Shane Warne flames British Airways on Twitter
Shane Warne, an unlikely consumer hero has spoken out for the oppressed air traveller everywhere in eight vitriolic tweets sent from his first class British Airways seat on Friday night.
Flying to a poker tournament in Las Vegas from London, Warne blasted the seating plan, the broken air conditioning, the pilot’s constant interruptions, but had the greatest beef for BA’s cabin staff:
“Look I’m very lucky to travel first class, but the way British airways have spoken to the people and treated everyone, is a disgrace..”
“They spoke to this young family in front of me like they were criminals, they where traveling first class to, so rude and abnoxious”.
The influence of Warne’s comments is expanding exponentially, from his 116K followers on Twitter, to the electronic Telegraph’s 3m+ unique users and a similar number on Mashable’s worldwide readers. Pretty soon the incident will be famous and BA’s reputation will sport another sizeable dent.
How this will impact on their revenue however is up for debate. The weird thing about airlines is that reputation doesn’t seem to be linked to profit. Take Ryanair – massively profitable, universally disliked. Ryanair seems happy to take the flack on reputation damaging moves like charging for the bathroom because their accountants know they will still make more money doing it. There are enough skinflints with strong bladders prepared to put up with it.
Lack of competition on some routes is also a factor, Warne says of his flight ”This trip sucks.. So do British airways, is there a better airline to fly direct to Vegas from London ? Not via LA ?? Think BA only airline”.
Social media reciprocity, like these Tweets from Shane Warne, are undoubtedly a massive force for consumer good. Companies with customer service issues will soon have nowhere to hide. You couldn’t say Shane Warne is the most popular sportsman in the UK but it says something that BA is one British wicket many air travellers will not mind him spinning against.
Unlike Shane Wayne I travel by Economy Class and I have used most air lines from Virgin to Ryan Air.I hate travelling by BA because of the rudeness of the staff. Everything bad you may experience is within BA’s staff culture. I prefer middle east air lines. For economy class they provide best services and I would tick every boxes. They are very polite, good food, good timing and clean air crafts. Service With Smile.
I was involved a few years ago in an academic study of Ryanair’s reputation which included a long interview with their Head of Communications.
Ryanair’s reputation is constantly misunderstood. Many people think of their reputation as being about ‘goodwill’ from customers…but it’s not the classic definition with them. They want a reputation for being low cost, and that’s it.
So, newspaper stories about people in wheelchairs paying to borrow them? Normally bad for reputation – great for reputation for being low cost.
Newspaper stories about staff not being allowed to charge phones as it costs Ryanair 1p every time? Normally bad for reputation – great for reputation for being low cost.
Making people pay for the toilet? Normally bad for reputation….you get the picture?
Reputation for me is about how peoples’ perception of your company influences the way they interact with you in the future. What Ryanair care about is that people understand they are low cost and you pay only for what you get and use.
So I would argue they have a great reputation
Shane Warne is spot on. I stopped travelling by BA in 2007 after a series of customer service gaffes including:
-Losing my luggage on the way to a wedding a suggesting I’d be fine attending in the jeans I had travelled in
-Flying back from Dubai on a night flight with no entertainment and no lighting (so reading was no alternative) and without apology
-On the same flight asking for details of who/where to complain to only to be told (not asked) not to share the details with other passengers
-Being offered only Executive Club points as compensation. My partner (not EC member) was offered £25 voucher only usable on BA flights
-Taking my complaint to the CEO and being told that’s your lot, like it or lump it
I lumped it, haven’t flown BA since and probably never will again. Yet I still get Exec Club mailers despite repeated requests for them to stop.
On the other hand I’m happy to recommend Etihad, Emirates and Singapore Airlines who I have flown with since and BMIbaby who I’ve used for domestic flights
Hey Paul, thanks for your comment, interesting take on Ryanair, I think the problem is that their reputation has moved the wrong side of cheap to cheapskate. While you can admire someone who doesn’t throw money around, nobody admires a skinflint. I just wonder what would happen if they made a small investment in customer service so that they had a ‘neutral’ reputation – investing enough to move the needle from negative to zero. There must be thousands of people refusing to fly Ryanair on principle because they like a little bit of care and attention. However maybe they’ve done their sums and just think it’s not worth it.
I have little doubt you are right that thousands of people DO refuse to fly Ryanair on principle, and this includes me, who will avoid them if I possibly can. BUT you are also right that they HAVE done their sums and they DO feel it’s not worth that small investment in customer service. They feel that it wouldn’t get recognised and it would also detract away from their particular competitive advantage – being their price.
An interesting but little known fact is that the average pay for Ryanair pilots is actually quite high. Why? Because their business model relies on a pilot being able to do numerous flights in a day with short turnarounds and not make any mistakes. They are prepared to invest in that.
My point is they have decided which aspects of their business model are important and that’s where they have put their resources. When you consider what is happening with BA at the moment, lumbered with old-fashioned union contracts negotiated when it was a public sector company with people who cared less about profits for the airline – it’s even more important they stay reliable and cheap.
Co-incidently, I see Ryanair are looking for a new PR agency:
http://www.prweek.com/uk/news/1014551/Ryanair-launches-search-agency-split-Murray-Consultants/
The French know this airline as RIEN AIR which I think covers it rather well.
hmmmm…i don’t think I agree with everything that you wrote, but I like the way you put your arguement across in your thoughts. I’m following your feed.