American Airlines Sucks, and I’m Not the Only One Who Says That
American Airlines sucks. I will never fly them again. OK, after I board flight 2412 from DFW to BDL. And I’m not the only person who thinks bad thoughts about them: a Google search for “American Airlines sucks” came up with more than 137,000 results (including
this one).
When the customer service luddites don’t have the common courtesy to help my elderly mother and I at a kiosk (with no scanner) as we’re running late to catch a flight, that’s a customer service issue. When the customer service guy laughs at my mother as she tries to figure the kiosk out, that’s even worse. And then when we’re told we can’t get onto our flight because we’re now too late for a boarding pass, it’s a big issue.
And when the customer service supervisor tells my brother-in-law, a retired Captain at American, to talk to the hand… then I’m boiling!
Why is this important to the Big Fat Marketing Blog readers? Many reasons. Number one, marketers need to monitor what’s going on with customer service. Bad experience = angry customer = customer telling 50 friends how horrible the experience was. Or worse, blogging about it.
I actually changed my Facebook status update to reflect something about the horrible customer service I experienced (but it’s not suitable for virgin eyes). And like rapid-fire, my friends were relaying their horrible experiences with American, who they recommend, and so on. Yes, people do read and respond to status updates.
I’ll go more into detail about this later – from the snarky guy laughing at my mother, the lack of direction at check in, and the talk-to-the-hand lady to the attempt to shake us down for $400+ each plus a $150 change fee to get us on our way and the Office Space-esque repeated answer similar to the running “you left the cover off your TPS report” gag. But I’m sure (and hoping) my sister will help out and leave a comment (and she’s boiling right now!).
And even if she doesn’t, I am hoping you’ll share with the Big Fat Marketing Blog your horrible airline experiences.
By the way, my mother was reaching for the nitroglycerin, she was very agitated, and the AA crew could have cared less. And for that alone, I demand an AApology from the airline.
And maybe air travel is that horrible: After all, American is tied for third in the BrandKeys’s Customer Loyalty Engagement Index for 2009.
