For Those Who Think AA Doesn't Know FT...
 

AA's Top Customers Log in to "Air" Opinions
By Mick Doherty
Corporate Communications

Like many e-mailed suggestions that come to Corporate Communications, this one started with an introduction.
My name is 777Brit and I'm a moderator in the American Airlines forum at the world's most popular online frequent flier BBS site, flyertalk.com. One of our contributors recently started a thread, entitled ...
OK, wait. BBS? Thread? Forum? Moderator?

What?

Online tools such as the Web and e-mail have changed the face of business communications over the past decade. Hey, as recently as two years ago, you wouldn't have been reading this story on Jetnet, which did not yet exist. Nonetheless, many of the most common tools remain a bit of a mystery to casual Internet users.

One such tool is the BBS, or Bulletin Board System. Now, you hear "bulletin board" and you probably immediately think of the cork-and-pushpin setup in the local break room. If that's the case - good. It is exactly that, except it's online, so pushpins are a bad idea.

Public Service Announcement: What is a BBS?
Let's turn that question over to Stephen B. Henry, SysOp (that's another one of those techie terms, short for "Systems Operator") of the Ambassador Board network of BBS systems.

"The first BBS was hosted on a small computer and was simply an electronic version of the bulletin board you often see in small convenience shops or grocery stores," said Henry. "A place to post simple messages. It was a useful way for many people, remote from each other, to leave messages for each other."

Often, a BBS will be broken up into "forums" (general topics of interest) which in turn play host to various "threads" (specific topics of the day within the forum's general topic). For instance, on the FlyerTalk BBS, the American Airlines forum has hosted recent threads including topics ranging from "AA International 767 Service" to "Question About AA Parking at JFK."

Most forums have moderators like 777Brit to keep an eye on the postings, while each BBS may have slightly different rules about who is allowed to post messages.

The first BBS dates back a quarter of a century to 1978, pre-dating the Web by 15 years and AOL by nearly a decade. Want to read more about the history and technology of the BBS? Okay, no problem. Otherwise ...

Now, Back to Our Regularly Scheduled Feature
The e-mail from 777Brit pointed out another recent thread that began with a question posted by a two-year veteran of FlyerTalk who is also an AA Platinum customer:

Please post the reasons you still fly AA.

"I'm an ex-AA'er," said 777Brit, "still proud of American and proud to be associated with AA. These comments are coming from American's own frequent fliers, and most importantly, their elite Executive Platinum and Platinum customers."

Those elite customers can still identify plenty of items that differentiate AA from the competition.

A number of contributors to this thread specifically named the "great employees" and "proactive customer service" as a key reason they continue to fly AA. One even tagged it "Good Service AAtitudes in general."

Many were more specific, such as the Platinum customer who gushed, "AA employees, specifically the TPA check-in desk, TPA GAs and TPA-DFW crews. That does not mean that the rest [are] not up to par, it's just that I deal with these folks a great deal more, but I also had GreAAt service in ORD, SEA, LGW, YVR ... the Platinum desk has been wonderful. ThAAnks AA!"

"AA has some of the best employees in the business," wrote another, "Good food, good service and a pretty generous redemption program." But it's not just the Platinum customers with glowing reviews; one poster stressed that AA has ""Excellent Customer Service even for those of us who are not elites."

While contributors also named dozens of specific products such as powerports, as well as the breadth of destinations in the AA network, others admitted other reasons for their partisan opinions. "I like the name "American" when I fly," wrote one; another added "[I'm] proud to fly an airline named for the place I was born/raised/live/work/play."

There are literally millions of individual comments in thousands of online forums dedicated to the airline industry. Additional stories highlighting some of the common themes - yes, the bad as well as the good - will occasionally be published here on Jetnet.

Which Way is That Wind Blowing?
We'll also examine some of the business uses of public BBS postings; for instance, did you know that the Product Planning group at AA.com has made use of 777Brit's flyertalk forum, albeit indirectly, to gather feedback?

Kyle Kramer, who works in that AA.com Product Planning group, identified FlyerTalk as "an interesting place to check which way the wind is blowing, so to speak" with respect to the AA.com Web site. "They are quick to respond to changes we make to the site - both good and bad," said Kramer.

"These people seem to know the airline system inside and out," Kramer added. "The people who post to FlyerTalk are loyal, critical, opinionated customers who often seem to know as much about our business as we do."

Recently, for instance, Kramer conducted an online usability survey to capture feedback regarding some preliminary design ideas being proposed for AA.com.

