I just noticed thar Randy has yet to weigh in on the questions that jetsetter originally posted. Any thoughts there from the House of Miles?

FWIW, see also some past related threads:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum97/HTML/000188.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum1/HTML/002462.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum94/HTML/002067.html

[This message has been edited by doc (edited 02-24-2001).]

That was all I was saying. I did not flame Jae, and indeed said he had been very helpful to me, hence I remembered his name.

As others have said above, the debut post from "Jae" gave them no idea he was in fact "Operations Supervisor, Starwood Preferred Guest". His comments above on Starwood clearly take on a different hue if that title is known. And I repeat my comments that both Hilton AND Starwood are an object lesson to all other brands by their helpful and visible presence on FT and I have no doubt Jae will be no exception to that history.

I still feel all corporate employees might make it clear to all that they are employees by their user handle or state so in their post. The United staff on the UA board, FAs and res. staff alike do that, and they are very helpful.

Please read this thread below from earlier this month - this person was discovered by some sleuthing by EPS to be a paid PR person for the same firm that was being positively "spin doctored" in a FT thread. Surely none of us wants to see this happening, or every FT thread will look like "S.P.A.M." Forum or worse, with PR dumps and press releases from the companies themselves under non obvious user names. This thread below was a blatant ad for that company Priceline.com, and also a first post. FT'ers found out about it and the person has not re-visited - and in that case, a good thing.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum1/HTML/004086.html


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~ Glen ~



[This message has been edited by ozstamps (edited 02-24-2001).]

Tolarian is right.
Most of us have heard J's name before so it's 'cricket.'

This sounds like an episode of Seinfeld. We're getting lost on a topic re: J.

Dan

<snip>

[This message has been edited by ffhound (edited 02-24-2001).]

Ozstamps, you say you did not flame Jae... you said:

"In which case I really think your post is rather self-serving to say the least, and pretty misleading. Post as "Jae from Starwood" or whatever by all means, we would welcome that input. However the post above, on the face of it, looks just like a newbie FlyerTalker enthusing about Starwood"

I see, so "self serving" and "pretty misleading" are what? compliments??
You may not have called him names... But you sure did accuse him of several things. You turned his innocent post into a conspiracy. I suspect Jae wanted to seperate his personal life from his offical job. Has it occurred to you he might be hooked on FlyerTalk like the rest of us? Is he not ever allowed to be off the clock? And he did not sing starwoods praises. He directly tried to answer the question posted.

Hey, OZ look behind the rock over there! There's the real guy who shot JFK!!! Quick hurry you can be the first to unmask him!!! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/eek.gif

no, that's just snake http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

I am surprised that my "debut" post has generated so much controversy. Having worked very hard over the past 16 months to provide a new and proactive approach to customer service, as well as to earn the trust of the FT community, I am disappointed to have my sincerity & motivations called into question.

Why a new alias? There are many reasons:

1) many FTers have welcomed me as a part of the community, independent of my employment with Starwood. Therefore I believe I have the right to establish a separate identity for myself.
2) thanks to William there is no longer a need for me to continue to post on behalf of the company. My continued presence could have made it appear that there were competing voices on the site, and that's the last thing we want.
3) I'm a traveler too. If I have opinions to share about airlines, rental cars or...dare I say it...competing hotel brands (after all, we don't have hotels everywhere) I have the right to post those opinions without people associating them with Starwood.
4) finally, as ozstamps pointed out, my title has changed. Even though I didn't want to discuss it here I might as well state for the record that I am no longer with Starwood Preferred Guest. While I still work for Starwood Hotels & Resorts, it would be inappropriate for me to continue posting using the "Starwood Preferred Guest" name.

Why did I not simply start my first post by saying "Do you know me? I used to lurk for Starwood." That was my initial inclination. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I wanted to avoid exactly this kind of attention. How "self-serving" would it have been for me to come on here and say "Guess what everybody, I got a new job so I'm changing my alias." Drawing attention to me is a disservice to William and the hard work he has done.

My presence on FT to this point has been about one thing and one thing only: customer service. Now, because I am no longer in a position to provide customer service here, all I want to do is blend in and be just another traveler who finds this site interesting and informative and occasionally has something to contribute. When that means giving my opinion on something related to Starwood, I hope that people can find a way to separate Jae the AAdvantage member from Jae the Starwood employee.

jk

I am getting sick and tired of the paranoia. The same thing happened with the New York Times reporter. It is downright embarrassing.
Jae, I did not see anything wrong with your post.
Whether it came from someone at starwood.com (which was in your profile) or from imparanoid.com makes no difference, your point of view was clear and perfectly sound.
For crying out loud!!!.


[This message has been edited by Droneklax (edited 02-25-2001).]

Jae - I felt and still feel perfectly comfortable with your first post here on 'our' board. The explanation above wasn't needed but is much appreciated. Thank you.

ozstamps - it seems that I still need to learn much more about oz-'slang' and also about the motivation behind several posts - sometimes, for me, it is really very, very hard to understand and 'appreciate'.

[This message has been edited by Rudi (edited 02-25-2001).]

Well Jae, The only contact I had previously had from you, latter 2000 was from Jae Knowlton, the "Operations Supervisor, Starwood Preferred Guest", and seeing your email contact on FT profile still does to this moment show as; "[email protected]" was not to know there was any change in your employ. If you are posting as a traveller, and as you say "Jae the Aadvantage member" well go for it, the more the merrier. Apologies for the tone of my initial post, but neither I nor anyone else who has posted here (except for William of Starwood) was to know there had been a change of situation.

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~ Glen ~

Jae,

Welcome to the board in your new role.

You need to ignore certain people who believe being hypocritical and berating others is a full time job...

When I read your post... and yes I did check your profile... I actually picked up quickly that you were a business analyst for Starwood Hotels.

You should not have to defend your decision to post outside your previous official position.

But you probably need to recognize that there are some people who have harassed others on this board with their multitude of handles.


I also find it interesting that OZ believes you need to change your email address since you changed your handle. I have not seen that as a requirement for new handles on this board. In fact Jae, I am glad you did not change that email. It leads credence to your identity. You are not hiding behind those "easy-to-get" email addresses and creating bogus ID's.

Again, welcome to the board... and ignore some people (possibly even me!!!). I know I would never treat someone like that who had helped me in the past.

William

I do hope that we can all relax a bit- and that we all will! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif And VERY soon too! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

This thread really steams me, for obvious reasons. It started out great but...

BTW, well stated Rudi. You should be an honorary member of the Diplomatic Corp.

Jae, congrats on your promotion and welcome back to FT as a New Member. Please don't let this discourage you from adding your knowledge & experience here.

Hopefully we can meet at the Catman Do Trois. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

William,

Give Oz a break here...... it was probably just force of habit after coming up with umpteen aliases of his own.

Jae,

Glad that Oz didn't manage to drive you off the boards after your first post. Definitely no apologies necessary on your part.




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danville 1K