Bad guy of the day: The Dreaded Airline

I love travelling. I may not always have the time or the money (more of the latter than the former) to visit the places I want to visit, but I do pretty okay. So obviously I follow a few twitter feeds related to travel. Noone likes being stuck in an airport for hours waiting for flights, or being kept on hold indefinitely as one tries to get information about delays or cancellations. Airlines get a lot of bad ju-ju vibes for sometimes bad service, often totally out of their hands, but the hard blow of this can be softened by proper communication with passengers. I can be sitting in an airport, with my laptop and getting details about my flight without having to join a throng of disgruntled, weary passengers at the counter. That's hot.

I love what British Airways are doing with their tweets right now. With the weather over in Europe being as bad as it is and flights being delayed and cancelled, it's great for travellers to log in to Twitter and get some current info or assistance. And they do answer. I asked about fare sales between POS and LGW once and got a prompt response. It was not necessarily the answer I wanted (lol) but I got an answer nonetheless and appreciated the prompt attention to my query.

American Airlines, in light of security changes due to the recent botched bomb attempt,and weather issues in the US as well, has also been doing  a pretty good job at keeping customers in the know. As is Virgin Atlantic.

And the list goes on. I would love to see Caribbean Airlines doing a bit more. I am a rather loyal Caribbean Airlines customer. Some people may scoff at this and yes, they do have their moments but I have had my moments with other airlines as well. Their service has really improved over the past couple years, and unless another airline is significantly cheaper than CA, I would usually book with them once they fly to where I want to go. Thus their tweets or lackthereof are a bit disappointing cause I would be all up on that. I do get their e-newsletter and see their ads in the paper but still, they are missing out on a great opportunity to really engage their passengers, get some feedback on what we want to see from them and offer me some great fares, specials (freeness? lol).  They have 442 followers, who right now are following...well...nothing.

Oh... to be the tweeter for an airline. Or just a travel tweeter or blogger. Yes, I think everyone know this is a dream of mine. Travelling and getting paid to write about it! Sigh. In a perfect world!

Will talk about hotels another time.