Did you ever post something on the internet, maybe on Facebook or a message forum or something, and get a lot of responses but hardly any were what you were expecting? That’s exactly what happened to American Airlines.
Not that long ago, American was named a Five Star Global Airline by APEX (the Airline Passenger Experience Association), which is, “the only non-profit membership trade organization comprised of the world’s leading airlines, industry suppliers, major media groups and related aviation industry leaders dedicated to elevating the passenger experience for more than 80% of global passengers, while driving industry initiatives and desired regulations.”
Ben (Lucky) at One Mile At A Time and Gilbert from God Save The Points talk about this year’s win, just as Gary from View From The Wing went into detail about last year’s win in 2018. All three discuss, among other things, how the winners were chosen.
For me, the amusing part was what happened after American, obviously wanting to tell the world about the latest feather in its cap, tweeted about their win on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/americanair/status/1172615200744366086
I suspect the responses they got were not what they were expecting. Here are a handful from the first 30 or so responses:
American did reply to some of the responses, but not for very long and, IMHO, not very well:
There were a handful of positive responses that included a passenger who said their flight to their honeymoon was very good, one who suggested that “haters are gonna hate,” one who was proud his/her daughter was an AA flight attendant, and one who said he liked American’s WiFi. But overall, more than 90% of the responses were negative.
I’m well aware that a good number of people will post something negative before posting something positive, and that trolls are out there to bite anyone in the butt whenever possible. But if you think about some of the reasons why AA has been in the news lately – lots of cancelled flights, ongoing problems with mechanics, a 16% loss on its stock value, and the list goes on – it sure can make you scratch your head why or how they would be rated a 5-star airline. Well, not really. Based on Ben’s, Gary’s and Gilbert’s articles above, I suspect some of these responses hit the nail right on the head:
It’s easy to get a 5-star rating when you’re asking the people who would give answers that would afford a 5-star rating, and not including those who, well, would not.
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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
