The AA chat last night was a disaster.

Aside from the technical problems with the chat software, where AA and many FlyerTalkers could not get into the chat room, most of the few questions posted to Bruce were directly from the TWA FAQ on AA's home page and these questions took up the first half hour of the scheduled time. I was very frustrated to have to wait so long to see Bruce use an answer from the FAQ almost verbatim. And of course, by the time the more difficult questions came on, the software finally crapped out, leaving us with only two important new facts about the AAdvantage program by the end of the session.

May I offer a few suggestions:

1. Would it not be possible to exercise some editorial control over the questions you decide to ask? Sure, those questions were important to someone, or they were asked before the TWA FAQ was posted to AA, but what's wrong with taking all of those questions and publishing them at the beginning of the chat with links to the appropriate resource (in this case, the TWA FAQ on AA's site)? Let your guest answer the questions that don't have satisfactory canned answers, such as the 20 partners question, which I found most enlightening.

2. If for some reason, it's not possible to filter out those questions, how about mixing them up for topic and membership applicability? No doubt there are lots of questions asked by new members, or members who have not done the research on FlyerTalk or on the Airline's site and I understand that these users need to be catered to as well as the top tier members who pretend to know everything, but what would be wrong with asking a "newby type" question followed by a "top tier type" question and allow everyone to learn at least a little bit that meets their needs.

3. With the exeption of Elmhurst Nick's unanswered question regarding the dilution of the EXP program, it appears that all of the questions were submitted in advance. Wouldn't it be nice if the guest could see those questions in advance and have the answers ready so that you could post a large number of questions and answers right at the beginning of the chat -- or use those "pre-answered questions" to fill in the space as some hunt-and-peck executive types out his reply?

Anyway, one way or another, I hope you're able to fix the technical problems and improve the editorial content to improve future chats.

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My Aviation Pages
My Travel Pages

To not waste everyone's time, maybe FT Evangelists could have a session that starts 30 minutes earlier. Kind of like pre-boarding. This would allow less crowding and not give the impression of a crowd getting into a Southwest Airlines open seating on a 737 aircraft.

Another suggestion, post several threads where FAQs can be seen when making the announcement of the live chat. This would save time or as I view it, gives us information to better ask our questions.

All in all, I thank AAdvantage for providing insight in their program, however as a Platinum AAdvantage and FT Evangelist, I was not very happy to not be able to get in after coming in 30 minutes late. I am waiting now for the notes.

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"Fly me to the moon and let me earn alot of miles."

[This message has been edited by worldbanker (edited 05-11-2001).]

Nor, for the very forst time, could I get in!

Thanks for making the effort nontheless!

Please also see:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum71/HTML/003536.html

I think the editorial board would make a huge difference. Here's what I would suggestion.

Before the chat, come up with three FT members who are well versed in the given program. For an airline program, at least one of them should be top tier, and one should be at least second tier.

These people should look over all of the pre-submitted questions, and post out the ones wiht well defined published answers in the form of a pre-chat FAQ.

These same people should between them screen questions asked live in the chat to filter out questions with documented, well known answers, and also be allowed one "follow-up / clarification" type question for each question posed by a chatter.

That's my suggestion for how to run things a bit better...

And Free BEER!!!

Oh dear, Village Idiot, you must not hang out with my friend essxjay too much. I am beginning to suspect she is a Beer Pusher.

I have been unable to enter the last two chats. The screen just hangs. Is it my computer, or do others have this problem as well?

Many others reported the same problem. It's almost like there's a 50 user limit on the board -- that's just about the highest number we had in the chat and there were numberous people over in the AA board wondering why they couldn't get in.

arturo wan to kno, es he two leight fore phree cerveces? viledge idiocentric, did yu git sum phree cerveces?

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Loving, Caring, Honest, Intelligent, Empathetic, Creative, and Giving.

Things went much better with Bruce this time and I thought it was any enjoyable session. But still, I think there's tremendous room for improvement on the incredibly long pauses while our guests are typing their answers.

Again, I suggest having the advance questions given to the guest ahead of time so these Q/A exchanges can be posted to us while we're waiting.

And Bruce had a great sense of humor, but he obviously doesn't get paid for his fast typing speed!

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My Aviation Pages
My Travel Pages

Perhaps we can have the person get a typist for the session who would take dictation? For those who are not used to electronically mediated conversation, it can be difficult. Esp. when they are not a 60wpm+ touch typist.

A typist has been suggested in the past...it is really the only way to do chat correctly.

Dorian

Suggest FT to publish a few days before chat all questions submited, then we can vote for the more interesting ones. The "newby" questions can be replyed in advance by FTers or links to previous threads.

As this was my first foray into a live chat room I was not sure if I had done something wrong on my end in not seeing all the answers or if this was an example of software problems that had been alluded to previously. Since it appears to be the software is there a transcript of the forum that can be reviewed? Thanks.

[This message has been edited by ges123 (edited 07-20-2001).]

http://www.flyertalk.com/transcripts/071201.html