Maybe the City of Houston changed their qualification scheme for property valuations.

There's a line of human decency to be drawn between complaining constantly about coach upgrades/elite status and violating the privacy of an individual. Everything is public information, but that doesn't make it reasonable. Step back for a minute, folks, and please realize what kind of freakish stalkers you sound like.

It may sound trite, but -- get a life.

As far as that goes -- you're not very cultured, are you?

[This message has been edited by dbaker (edited 10-26-2003).]

I thought it was quite entertaining to read!!

Thanks for the giggles! :P

Back on topic. Gordon's email is [email protected]. There is at least one woman who reads his mail and generaly shuttles it to customer serevice.
If you want a response, email Larry Kellner the President at [email protected]. He reads and answers his own mail. He is the only one I know at HQ thaT cares. One more thing. If you email him, be prepared to discuss your problem on the phone. The odds are high he will call you personally. I know one FTer that he called 15 minutes after he emailed Larry.

I didn't know knowledge of Houston was a requirement of being cultured.

Oh

The tax rate of 3% is indeed quite steep!!! But, there is no state income tax.....

Regarding the question whether property tax rate in Houston is related to OnePass, maybe CO CEO got inspiration from the way various jurisidiction trying to squeeze few more cents on property tax and decided to squeeze more miles from OnePass members when they attempt to get a FC upgrade



[This message has been edited by BOS-NWA (edited 10-26-2003).]

Thanks for the email addresses. Sent the letter to both. Perhaps those of us that are griping here should start sending some emails to show our unhappiness?

dbaker,
I would generally agree with you in terms of respecting either an ordinary persons privacy, or a famous persons, etc. However, given that there is no two-way communication even between CO Plats and their senior management, then because of these extenuating circumstances, I think the poster was justified in posting the proprietary information. I don't think CO Customer Care counts as two way communication between customers of the company and people in senior management positions who can affect change. Senior management of most US corporations hass alleniated their customers, and they don't openly talk to customers. Even the middle managers who hold FT chats (at least they did in the past).....the session is very controlled and moderated.

As far as I'm concerned CO should offer monthly exchanges between top executives and its customers. E.g. they should locate a room in an airport or hotel, and scheule a customer forum where the executive(s) can give a presentation, and then field questions and dialog with the customers. CO actually has these forums with employees. The inside terms for these are:
*CEO Exchange: Periodic forums where Gordon makes a presentation and fields questions from employees; and
OLI: Officer Local Involvement where an officer adopts a station or location and periodically visits the station to talk to employees.

Given how out of reach the senior management of CO (and most corporations) is to their customers, then because of that I support the (I don't know what the word is maybe covert) tactics of secretely trying to find and talk to them. Again this is not just CO, but probably 98% of big companies that do not effectively communicate even with their top customers except to have a letter department that sends nearly automated form letter responses to any question and really does not take action on customers inquiries. Bravo to the person also who posted the phone number for the CO employee news. It is interesting to listen to the propeganda (don't necesarily mean that in a bad way, but rather mean interesting to hear the company spin they put on things). FT has gotten so conservative and pro-industry (sometimes) that I would not be surprised if they edit out the internal phone numbers that get posted so if you want them write them down. Another interesting number is:
(800) 231-6723
which is a number that will re-play the call with analysts about the last quarters financial results. After the CO executives give their presentation, they take and answer questions from the press and financial analysts on the phone. Questions typically are both about strictly numbers as well as any key service decisions. Also this telephone number is usually used quarter to quarter.

One tactic I read about in a "gorilla" consumer handbook was to write the spouse of a big company CEO if you were not getting good service from middle management.

One final story I met someone once with a millitary background. This person was having trouble with a big big company, the size of CO or Citibank. THe person called a buddy in the millitary, and got the top CEO's personal phone# and called him, and bravo, the persons issue that was impossible to fix before got fixed.

Again "corporate America," has put themselves in this situation largely by not having basic respect for their customers in general. How many very large corporations really respect their customers, and will try to do whatever it takes to resolve a customer issue. Companies like Ritz Carlton come to mind, but not most companies.

Perhaps it would be better to Fedex a letter to Gordon's house rather than just visiting him unannounced. After all he might be trying to rest or he might be busy thinking of more enhancements . But I definetely think some kind of what you might term "gorilla" tactics are often needed based on this corporate executive alleniation.

Believe it or not I got a response from Larry Kellner today, SUNDAY. Here it is:

Dear Mr. XXXXXX -- thanks for your note and business. I apologize where we have delivered less than appropriate service. I would point out a couple of things with regard to our frequent flyer changes -- we did not reduce the number of seats available for a first class upgrade and we still allow full elite credit for all fare classes bought on our web site.

We are very focused on bringing our best customers closer and an example of that is our recently introduced EliteAccess service which puts further emphasis on providing our Elites a higher level of service. The changes in our Elite qualifying will allow us to more consistently provide upgrades to Elites and based on your current Platinum status, I would be surprised if you get upgraded less frequently in the future.

Thanks again for your perspective and business.

Best
Larry Kellner

Unfortunately, based on Larry's email (and like some people have said, Larry is probably the most pro-consumer person in CO's senior management) as well as what I heard on the quarterly earnings call, I think that, like DL, they take the changes in elite qualification to be gospel. Like DL, I think that no amount of arguing, logic or reason could convince them that they went too far.

I do think that they need to thin the elite ranks at CO. Upgrading is becoming ridiculously hard even as a plat whereas, looking in the archives, it seems that a few years ago it was almost unheard of for a plat not to be upgraded. Of course, my preferred solution would be to increase the size of the FC-cabin but we all know that that ain't gonna happen. I do wish, though, that they would stop handing out elite status like candy to everyone and his brother. IMHO, that would be a start to resolving the lack of FC availability.

Cheers,
Brooklynflyer

The biggest problem w/Elite is that you can BUY Silver status. That may be where they are getting too greedy.

This forum is like a bad relationship where one person doesn't get it.

Continental dumps customer, no longer wants business.

Cust tries furiously for months to rectify situation, even discussing home addresses of executives, how things went wrong, what mistakes were made, what should be done.

Continental doesn't care about the T fares customer is usually buying. Doesn't want to change business model to lose more money by gaining more passengers.

Customer finally says, "I'm leaving you" and feels victorious.

CO could have done that by not comping status just because people had a pulse or a telephone.

But culling from the pool of bona fide elite-mileage flying and fare-paying customers is cutting off the nose to spite the face.

Customer then reads a year later Continental goes into bakruptcy a third and final time due to epidemic defection of customers to competitors arising from dissatisfaction following historical deceptive marketing practices and disincentivizing changes to loyal program.

Customer feels gloriously vindicated.

If any of you call in to the analyst call, there are some interesting things particularly in the questions and answer section. They discuss the % of elite passengers, and the % these pax contribute to revenue. Also one of the reporters asks that the elites are not booking high enough fare buckets, etc. They break out the business vs. leisure revenue, etc. Some very interesting dettailed information particularly again in the ending q&a part of the call.about elites, and I think Gordon jjokes