Were you really talking to me? Thoughts on AA's Bag Fee Communications

Background: The airline industry is having an extremely rough time. Sorry I don’t have anything over the top to share here. Fuel prices are really high, so airlines are turning the costs back on the customers in an attempt to avoid taking too hard of a financial beating. It’s sad, but it’s that simple.

American Airlines stepped out in front and began charging passengers fees for checked baggage, opening itself up to unavoidable customer backlash and bad press. Unfortunately, this is not the only thing American’s got going on these days.

Noone likes airlines fees, especially me! When I heard about this, I made sure to insert this into my list of conversation topics. I nestled it neatly between “Did you watch Grey’s?” and “How ridiculous was Dwight on the Office last night?”, so when I was catching up with a client, I pulled it out. I honestly wasn’t expecting the response I got.

Her: “Do you check bags?”

Me: “No. I rarely ever do. I hate waiting at baggage claim and have lost one bag too many that way.”

Her: “So, would you rather have them charge the people who do or raise the fare for everyone?”

When she put it like that, suddenly I was okay with it. Of course, American couldn’t put it like that, but they could have come close with their messaging and at least kept the people like me calm. PR Newser included several perspectives on AA’s actions. I found the memo by BusinessWeek‘s David Kiley to Weber Shandwick the most interesting:

“Dear Client: Instead of instituting a fee for checked bags, which will be a lightning rod of bad publicity, please consider burying the cost of rising fuel in across-the-board ticket price increases. Consumers understand that many consumer prices are rising because of increasing fuel costs. What they don’t like, or understand, is when companies begin charging for items they have previously gotten for free-a single checked bag, a soda, a bag of chips, a WiFi connection, etc. The best solution to this problem is to stay out of the news, not to lean into it and ask for a pie in the face.”

Diagnosis: While I’m pretty new to the PR biz, I feel like American could have done a better job communicating online. When you throw in extra fees, and your main line of communication looks like this, you’re gonna be in trouble. American Airlines failed to make effective use of online communications from the beginning , so the best they could do was be reactionary, joining the conversation where appropriate and correcting inaccurate statements made by bloggers.

In Michael Bush’s Ad Age story, it was noted that American Airlines “hopes to have its own corporate blog operational within the next two quarters.” Frankly, “within the next two quarters” is about 3 quarters too late! I’m not saying that American Airlines should take a page out of Southwest‘s book, but you have to admit that Southwest is doing a better job right now:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vV9-SaEcaa4&eurl=http://www.blogsouthwest.com/]

Prescription: American Airlines:

1. Get a real, personal online voice.

2. Start a blog, NOW…ok I’ll give you til Friday COB.

3. Make use of sites like iReport and YouTube.

4. Stay strong. We still love you…we just can’t go too easy on you.