UnAmerican Airlines: Loyalty, Schmolyalty
Regular readers know of my vendetta against issue with American Airlines over a measly $50 luggage fee. I’ve written to AA, including both the CEO and Mark Mitchell, their “tsar of customer service” as well as filed disputes with Am Ex - to no avail.
In one of my rounds with AA via email, they told me they “don’t research online blogs.” Well, okay that might work for ya, AA, if your exposure in blogville was limited to “little” ol’ bloggers like me.
And, then I read this from Doc Searls, (who is a Poobah blogger and big brain Web thought leader) : UnAmerican Airlines, talking about Jake McKee’s recent problem with AA when his grandmother died.
The short of it is that American Airlines not only decided not to waive the opportunity to soak Jake an extra $359 for moving his departure from New York one day ahead to make his grandma’s funeral, but gave him this peevish, passive-aggressive policy-über-alles response: “American reviewed the policy a few years back and decided that since funeral homes, doctors, and clothiers don’t discount their rates, we shouldn’t either.”
Wow! Thanks for the concern, AA! Yep, that’s the AA I’ll no longer fly. I’m going to be burning up my frequent flyer miles even faster now that I’ve read this about Mr. McKee.
If AA ever cared to “research online blogs” Mr. McKee has at least 260 bloggers that connect to him. Doc has nearly 900 (on just one blog). Little ol’ me even has over 150. You do the viral math…
P.S. AA? No, Thanks. I’ve already “experienced” AA as much as I’d like. (After all the emails basically telling me to go ‘way - here comes the ever-so-cheery “hey, buy something!” pitch.)
Tags: marketing, marketing troubleshooting, customer service, American Airlines, American Airlines problems, American Express problems, American Airlines CEO, Mark Mitchell
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February 20th, 2008 at 8:10 pm
Thanks for helping to spread the word. Crazy thing is, between newsletters, RSS, and Web traffic, I’m getting far more traffic than you might estimate. I’m sure Doc does too. And yeah, the word of mouth/viral spread is far crazier than AA *should* be willing to accept.
February 20th, 2008 at 8:36 pm
Yes, it amazes me how any company could be so utterly clueless. Just your one post has probably lost them many thousands in business.
Somebody at AA is paying at least some attention - I had two visitors from AA on February 11. Of course, they still wrote me the blow-off letter. Ah well, at least Am Ex gave me a $50 credit…and I won’t be flying AA again unless I absolutely have no other choice.