During an early February flight, American Airlines passengers were riled when, out of the blue, the pilot’s voice came over the intercom, suggesting that Christian passengers identify themselves and discuss their faith with non-Christian travelers. My suspicion is that the pilot was a refugee from the airline’s marketing department, which displayed similarly tin-eared tendencies during a recent trip I took.
Around that time, during my own admittedly non-ecumenical flight, American’s passengers were given an eight-question survey that combined the worst elements of market research and customer relationship management. I snagged an additional copy of the questionnaire, which marked the first time in a decade I’d received seconds on an airline handout.
It was labeled a feedback survey, but it sure as hell felt like a piece of marketing – and a shoddy one at that. The first question asked who had booked the trip, and through which channel, and whether the traveler had visited the American Airlines Web site within the last 12 months.
The questionnaire’s design ensured that passengers who had not visited American’s Web site would skip over question 4, which detailed all the wonderful conveniences they could enjoy through the airline’s Web site. Passengers that did not go to the site were shunted off to the last question, which asked whether the trip was for business or pleasure.
That was it. No request for general feedback. No place to jot my snarky little comment about a recent news item stating that Americans had gotten wider, but American Airlines’ seats had, based on immediate and rather uncomfortable personal experience, remained the same width.
Why American gave this out to passengers on the flight was beyond me. It seems that a more appropriate venue would have been on the actual Web site. But it may be that some market research hotshot thought that a cabin full of passengers was a captive, and therefore highly responsive, audience.
If this is the case, American has a lot of thinking ahead of it regarding what it asks of passengers during mid-flight. In a pressurized cabin, the last thing customers need is more pressure.
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