How 6 airlines work with Twitter and how we'd grade them

Airlines are using Twitter to respond to customer complaints. Here's a sampling of recent tweets and the airline's responses.

AIRLINE	HANDLE	SAMPLE TWEET	SERVICE LEVEL	BROWSER GRADES AND COMMENTS:
American	@AAirwaves	Thanks for your patience, Dale. We are working to get you home ASAP and we appreciate you flying with us very much!	A flurry of questions answered from busy reps who seem to spend most of their time thanking, apologizing or requesting that customers contact them via Direct Message.	B If you want to get American’s attention, this is a great way to do it. But customers keep the airline’s on-duty Tweeter busy enough that there appears to be little time left for them to offer any other useful information. Still, responsiveness and a desire to be useful makes this a great asset for AA’s frequent flyers.
Delta	@DeltaAirLines	We apologize for the rudeness you encountered. Pls DM with agent names, times and gate numbers and we'll follow up with station.	This up-and-comer, with just 37,000 followers, is finding its voice – right now, it appears to be a clearinghouse for complaints and some retweets from people who enjoyed their flights.	C Following Delta’s feed feels a little bit like being forced to walk through Delta’s JFK terminal – kind of a drag.
JetBlue	@JetBlue	If your flight has a lower fare, we'll honor it and put the difference in a credit! Call us at 800JETBLUE :)	The most popular airline feed currently – with 1.6 million followers – stays busy. Staff do some tweeting about conditions and sales. The bulk of the work, however, appears to be answering questions.	A Quite proactive; they tend to follow up to get those with complaints that are not addressing them directly in order to get them to bring their concerns directly to them. There’s a dearth of deals, but for those, check out the airline’s weekly deep-discount deal feed, @JetBlueCheeps, every Tuesday.
Southwest	@SouthwestAir	Oh, I'm so sorry but we do not offer bereavement fares. Try using our low fare calendar.	Responses within 24 hours, generally. Staff will Direct Message to handle complaints, or direct you to where general questions can be answered.	B+ Southwest is very interactive, however, it is not a great source of information for deals and news. The feed is a mix of question and answer, problem solving and some announcements, but nothing major. If you’re searching for fares, better to sign up for “Ding” fares on their Web site.
United	@UnitedAirlines	Check-in, flt change or missed connection & about to stand in line? Try any open kiosk 1st or http://mobile.united.com	The airline’s now-you-see-them, now-you-don’t Twares (Twitter + fare, get it?) are worth tracking; get weather news and ask questions, staff is responsive.	A The friendliest folks you’ll encounter while dealing with United these days, hands down. Recent Twares included some killer First Class fares out o Chicago-O’Hare that you wouldn’t have found anywhere else.
Virgin America	@VirginAmerica	Apologies for the delays tonight in the NY-area. Very unpredictable weather in NE. Appreciate the patience of all our guests.	Very chatty, cutesy feed; pictures of the sunrise at LAX, retweets of the latest news bits from other Virgin-brand holdings.	C This feed makes us feel like the airline wants to be our friend. It isn’t – it’s always going to be an airline, no matter how cute the cabins (and crew!) tend to be. Also? We don’t want to hear what else is going on in the Virginverse. (PS: Virgin Galactic is stupid!)

can't believe that American Airline is so desperate for funds that AA debit over $1,000 from my bank account for a trip I never took. I request that AA return the funds however they want a ticket number that I never received, nor took or book the flight or never received any email confirmation. It is a shame how they are stealling money out senior citizen bank account.And nothing is being done about it.

by barb65 on Friday, August 12, 2011

JetBlue does respond very quickly to tweets with complaints, but doesn't really do much to help you resolve the issue. I had a problem with on-line check-in that I first tried to resolve by phone with no luck. After tweeting that that it would be great if JetBlue's online checki-in actually worked I got a tweeted response within several minutes. We tweeted back and forth a few times and the only response I got was that it looked like I'd have to check-in with the airport. It was nice to get the quick response, but a substantive response might have been better. As it was it turned out that by changing browswers from Firefox to IE I was able to do the check-in. I have to give a thumbs up to the quick response, but was frustrated by what I felt was more the appearance of responding but not actually providing any real help.

by Dahlia on Friday, April 02, 2010

I've been a United Premier Executive Mileage member for 15 years! Due to a slow economy I flew less last year. Although I still flew United exclusively last year, they dropped my status, now charge for each checked bag. I was told on my last flight by a flight attendant they were offering Premier status to persons on other airline mileage programs if they'd change to United automatically! I've flown close to 700K with them, and in view of the slow economy, I would have thought they might extend the status and accumulated upgrades for this year. When I requested this I was told basically it was just too bad. It's changed my loyalty to them, and I now will shop the cheapest competitor. Along with that, I had a brand new trade show piece of luggage that was totally ruined after one flight. When I took it back, they basically said, we don't cover handles, wheels, fabric.. In other words, they don't seem to really cover anything. After my loyalty to United over the past 15 years, I feel very unappreciated. My wife and I will be shopping other airlines from now on.

by Ed fly no more united on Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Air Jamaica has to be the worst Airline out there. They held us on the plane for three hours and then told us to get off the plane and wait near the ticket counter. We were scheduled to take off around 8:30AM. They did not get us to Jamaica till the next morning. We missed our sons's Wedding Rehearsal and we did not get re-imbursed for the Sandals nights stay that we missed. They could care less.

by fclevenger on Wednesday, March 31, 2010

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How 6 airlines work with Twitter and how we'd grade them

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