"My mail list captured some of the FlyerTalk folks," said Kramer. "To make a long story short, screenshots were on FlyerTalk within hours of the launch of the survey, along with a corresponding thread of the pros and cons of our proposed changes."

The feedback was not out of line with expectations, said Kramer, "and it provided good supporting evidence for what we were trying to determine."

In the particular case pointed out by 777Brit, though, it's just nice to remind ourselves that customers do appreciate what AA has to offer ? and that includes "Good Service AAtitudes."

Know of a good BBS? Seen a particularly interesting thread recently? Let us know.

[Edited to remove MY real name! - 777Brit]

[This message has been edited by 777Brit (edited 09-02-2003).]

When was this published? It seems a bit like they are patting themselves on the back. Still, I can't argue with the excellent customer service AA provides through the PLT desk. Now if only there were larger portions in F to HNL....

I agree. It sounds like the stuff you read in the inflight magazines. Shameless self-promotion. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

The good point of this article, which I assume was T/BE20/G's point in posting it, was the fact that AA's planning group actually sought feedback from FT.

This was posted on AA's employee intranet, Jetnet

It's in reference to this thread - originally started by yyzflyer

In case you all weren't aware, I do bring certain threads to AA's attention, and I felt that this thread was important because let's face it, AA front-line employees never tend to hear the good stuff.

I think it's also important for us all at FlyerTalk to know that AA does listen to us and learn from FT.

Thanks for everyone's participation and valuable contribution. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

------------------
777Brit
AA Forum Moderator
[email protected]

[This message has been edited by 777Brit (edited 09-02-2003).]

OK, so it is corporate communications! I do like the idea that AA can, in some way, respond to us.

I have no problem with the front line employees..it is [name removed] at the AA advantage program with whom I have a problem. I am trying to get my old TWA miles credited. I've been told no way and that we "will just have to agree to disagree" about this matter. I'm sure it is nothing to them, but to me it is a lot. I really worked to get those miles. I was never sent anything that said if you do not do something by this date you lose the miles. I have friend who told me their miles were tranferred to an AA account without having done a thing! So I am wondering why it was not done for me?? My letters have been address to [name removed], not [name removed] and I guess I'd like an answer from the person to whom I sent the certified letter. I am not happy with American Airlines customer service. And that is an understatement!

Didn't they send a notice to all TWA FF members? If they did and you simply didn't get it, I don't think AA can be blamed. They seemed to make it clear before the final date that TWA miles would be forfeited if not converted and as far as I can remember this was posted on both the TWA and AA websites.I recall nothing about the conversion being automatic.

It's a shame to lose miles, but I don't think AA should be chastised.

It's quaint that AA refers to this as a BBS - I haven't heard term in 15 years. After graphic browsers made the Internet attractive to the masses, bbs's faded into the sunset.

rifiya, first, let me (as a totally unrepresentative and non-official FTer,) welcome to FT!

Now about AA and your Aviators miles, I feel your pain, a little bit :( . But it seems to opinionated me that you waited a he** of a LONG TIME to begin inquiries about transferring your miles. American Airlines acquired the majority of TWA's assets including its route structure and frequent flyer program on Monday April 9, 2001.

My 300,000+ miles transferred smoothly - but I was concerned and CHECKED when I knew TW was bought, and found that my Aviators and AAdvantage accounts (name and address information) would have to match to make it happen, as Aviators terminated November 1, 2001, and the last date for transfer. American voluntarily agreed to take over that accumulated miles liability (good customer service move, for sure,) and even extended the oft-advertised "drop dead date" by over one and a half years.

The warnings may have missed you somehow, but sometimes we can wait, be distracted, or just procrastinate - and it can be too long. I feel sorry AA didn't see their way to make an exception, but that is exactly what it would have been, an exception and probably also a nasty precedent that would open the floodgates. I am truly sorry you missed the boat - but please, AA :-: bent over backward to welcome and accommodate Aviators into AAdvantage, IMO. And I personally disagree with mentioning by name an employee who is merely following a now very firm airline policy... but that's me, anyway.

Please do stay around - you may learn a lot from the knowledgeable FTers here, and I have learned quite a bit about how to maximize my enjoyment (and rewards!) of business and leisure travel.

on SmarterLiving.com, Tim Winship writes on June 16, 2003, in response to a query from another Aviator (emphases are purely mine):

Although TWA ceased to exist more than two years ago, I still receive queries from former Aviators members, like you, wondering what became of their miles. In fact, I received four such questions in just the past month, which prompted a call to American for an update. As it turns out, the timing was propitious.

