile" to make your travel experience great. If you would like to share your wonderful experience with an employee, please nominate them for recognition through our GEM program.

 

 

GEM Recognition Program Guidelines

• All badged employees are eligible (Airline, TSA, Airports Authority, etc)
• GEM nominees must have “Gone the Extra Mile” for a customer service reason.
• All nominations should be complete and legible with full detailed information warranting the nomination.
• Incomplete nominations may not be considered.

Nominate an airport employee using the online webform

 

Recent GEM Award Recipients

Ronald Reagan National Airport is proud to recognize its recent GEM (Going The Extra Mile) award recipients for excellent customer service.

Meki Minni, 5 Star U Street Parking

A customer, who parked in the garage, had a rather large outstanding parking balance and did not have the funds to pay for his vehicle to exit the lot.  The customer was an elderly man who was accompanied by his teenage son, who was not dressed for the weather. The customer had no family or firends to assist him and no where to go.  The customer was contemplating sleeping in his car until the morning when he could get the funds to get his car out of the garage.  Mr. Minni, the parking representative, jumped into action and offered to assist the customer. He took him and his son to a nearby hotel and paid for his room for the night.  He also purchased dinner for the man and gave him money to get bac to the airport to pay his bill in the morning. 

Raymond Randolph, G2 and Smarte Carte

A customer had lunch in a resturant in Terminal B/C despite having a flight out of Terminal A.  He was a disabled veteran and was in a wheelchair. As he entered Terminal A, he heard a page that he had left a valuable article at the resturant.  He had exactly 40 minutes until his flight left.  Mr. Randolph, his assigned wheelchair assistant, volunteered to run back to the resturant and get the article.  Because of his kind gesture, the customer was able to board the flight with his valued article. 

Deby Wulff, Travelers Aid

Deby received a phone call from a woman looking for her boss's son.  He flew unaccompanied and had a connecting flight at DCA.  The flight was delayed and his parents were having trouble finding him in the airport.  Deby worked with the airline to find what gate he and his airline escort would be located.  Deby then went out to the gate, found the boy, connected him with his parents, and waited with him until he got on the airplane.

Maria Velasquez, MBS Custodial

A Travelers Aid volunteer received a call from a man who was late to pick up his elderly relative.  He described the woman as a Spanish speaker who would be waiting at Baggage Claim.  Travelers Aid began to search for the woman.  They came upon Ms. Velasquez who was performing her normal duties in the area. Travelers Aid explained what they were doing and Maria offered to help.  They searched baggage claim together.  Travelers Aid finally found the woman outside at the curb but she did not understand what they were saying.  Maria went outside and spoke to the woman in Spanish.  She helped the woman contact the family member on her cell phone and assisted in getting her comfortable in the baggage claim area.    

Officer Eric Rosario, MWAA PD

A young woman came upon an older woman in distress at Gravely Point near the airport.  She walked with her to the airport and to a Travelers Aid desk.  At the Information Desk they determined they needed to take her to the police station.  Officer Rosario took the case.  He followed up with the Travelers Aid translation service to see if he could understand her any more than the others.  He also looked in the woman's cell phone for a contact number.  He found a frequently used number and placed a call.  He reached a resturant owner in Florda who knew the woman and told him that  her husband had just thrown her out of the house.  The resturant owner agreed to help the woman by purchasing an airline ticket for her to Tampa.  Officer Rosario went upstairs with the woman to assist her with acquiring the airline ticket and out to her aircraft.  The woman flew on to Tampa.

Seth Gleeson, Travelers Aid

A young woman came to the Information Desk and asked to use the phone.  She had arrived at the airport via Metro. She left her cell phone on the train.  The young woman called a family member to tell them she would not be accesssible.  About 10 minutes later, volunteer Seth, was hurrying on his way to North Pier.  He received a phone call from a good samaritan who found the phone on the Metro.  She said she was jumping on a north bound train to the airport and would be running in with the phone.  The good samaritan was able to tell Seth the flight number, gate, and boarding time from the woman's phone.  Seth hurried out to the gate to stop the woman from boarding.  He also arranged for her to drop the phone at the Information Desk so staff could run it to him as fast as possible.  Seth found the young woman, exited the gate area, received the phone, went back through the checkpoint to the waiting woman and gave her the phone.     

Zalalem Anteneh, 5 Star U Street Parking

A young man went tio the Information Booth and asked about a lost item.  He was quite distressed that a hard black plastic tube of posters he was bringing to his Chicago work conference had been misplaced.  He said he believed the posters were left on the airport shuttle bus he used to come to Terminal A from the Metro B exit. Travelers Aid called shuttle buses and Supervisor Anteneh answered.  He radioed his drivers to look for the tube.  The customer was quite nervous since it was 30 minutes until his flight's departure. As they waited, the customer began to think the posters had been left at the shuttle pick up shelter instead of on the bus itself.  Supervisor Anteneh called back and said the driver found the poster tube in the shelter and would pull up in 5 minutes.  The poster tube was returned to the customer in time for him to make his flight.    

Brian Kalish, MWAA Communications and Travelers Aid

A visually impaired woman in a wheelchair and her husband came to the Information Desk where volunteer Brian Kalish was working after spending his day during his communications job.  They had just arrived from Dallas and were in town for the husband's upccoming performance at the Kennedy Center.  The woman was upset since she realized her carry on bag with all her chemo medications was missing.  Brian tried to call the Baggage Office for Southwest Airlines but when there was no answer, he decided it would be best to hustle over there with the couple.  A Southwest agent immediately began to help Brian search for the bag.  The two went out to the gate, fanned out and located the bag. 

Carol Best Aaron, American Airlines
A customer's daughter had lost her driver's license while traveling through the airport.  The customer could not find the id anywhere.  Thankfully the customer found Carol who went above and beyond to locate the id and then get it back into the customer's hands in time for the next leg of thier flight.

Maria Spottswood, Travelers Aid

A customer came to the Information Desk and told Maria that someone had taken his wife's carry on bag while they were waiting at the airline ticket counter.  Maria called the airport police. Just then another volunteer made an announcement that the carryon bag had just been brought to her.  A passenger had accidentally picked up the wrong bag.  Maria told the couple to head to the security checkpoint but not to go through until she brought the bag to them.  Maria ran to the other Information Desk, grabbed the bag, and quickly took it to the checkpoint.  It was the couple's bag and they made thier flight in time. 

Cornelius Whiting, TAPS

A customer was traveling with her special needs daughter who was in a wheelchair.  She was in DC to see numerous doctors at NIH.  The customer was dragging a heavy suitcase, carry ons and pushing her daughter's wheelchair.  She was looking for the pick up location for the NIH shuttle.  She walked the length of the airport 3 times as she was given incorrect directions.  Finally as she sat down to cry, she found Cornelius.  Cornelius was having lunch and asked her where she was trying to go.  He then offered to push the wheelchair to the pick up location.  It was still quite a ways from where they had met but he pushed her all the way to the stop.  The woman and her daughter made the shuttle 2 minutes later.

Sally Maclean and Frank Crummer, Travelers Aid

A woman told Sally that she had left her laptop at Dulles.  She lost it near the Super Shuttle desk so she called and the agent told her they took the laptop to the Travelers Aid desk at IAD.  Sally called Travelers Aid at Dulles and spoke with Frank Crummer.  He indeed had the laptop and had been trying to locate the passenger.  Sally asked him if he could find someone to deliver the laptop.  Frank said, "I will deliver it myself!"  Frank drove with the laptop in his personal car over from Dulles and returned it to the woman.