US Relaunches Its Envoy Experience

[Chicken or Beef??]

I shudder at the thought of what they might come up with! :huh:

In salad training, I believe the expression was "illusions of service."

 

[Chicken or Beef??]

Yes, in PHL the last daily BA flight has a pre-flight dinner option for Business Class passengers. ...

We could easily do that. Upon check in the CSR hands the Envoy passenger a coupon for ONE HAPPY MEAL AND AN APPLE PIE.

 

[CynicalResAgent]

I had a client tell me about the Tuna Burrito and how absolutely revolting it was. I just saw and article about new menu options in Business class.

see story

excerpt - "We don't think that customers really care who 'designed' their meals or that they choose which airline they're going to fly because of the celebrity chef. They just want the meals to taste good," US Airways spokeswoman Valerie Wunder explained in an e-mail.

To an extent this is true but I only believe when selling coach. I work with some clientele who don't bat an eye at booking full business class and if they ask me to sugest a flight I always stick with the ones that I feel like they will offer the best service. CO,BA,VS,SQ are some that come to mind for outstanding business class.

Now if someone is willing to buy business class and I am asked to make a recommendation between the airline that will serve sauteed prawns and crispy short rib wontons with organic Thai barbecue sauce and chilled sweet-and-sour cucumber relish or the one that serves a Tuna Burrito which one will I recommend?

I would love to see someone like Grodon Ramsey or some really outspoken chef or food critic review different airline foods. It would be funny to hear really critical reviews of the fares offered.

 

[EMBFA]

"We don't think that customers really care who 'designed' their meals or that they choose which airline they're going to fly because of the celebrity chef. They just want the meals to taste good," US Airways spokeswoman Valerie Wunder explained in an e-mail.

Are you kidding me?

Where did they find this marketing team? The above link is to an article about celebrity chefs designing first and business class meals for airlines.

US Airways does not use celebrity chefs. That's fine- we all know US Airways knows all and is celebrated for it's fantastic brand, right....

If you don't use celebrity chefs, why respond to an article about it?

Hey Valeri- if they send you an email about fuel burn on a 777, or airline lounges in Buenos Aires- don't respond! They have nothing to do with our airline. Slight an issue as the celebrity chef thing is, why send an email basically saying "Yeah, we're lame, we're not into that, as usual we are all about doing stuff as cheap and tacky as possible unless the passengers seriously start to revolt. Cheers from PHX, thanks for the question!" WTF? You just made us look stupid and cheap (as usual), in an article that didn't even need to mention us.

It's the same thing as idiot F/As who love to make negative announcements. They get to the second to last row of coach, and realize they are out of pasta, all they have left is BBQ beef. What do they do? They run back to the galley, pick up the PA and announce to the entire airplane (usually all cabins because they can't figure out the handset, or don't care) that we are out of pasta, repeat, out of pasta. Instead of disapointing the maybe four people who would not have gotten their first choice, they give a whole airplane a negative impression. Even though everything weny well for them, they will now go home and say "USAir didn't have enough meals". Or announcing that one toilet is unusable on a 737 on a 40 minute flight. Just tell the three people who might have to wait for the usable one, don't announce to the whole cabin that the can is broken...

The same logic should apply here. Shut these stupid people up. Doug Parker does not need to be in the newspaper bragging about how cheap the pretzels are... your potential customer base is reading, save it for the boardroom. Even the obnoxious ticker symbol LCC (for the legacy with the highest operating costs, uh, ok)... why would you want to brag to the public about how cheaply you fly airplanes?

Am I crazy here? Isn't this basic PR? Is there a community college class in Tempe that they can put these "spokespeople" through?

 

[Ignacio]

"We don't think that customers really care who 'designed' their meals or that they choose which airline they're going to fly because of the celebrity chef. They just want the meals to taste good," US Airways spokeswoman Valerie Wunder explained in an e-mail.

Are you kidding me?

Where did they find this marketing team? The above link is to an article about celebrity chefs designing first and business class meals for airlines.

ughhh... Sadly, quite funny.

 

[airmark]

Common sense is free, but not company policy!!!

 

[AL-PS-PI-AW]

I just worked a MAN trip and went to the back to check out the new Y class entrees. The beef entree was revolting. It looked nothing like beef. It looked more like chopped Spam with a brown sauce. Disgusting. However, the new arrival sandwich on westb ound flights is delicious.

 

[galley princess]

The new economy meal on the A330 out and back is MUCH better. The food is fresher and the little trays look nicer. Picking them up is problematic until you realize that you should just dump the contents into a trash bag and then tuck it in under the trays. It'll be easier for catering too.

The new arrival sandwich, well the jury's out, some people ate it, a lot handed it back, however the B failed to realize that it was supposed to be heated, which might have rendered it more appealing.

Three years later and eureka! Still, better late than never I suppose. Now if they could just master changing light bulbs. . .

 

[SolidCactus]

"We don't think that customers really care who 'designed' their meals or that they choose which airline they're going to fly because of the celebrity chef. They just want the meals to taste good," US Airways spokeswoman Valerie Wunder explained in an e-mail.

Are you kidding me?

Am I crazy here? Isn't this basic PR? Is there a community college class in Tempe that they can put these "spokespeople" through?

EMBFA, I have to agree 100% I have spent much of my lifetime in marketing, and option 1 would have been to not respond at all, but if they wanted the free PR, and I probably would have too, she could have appeared much more informed by just saying...

"Our extensive research among our customer base suggested that our customers were more concerned with cleanliness and comfort, so we have chosen to focus our energy and marketing dollars on improving our onboard experience".

or something like that, EVEN if it wasn't true. PR 101 should teach you that you always try to spin something that could be conveyed as a negative into a positive. Also, in her defense, sometimes reporters will spin what you say into something that is totally not what you meant - in this case though, im not so sure.

She was only one notch from saying "We really don't care what our customers think, we talked about this at a meeting and we figured that our customers don't expect much".

UGH.

 

[SS255]

She was only one notch from saying "We really don't care what our customers think, we talked about this at a meeting and we figured that our customers don't expect much".

We "don't expect much" because they've trained us to lower our expectations!

 

[whatkindoffreshhell]

That kind of nonsense with the hotel rooms not being ready is still going on?

Thanks, but I’ll stick to the Days Inn that has a Chinese Buffet next door and is across the street from a gas station that sells six-packs.

Kudos on your avatar! Splendid!

I've passed that sign and smiled but never thought about taking a pic.