Who Was the First Company Rep "Lurker"
 

Recently reading a post on "whatever happened to..." and it got me to wondering.

Who was the first employee of a company -- airline, hotel, whatever -- who identified themselves as such and tried to help us out with our issues?

Much to the enhancement of this board and of our traveling!

I know MJW, for Northwest Airlines, was one of the first, but maybe it was Adam Burke for Hilton? Or who?

Whatever, THANK YOU ALL, old and new!

I believe it was either Julia from Hyatt or MJW from Northwest ... I'm pretty sure Adam Burke from Hilton was after both of those ...

Before this thread gets closed... Do any of these lurkers still exist?

Now if the lurkers told you they are still here, then they wouldn't be lurking any more.

Adam Burke, at least, isn't a "lurker" in that sense. He identified himself and responded to quite a few posts officially on behalf of Hilton. American Airlines has someone with a handle like "Your AAdvantage Voice" who does likewise, though without a real name.

More companies ought to sponsor this sort of activity. It's great PR with some of their best customers.

Yes, and neither will they be able to answer any queries we may have, hence a company lurker who does NOT post and simply lurks is pretty useless,no ?

Granted, they may be able to take some good suggestions they see here and try to implememt them on rare occcaisions but that probably goes hand in hand with closing any "loopholes" in the programs that are discussed here..

A very good example of a company representative is the starwood lurker (William), answer queries very quickly,in detail and efficiently. I wish we had something similar in the AA forum.
The BA forum is also very well equipped with a few helpful and well-informed employee posters such as Pucci and Bealine.

Adam Burke rarely posts any more. Some say he got promoted.

His involvement on FT is now almost nothing, which stands in stark contrast to the Starwood Lurker, who actively posts on a regular basis.

Adam, if you've gotten promoted, can you appoint someone else to be an active communicator?

I don't know who was the first to participate, but the first to get an "Omni Award" were Adam (Hilton) and MJW (Northwest).
http://www.flyertalk.com/pasttalk/ft...ML/000070.html

(I have a feeling that Hyatt and/or Radisson may have been earlier - but I'm not sure).

Julia at Hyatt is always around and immensely helpful.

Yup. Top-knoch. I hope his (unless she uses a pseudonym) bosses are lurking here...doubt it though.

I wonder if some of these corporate lurkers...

(A) Get paid to lurk & teach--and, how DOES one get that job?

(B) Do SOME of them just tattle-tale on the things they might find (maybe)?

OR (C) maybe these lurkers come here to also seek OUR help in finding issues or holes. Now that may be impossible, but maybe they are here mainly to HELP fix issues in their own companies, and then use info found on FT and other forums to help TRY to make programs more solid and better for us all.

I mean, it would almost be great if 'holes' never existed anyway and that way, there would be more clarity on what miles or point deals actually earn.

Just a thought or 3.

Yes, Starwood higher ups monitor feedback from FT...they're also aware of the significant positive impact William has made. In fact, last year, in an FT chat w/ Jim Berra of Starwood, Mr. Berra made the following lovely comment about William:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Before the William, the 'official' Starwood lurker, there was unofficial Jae, whose presence here I think was known to the Starwood management. IIRC, it was Jae who first announced William to FT. Believe I saw Jae post a few times in a private mode, post-William.