Thursday, April 09, 2009

Open Letter to American Airlines

Dear American Airlines,

I would like to inform you that I get angry every time I have to pay you extra to check a bag. I would have no problem with fees for a second checked bag (although Southwest Airlines does allow me to check two bags at no charge!), but a fee for the first piece of luggage is extortion.

Why not just make the ticket cost $15 more? Then I would only have one receipt to track, and not get so dang annoyed each time I fly with your company.

Maybe I am the only person in the world who feels this way. Maybe you don't mind that I pick Southwest Airlines first when the schedule and destination allow. But have you ever thought that that little perky upstart airline from the 1970s actually figured out the nuts and bolts of customer service, and thus there is a reason for their success? Rather than just doing everything that Delta and Continental do in lockstep, maybe you should copy the airline that is winning in this game!

Sincerely,

A Passenger

PS- I know first hand that Southwest Airlines monitors blogs and Twitter to see what people are saying about them. And they respond and show that they hear the people out there who are making noise. I know that at SWA important things from the blogospher and Twitterville get passed all the way up the chain to the management. I do not know if that happens at American Airlines.

2 comments:

Wayne John said...

I sincerely hope they hear you on this. I cannot stand flying and dread it whenever I HAVE to. It used to be fun and nice, but it doesn't seem that way anymore.

Cheers Thom!

Btw, I saw your comment on Darren's recent post regarding your theme. I'm actually writing a series that will show you step by step how to build a theme that you might want to latch on to. If you're the type that wants to make their own changes. I'm excited about it, because I know that if you follow along, you're going to get a lot of "ah-ha's". Hope to see you there!

Sue Rostvold said...

Tom,

I would have to agree with you, and I will be very curious to hear if American Airlines is listening. Even though I usually feel a little physically scrunched up on SWA, I've never had any issues with them as an airlines. They have embraced social media and they clearly know what they're doing. They listen to their customers AND their employees.