Originally Posted by
Imstevek
I think you've made a bad assumption re: FT. Any casual visit here in the past 1-3 years by a United exec would see some rather irrational commentary trashing their airline and not a lot of benefit of the doubt (read today's EWR IDB thread as the latest example) in any situation. I'd be reluctant to reward that type of behavior of a community where the threads are typically trending negative.
Many of us who have been long time active members of the community have had a much more productive relationships in the past. I have had brand ambassadors reach out to me on FT or I have reached out to them for questions or issues.
There have always been irrational commentaries on here; it is the nature of the forums. The popularity of FT has certainly brought in more people, it also has increased the noise/complaints of some things. Overall, it was not a UA exec that would be engaged/reading these (at least not publicly identifying/answering posts).
We used to have much better engagements several years ago. And some other forums still do. For example, Starwood Lurker (iterations of) have participated in FT events and gatherings. This is a community that, in general, respects the brand/company that we do business with.
I suspect the disengagement may stem from a focus on other social media platforms like Twitter. Although that is a more recognized platform, the demographics on those users are not comparable in terms of knowledge, quality, or interest. However, it is an easy platform for UA to broadcast their marketing/announcements.
So given a limited amount of resources, I wouldn't be surprised if they disengaged from here and moved over to somewhere else with a greater audience (albeit different audience).