anabolism

Please excuse my confusion, but I'm not sure what this means. Are you saying that if I use the aa.com web form to send a comment about a flight, and the comment was positive, that crew members won't see it (or there may be a huge delay), but if the comment is negative, the crew sees it right away?

Or are you talking about paper letters versus the aa.com web form?

tt7

If each SOS has a 'cost' to AA, then a passenger giving 8 to a single FA clearly has a cost effect that AA didn't intend. I didn't suggest that AA cancelled the program for that reason - I was merely pointing out that, in a previous thread, someone had commented that such 'bribes' might be a concern to AA management.

Abuse of the SOS system may not have been a concern to AA; however, posting comments in a public forum about giving an FA 8 SOSs and then later getting an unauthorized non-operational upgrade from J to F is hardly likely to help persuade AA management that the program should be re-instated.

brp

Whether you consider it a bribe or not, it is clearly an abuse of the system. It amazes me that you would post about having abused the system in such a way, then benefited from it in the way that you did...and then be proud of it.

No, wait, it doesn't amaze me after all .

Cheers.

JDiver

I still think the idea of SOS coupon "bribery" is a spurious issue. He77, if I wanted to bribe, I'd just slip 'em a tenner... That's bribery! Or kito kidogo, baksheesh, mordida, bung... thta's ju-u-ust what we need to introduce to the cabin.

I also agree handing out eight coupons to one person is a misjudgement, and constitutes misuse / abuse of the program, not to mention it puts the person handing out 8 SOS coupons at a loss when they next wish to reward an employee. 8 coupkns would certainly not make a huge difference in terms of supervision / management feedback / evaluation, as anyone would see all eight coupons had one FF# (assuming they were properly singed, if not now we're involving the recipient in some low-level skullduggery / petty theft,) but at the company store they now create a bit more of a cost for the program sponsor, AA.

Though I am sure some people would argue the SOS coupons are "theirs to do with what they wish," it subverts the intent of the program, IMO.

CharlesMD

Oh, please!

The FAs and gate agents work very hard-- do think they deserve anything less? The op-up came almost 1.5 years after I gave the SOS out with no expectation of anything in return.

From the FAs I talked to you needed to collect at least 4 certificates to get anything other than a raffle entry, and SOS certificates were so few and far between that when you did give just one there was never any tangible benefit. So I would give them out in multiples of 4.

I routinely sent in as many as 20 SOS certificates to AA CSR to give to a single FA when I didn't have any on me while traveling, and you know what-- they passed it on to the FA! AA gave out SOS certificates like candy to elites and I was happy to pass them on in multiples to recognize outstanding AA staff. There were never any rules on how to hand them out or limits to what you could give-- the PLT desk was always happy to send me a couple dozen. So please don't accuse me of abuse or misjudgement. What should have been done is to give out a limited number of certificates for each tier qualification per year, with the higher tiers getting more. Alternatively, AA could have altered the redemption levels for SOS certificates or only recognize one SOS per AAdvantage number per flight.

And you know what else I think is sad? After the SOS program ended everyone was in a tiff about how awful it was, but I can only think of two FTers who routinely give concrete gifts in recognition of good service. So basically people want to recognize good service, but they want AA to pay for it. Give me a break-- go out and buy some nice chocolates!

tt7

Is it any wonder they killed the program?

I assume you have empirical evidence to support that statement?

YMMV but in all the years I've been EXP, they would send some occasionally but "like candy" clearly doesn't fit my experience.

You need rules???? They were clearly designed for one passenger to give one SOS to one AA employee.

As I said, is it any wonder they killed the program?....

CharlesMD

She sent me a thank you card, she was able to send her parents to NRT in F for the "trip of a lifetime."

All you had to do was ask the elite desk for more and they would send it to you.

Says who? There was nothing on the SOS form that said you could only give one out or that there were any kinds of limits. When I requested them on the phone I said that I loved to give SOS out and often gave the FAs and gate agents many at a time.

I also used to call AA CSR to praise specific FAs (often while taxiing to the gate) and now send in a praise e-mail for practically every flight I take, but I suppose that's abusive which led to the elimination of the phone number being posted on the web

omegadeal

I like the idea of these, printed up on some nice stock as someone suggested, and distributed (not free of course) to FT'ers.

