Airline Schadenfreude

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Since I fly a lot, I have a lot of opinions about various airlines.  None are as strong as for American which used to offer "more legroom in coach" but now offers very little legroom (or anything else) in coach.

So imagine my glee today when I was offered the chance to give American some feedback. This is the beginning of the e-mail I received: 

Dear Eugene Carr,

American Airlines is interested in your opinions.
Please take a few minutes to complete our online survey. It should only take 5-7
minutes of your time. Click on the link below to take the survey.

Take the
Survey

And then it went on to say:

The deadline for filling out the survey is 11:59 p.m.(CT) on Tuesday, April 10,
2007. All answers will be kept strictly confidential

From a marketing perspective, so far so good. It’s personalized, it’s got a deadline. OK, I’m motivated!  So, I clicked on the link and I then see:

Sorry!

This survey has not started yet. The start
date for this survey has not been reached.

So it gave me just a wee bit of pleasure to see that big corporations can mess up just as easily anyone else.

Lesson learned. Proofread, proofread, proofread. Test, test, test.

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3 responses to “Airline Schadenfreude”

  2. Eugene:
    Their html tag was improperly formed, but the survey link is valid.
    I tried to show you the html code but I can’t copy that into this comment box. suffice to say, if you look at the properties for the survey button, the html title tag has the url for the survey, it is a live survey you can still take it.

  3. RIght — I actually logged on later in the day and did the survey. My point was only that a big company like AA could possibly send out a survey to millions, and not ensure that it was working properly.

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