At
VB, staff are required to refer to passengers as "guests". They have done this since they started really. Its quite a nice gesture I think although I'm sure many will disagree.
Traditionally a guest doesn't pay. If I am your guest I turn up and you entertain and feed me for free. In return I take what I get graciously, try to be a good guest and refrain from complaining about your cooking. The only time I am the guest of an airline is if they're providing free tickets, otherwise I am a customer.
It's obviously popular with a lot of people, but I personally hate it. I think it's trite, try hard and actually demeans the pax, because a guest is supposed to put up with crap out of politeness and a customer isn't.
That said, all the CS skills in the world wouldn't have made this mess go away. IME The only 'communication' delayed pax want to hear is 'Your aircraft is ready now'. Anything else is nice and good airline
PR, but doesn't actually make people feel much better.