I'd like to see it include a small (even $5-$10) gift card. Maybe enough for the FA/GA to buy lunch or something like that.

If this were done in the right way it could bring more attention to FT, and maybe we would see some "official" replies here as well.

JDiver

Well, CharlesMD, we may have to agree to disagree on this one. BTW, I wasn't accusing you of bribery or flimflammery, only saying I believe one coupon was good. OTOH, AA never told me exactly their worth, nor passed on any guidelines, so these are my opinions, that's all.

In any case, the important thing is to acknowledge and ther idea of the "wee gifties" is a good one - I do this, and hope I can find the Belgo chockies with the 1950's FA on the bar wrapper this weekend to stock up. I also like the idea of a gift cert, but have to think what kind / to what, so it can be pretty universal and give lots of choice.

It's an old-fashioned thing, but I won't extend the tip misery we have in the US to airline employees. (E.g. Australia's is a radical concept of paying a living wage to service people, tipping being considered a bit of a "tall poppy" way of attempting to differentiate one's self from the hoi poloi - and tall poppies exist to be taken down.)

tt7

Perhaps we can get this thread back on track .... (sorry, JDiver, we seem to have digressed into a blind alley...) to the notion of a 'common format' for a SOS-replacement form. I'm all in favor of having something to use and to the extent that multiple people are using the same format, I think that's helpful.

However, in the meantime -

I am aware that, if an employee received enough of these certificates, they could be used for free (or discounted) tickets, possibly on a 'positive-space' basis - I don't know the details. However, I suspect that AA did not intend that a single passenger would give enough certificates to a single AA employee on a single occasion that they would be "able to send her parents to NRT in F". As I said, no wonder they killed the program.

True. Most people don't walk across a busy road in the middle of the day with their eyes shut, either. That's because most people don't need a sign to tell them that it's not a good idea - they just use their commonsense.

sluggoaafa

It doesn't matter paper or via the web. Good letters often don't make it to the employees while bad letters are expedited directly to the employees.

I have yet to receive a copy of a letter from 4 years ago that a PAX CC'd me when she wrote to the company. I it via email after I had given her my business card and it plainly had customer relations address on it.

However, during weather diversions and people being stuck on airplanes for 4 hours (instead of the 2hr flight) after running out of every food/drink/snack we had on a plane, my entire crew received a 'nasty' letter almost 2 weeks after the flight.

Instant recognition is a great idea. Whether it be 1 SOS or 8 SOSs, if you get handed a "KUDO" it makes you feel good. Especially when there is no longer any recognition from the company. Instant gratification from passengers goes a long way, makes you realize that there are people out there who still care about us.

DallasBill

JDiver... I assume you got it. The link was still working last time I checked it a few minutes ago.

BTW, I posted a Word file instead of a PDF primarily so people could edit their name and number.

Update: thanks to LAX21, it's now up there as a PDF also. You will have to fill in your name/number by hand.

For those having trouble -- all you have to do is right-click on the name and 'save as...' if you are using IE.

MJonTravel

It was a sad day for the frontline folks when this program went away! H*ll, I got one or two in my time, and I was a manager. Made my day always!

They were good for service charge waived space available travel, or they could be turned into AAchievers points. Those points were good for buying stuff at the company store as I saw someone post previously. You could also use AAchievers points to buy space available travel. At the same time this program was axed, AA also did something even worse IMHO. They eliminated the employee perfect attendance program. There were various levels of awards for 6 months, 1 year and 5 years perfect attendance. You could "buy" various amounts of service charged waived travel with each certificate. The best were the 5 year certs, which offered international travel passes.

Sorry for editorializing! I think this is a wonderful idea. Trust me, the staff really appreciates hearing good news!

JDiver

DallasBill, I got it!

Just printed a few off at the SFO AC today, en route to BRU for a bru and a good backup for mine I have packed away. The PDF is a good idea too!

Thanks! Now, to go deploy these things...

Krysia

I know it's OT, but thanks for a minute of fond memories...don't know what I liked better Bruuge or the chocolate, but would like to go back so I could decide!