The confusion began with an ominous text message.

Flight number 2339 is severely delayed. Please see gate agent.

Less than thirty minutes earlier, I’d looked on the airline’s website to double check the departure time, since I knew that the East Coast was being pounded by late afternoon thunderstorms. Seeing no delay warning, I returned my rental car and headed to security. On my way to the first TSA checkpoint, I glanced up at the departure screen overhead. Flight 2339 Austin – Baltimore: on time.

Once I passed security, I went up to the gate and stood at the end of a long line of travelers. When it was finally my turn at the desk, I asked if there was, in fact, a delay.

“Well, it looks like the plane hasn’t taken off yet due to the weather,” she said.

“So we are severely delayed, then?” I pressed.

“My screen shows it’s still on time,” she responded.

“Can you tell me if the plane has left yet? Is it in the air?”

“It looks like it’s still in Baltimore,” she said.

“Austin is 1,500 miles from Baltimore,” I said. “If we’re supposed to leave in 50 minutes, our plane would have to take off now and fly three times the speed of sound in order to make it,” I said.

“Well, I can only go by what’s on my screen,” she scowled back, signaling for the next passenger.

Unable to retrieve any reliable information from that airline, I swiftly cancelled my flight and rebooked on another airline. It turns out that there was no weather delay for the other airline, or for my original airline either. The plane that was still in Baltimore had had a mechanical issue.

What happened to me may seem unremarkable to you, especially if you’re a frequent flier. But in the wake of the recent Asiana crash at SFO and the way critical updates were relayed to the affected passengers and their families, it’s a good time for travel industry professionals to reconsider how they keep their customers informed.

In the past six weeks, I’ve flown 8 times on three different airlines, ridden 6 trains and rented three cars. 72% of the time, something went wrong, whether it was a problem related to summer storms or a mechanical delay. My fellow passengers were disappointed and often enraged, many taking their vitriol to Facebook and Twitter.

Weather delays are understandable. Inconsistency in travel procedures and customer communication? Unforgivable.

The travel industry — airlines, trains, rental car companies, hotels — is particularly susceptible to customer outrage when inconsistency strikes. Consumers, after all, are asked to follow strict standards and procedures while traveling. For example, your liquids must be in 3.4 ounce bottles, packed in transparent 1-quart plastic baggies and removed from your suitcase before it’s sent down the conveyor belt for scanning. And yet the travel sector, TSA included, seem free to ignore these rules when they want to. Flying out of DCA (Washington, DC), ORD (Chicago-O’Hare) and MIA (Miami), I’ve not only never been asked to take out my own baggie, I’ve seen full-sized bottles of shampoos and hair sprays go through the x-ray machine detected but unremarked upon.

When renting a car, customers jump through an array of clerical hoops, entering a raft of personal information as well as their airline, flight number and arrival time, so that the local branch can manage its fleet. I’ve seen that work well in Austin, Texas. Yet three weeks ago in Boston, a friend was told that her vehicle wasn’t available because the previous renter hadn’t returned it yet. She pointed to a lot full of cars similar to the one she’d rented. “But we already printed the contract for the other car,” the rental car representative said, unwilling or unable to void the paper in his hand and print a new one.

For travel industry professionals, there appears to be a constant tension between consistency and rigidity. It’s entirely possible that TSA offers a set of rules for passengers and allows agents leeway to enforce those rules as they see fit at individual airports. Perhaps that the rental car agent was adhering very strictly to her company’s policy, and she really was not able to offer my friend a different vehicle.

Yes, there are times — TSA protocol, for example — when it makes perfect sense for staff to adhere to regulations exactly. (But in that case, if f the rule is no gigantic aerosol cans in carry-on bags, then don’t allow them through security.)

But there are plenty of other times when staff should make the smart decision to work in the best interests of their customers, even if a protocol needs bending. Consider what happened just after the crash of Asiana Flight 214. Friends, family members and coworkers with passengers on that flight had ample access to breaking news about the crash via social media — but extreme difficulty in learning what had just happened from the airport itself. Asiana airline representatives refused to release a list of the passengers aboard the plane, leaving hundreds of people to wonder whether someone they knew was aboard that flight or a different one coming in from Asia. Passengers were taken to nine hospitals, but airline and airport officials couldn’t relay any information about who had been sent where. The airline refused to release any cell phone numbers, meaning that Asiana passengers who were being picked up by coworkers or distant family friends languished in confusion and anger.

The key differentiator is hiring staff who can make the distinction between effective protocols and rigid rule-enforcing — and then training them to respond in real-time to customer needs.

I’ve put the question to airline crew and gate agents, as well as to managers at rental car companies and at Amtrak. I often hear that the vast inconsistencies in rules enforcement and in customer communication are a direct result of technology. In a quest for efficiency and speed, technology has made erratic customer communication inevitable, I’m told. There are lots of contractors hired by airlines and airports alike, and they don’t necessarily have access to the same training or supervision as full-time employees. Back-end system upgrades or server issues might suddenly affect an entire fleet, as we saw after the system-wide computer outage at Southwest Airlines in June.

I’m someone who works very closely with technology and data in particular, and I would argue that technology challenges aren’t excuses for poor customer communication. Computers haven’t — and shouldn’t — replace critical thinking and common sense.

The problem has to do with how the industry as a whole relates to its customers. The culture precludes offering total transparency, offering very basic information only when absolutely necessary. When a train is delayed, we never know the cause or context. When a flight time is changed, we’ve offered no details beyond “mechanical” or “weather.” We even see this in the physical layouts of car rental locations, which tend to be austere counter-tops with windowless doors. If we have a question or want to speak to a manager, we’re left in front of that solid door, not knowing when a manager will emerge or whether our problem will be solved.

Customer-centric communication can be achieved while still enforcing rules and safety protocol. Companies must work harder to train staff so that they can do their jobs well while doing right by their customers. When staff aren’t trained properly, it makes bad days for them, as well as bad experiences for customers. I’ve observed airline staff who don’t fully understand how to use their organization’s ticketing systems, stranding irate passengers who may otherwise have boarded connecting flights. Similarly, I’ve seen too many seething rental car customers scream at staff because of mismanaged inventory on the lot.

Misinformation and willy-nilly application of rules is the fastest way to ruin a reputation. Consider this small sampling of tweets:

@ICole23: Quite possibly my worst airline experience ever with @SouthwestAir at midway airport right now… Time to officially never fly SW again @dcjpad: Thanks, @avis, for doing what @hertz couldn’t: actually provide a car with my reservation. @abumbalough: Canceled flight. Classic @united. @CMPunk: Holy crap @united. Your flight attended [sic] Tara on my flight needs to learn how to be polite, courteous and HELPFUL. Worst experience. @Krewella: Thanks @delta for sitting on the runway for an hour ‘burning off extra fuel’ since you overfilled. #Greenpeace @YahooShine #TSA worker-turned-fashion police shames #teen girl: http://ow.ly/m7HxT Not OK @BethEveNYC @simonsinek: #tsa agent checking her iPhone instead of the X-ray. Seriously guys?

Especially while traveling, when so many variables are in play, customers are eager for a dependable experience free of unpredictable deviations. The travel industry has numerous tools at its disposal. This is the easiest time in our history to communicate openly and clearly with passengers. The truth is that with the proliferation of social media, we’re going to hear about critical delays and problems anyway — the airlines, airports, rental car companies, train companies ought to become the primary source of that information.

We all want to travel safely. Most passengers are just seeking a consistent experience, honest answers, and a meaningful way to make informed decisions.