Prompt
Scenario: A traveler is in an airport waiting for the last leg of a flight home when their flight gets abruptly canceled due to bad weather.
Challenge: Write a message from the airline app notifying them of the cancellation and what they need to do next.
Constraints:
10 Minute Time Limit
Headline: 45 Characters Max
Body: 175 Characters Max
Button(s): 25 Characters Max
FINAL COPY
Your flight to AUS has been canceled
Your flight was canceled due to unsafe weather, but we’ve saved you a seat on the next available flight to AUS at 4:30PM. Book this seat or choose a new flight at no extra cost.
Book Now | All Options
My Approach
User Needs:
- Needs to know ASAP that their flight was cancelled
- Needs to know what options they have (Since our traveler is already in the airport and needs to get home, the most relevant info is how to get on the next available flight)
Voice and Tone:
- We’re speaking to someone frustrated and disappointed — we want our traveler to know we take this seriously and understand how upsetting the situation is. A tone that’s too playful or friendly wouldn’t feel empathetic, but dismissive.
- I choose Southwest as a brand reference to save time. I fly with them the most and understand their voice. They position themselves as a people-first airline and use lots of casual, approachable language like “Wanna Get Away?”
So I need messaging that sounds human and approachable but not so casual that it lacks empathy.
Considerations
I noticed that I ended up removing all the apologetic language to meet the character limit while covering all my priorities. Still, I think this is the most empathetic and helpful option for the traveler. Creative writers like to say “show, don’t tell.” Trying to make things right is more powerful than saying you’d like to make things right, so I prioritize the answer over the apology.
In some drafts, I imagined the airline automatically rebooking the passenger and giving them a new departure time and terminal to report to. This felt oddly cold. I realized that you feel powerless when your plane is cancelled and herding our traveler like sheep would contribute to that feeling. Even for a system that automatically reassigns them, phrasing it as an option they can confirm or change gives them a little more autonomy. Plus, this call to action guides the user from their initial disappointment into a problem-solving phase.