In answer to your question: Yes, those TWA miles can be saved—transferred, actually—but the window of opportunity won't be open much longer.

Here's the official policy confirmed by AAdvantage management on June 9, 2003:

As of June 30, 2003, AAdvantage will no longer accommodate mileage transfer requests .

A little bit of history for those who may have missed the TWA endgame:

After a long decline into bankruptcy and liquidation, the bulk of TWA's assets were sold to American Airlines, effective April 19, 2001. While American was under no legal or contractual obligation to do so, it decided it made commercial sense to acquire TWA's 14 million Aviators members and their accumulated frequent flier miles. In practice, that meant converting Aviators memberships to AAdvantage, and transferring miles from the former program to the latter.

All Aviators members who could be contacted received instructions on setting up an AAdvantage account—if they didn't already have one—and were advised that they could manually transfer their miles to American through November 30, 2001. On December 1, the Aviators program was terminated forever, and any miles that had not yet transferred were moved automatically to AAdvantage, provided there was an AAdvantage account with an identical name and address on file.

What happened to those miles that were not transferred, manually or automatically, before the deadline? For lack of a better description, let's say they went into suspended animation.

While November 2001 was the official deadline, American has continued honoring requests to transfer TWA miles on a goodwill basis. But that long period of leniency is drawing to a close.

So, if you have Aviators miles that you have not yet converted to AAdvantage miles, run, don't walk, to your phone and call the AAdvantage service center at 800-882-8880. You will need to establish an AAdvantage account if you don't already have one, and your Aviators miles will be transformed into AAdvantage miles. Then, you can visit Smarter Living's Mile Finder and discover how you can earn more AAdvantage miles to help you earn a travel award.

Sadly as I've found out in the new era of "no waivers and no favors", deadlines just don't get bent. I had a 140k certificate for an F class award to HKG that is now somewhere in the round-file at DFW because I forgot to send it back in for a redeposit until it was almost two years old. AA's response?? Sorry, we wish we could do something but it's simply too far beyond our grace period.

Rifiya I know you worked hard for your miles, yet you are not bearing any responsibility whatsoever for the loss of your miles. You even state that you never contacted AA directly, you merely listened to a friend. Your friend was largely correct but didn't give you all the information you needed. Sadly, the missing information resulted in the loss of your miles. It is sheer bad luck that you have waited this long to look into the matter and I feel for you on the loss of your miles but two years is more than generous on AA's part. Had you contacted AA from the start and been instructed improperly, I'd have felt differently.

Finally, please consider removing the name of the AA personnel involved. Corporate policy dictates that your mileage cannot be transferred. It is not the fault of this employee and you don't have the right to post their name on a public website simply because you are unhappy with the answer they gave you.

I will close with a heartfelt expression of empathy for the lost miles, and a hearty welcome to flyertalk. Being here is the best insurance against something like this happening again (you'dve known more about the Aviators-AAdvantage account transfer than most of the line level people in AAdvantage customer service :D)

Yeah, it's ALL her fault. :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

Do moderators have the power to edit an entry? If so, someone should remove the name of the CSR who is just doing their job.

Customers know business "as well as we do"?
 

I found the comment (up in the OP) about "customers who know the business as well as we do" to be one of the most interesting.

I think it is fair to say that many of the customers know [certain aspects of the business] *better* than anyone who works for AA [or any other airline - I am certainly not criticizing AA, which is my personal favorite.]

I understand that there are different sides to "understanding the business." For example, I would speculate that someone who has worked in the yield management department at AA has seen more statistical informationo about the effect of changing prices than *any* customer. On the other hand, I suspect that *no one* who works for AA has flown as many miles in a passenger seat as I have. [And I am certainly not the top AA flyer on this board.] I would further speculate that *no one* who works for AA has as many lifetime frequent flyer miles as I do across all the airlines combined. [And I am certainly not the top frequent flyer mile accumulater on these boards.]

Whilst I accept that wasting 140k miles would be very painful I find it difficult to understand how you can forget about an F award certiificate for 2 years. What's the point in having deadlines/expiry dates if AA are expected to waive them every time the customer "forgets". Surely customers have to accept some degree of personal responsibility for their own affairs.

OP, AA CSRs and FA's are one of the best in the industry. This is partly your fault. How can your forget your miles and then expect the airline to remember and post it for you. The timeline they gave TWA FF was generous.

If you have problems with the AA CSR, try United. You'd love them. :rolleyes: