Wouldn’t it be something — if your airline knew you’d had a bad day – for example, maybe you were bumped from a flight, or endured a delay of several hours – and they automatically offered you a nice little freebie? A drink, an upgrade?

Don’t tell me I’m dreaming. On a small scale this is already happening, according to Scott McCartney’s Middle Seat column.

The airlines, he writes, are doing more and more with CRM systems (“consumer relationship management”) – technology that tracks your preferences and history – as in, “We can’t bump this guy – we bumped him yesterday!”

It’s turning up in small ways at Alaska Airlines – for example, flight attendants are now alerted to “elite” passengers sitting in coach, and bring them their favorite drink as a “thanks for your business” gesture.

Nice idea. But, McCartney says, CRM technology is not in wider use because the airlines “have multiple old computer systems that don’t share information well.”

I know the airlines already have a million things on their plate, what with passenger traffic in “Great Depression” mode – but this could be invaluable in terms of great publicity – and more importantly, it seems like it could create customer loyalty like nothing else. Readers, your thoughts?