american airlines

Why Southwest Grabs My Business, Again and Again

February 27, 2012 by Robert Mark

Word of Mouth marketing (WOM) is a bit like the Superman of campaigns. Nothing can stop it. That’s because the company the campaign focuses on has little or nothing to do with the effort. It’s all customer driven. People recommending products they love straight from the heart — with no interference from the marketing folks — can easily make a product go viral.

But a bad WOM is equally tough to squelch, often generating reputationally-treacherous stories like the ones many U.S. airlines are often party to. Remember United Breaks Guitars (viewed 11.5 million times so far), or the Top 10 Reasons the Northwest pilots missed Minneapolis?

To me, WOM really comes home when I think of Southwest Airlines, the brainchild a few decades ago of Herb Kelleher and Rolin King. I tell people that I fly American and Southwest almost exclusively, but if Southwest Airlines flew to all my travel destinations, they’d corral all of my business, despite the slightly longer drive to MDW. Why? It’s so simple … flying Southwest I mean. [Read more…] about Why Southwest Grabs My Business, Again and Again

Jetwhine Tries to Out-Cranky the Cranky Flier

February 5, 2012 by Robert Mark

Jetwhine

Jetwhine Tries to Out-Cranky the Cranky Flier

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I’m made quite a career out of whining about the aviation industry, but even I need someone’s shoulder to moan on every so often. As I sit here in a hotel room in Bordeaux trying to get back to the states from France using an American/Iberia code-share ticket, the story of how I got here … and how I’ll get back was simply too much even for an ex-airline guy like me. Imagine my shock when it took four different airline partners to complete one trip across the Atlantic.

Best of all, many of the French aviation unions are calling a strike for first thing Monday … the day I head back to America. Oh goodie.

I knew only one man could help me keep my sanity and explain for whom exactly, airline code-sharing is such a great solution.

I called Brett Snyder … The Cranky Flier. Before YOU book a ticket on an airline partner, you’d better give our conversation a listen.

Rob Mark

AA Pilots: Bankruptcy is YOUR Fault

November 30, 2011 by Robert Mark

From Paris —

There’s no small amount of irony that AMR, parent of American Airlines and American Eagle, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection — a move certain to save the carrier millions over the next few years — only a day before 2,000,000 million British public sector workers walked off the job to protest pension cuts in the UK.

Gerald Arpey stepping down as American’s CEO is just a tad late though since the airline lost billions in six of the eight years he ran the place. The union’s hated him so it was no surprise management told everyone that the straw that pushed the carrier over the edge was the inability of AA’s 11,000+ pilots to agree on productivity cuts in the upcoming contract.

You bad pilots.

The greedy Allied Pilots Association’s Master Executive Council, in fact, reportedly refused to even present management’s last offer to the rank and file. Clearly, just as in Britain, fault clearly rests with labor. Here we are in the worst recession/depression in a century and these damned pilots still want stuff. The nerve of these pilots trying to outmaneuver management.

Now American’s filed bankruptcy because those greedy employees went out and blew their huge bonuses again with no thought for tomorrow. Oh wait a minute … that’s right … it was just management who picked up those bonuses wasn’t it. Oh whatever.

Obviously those stupid pilots don’t realize the corner they’ve put management in. Those poor fat cats are down to their last $4.1 B in cash too. That doesn’t leave much for anyone else for god’s sake.

C’mon you American pilots. Times really are tough. Can’t you just take one more for the team … just once more? Management’s got your back this time … really.

“Oh Paaaleazzzze!” But a common philosophy that labor and management are natural enemies is also ridiculous. That antagonism was born from too many layers of airline management losing touch with the pilots, flight attendants, mechanics and ground personnel who actually perform the work.

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