An American Airlines Concierge Key member tweeted his frustration at the airline over how his mother was being treated. There weren’t any staff at Philadelphia airport to help her in a wheelchair. And since she wasn’t in a wheelchair she had to wait in an interminable TSA screening line, standing instead of sitting.
Wheelchairs are handled by contractors, but American should be making sure its customers are taken care of at one of its major hubs. The airline isn’t responsible for TSA staffing, or the configuration of the airport which limits checkpoint throughput, but if the man’s mother had status she may at least have been able to use a priority line.
@PHLAirport @AmericanAir #Shameful 80 year old mother reserved a wheelchair, is told are none for probably next hour, so she hobbled to security to be met with this, and then security won’t let her go through unless she goes to back of line and no seating and I’m #conciergekey pic.twitter.com/t4uTUHXuCS
— InternationalLawGuy (@IntlLawGuy) July 22, 2022
The immediate issues highlighted in the tweet are the lack of staff to assist wheelchair passengers, and backups at airport security. And those are important to the traveling public.
But when I see this, I view it from the perspective of the top elite passenger that the airline needs for its business. Concierge Key members are usually either major influencers of travel spend for large corporations or spending $60,000 or more a year on their own travel. And this customer is angry at how the airline treated his mother.
Loyalty isn’t primarily about points or benefits. It isn’t transactional. It’s about building a relationship based on taking care of customers and building trust. It’s most important to understand what matters most to the customers that matter most. That’s often how a travel brand cares for the people the member cares most about.
Some Programs Do Really Well Taking Care Of Friends And Family
Hyatt top tier elite members have a benefit called ‘Guest of Honor’ – when they gift an award stay, they can also gift someone top tier elite status for that stay. That way the person they’re giving free nights to may get an upgrade, and will receive late check-out and breakfast.
They understand that when I set up a room reservation for my wife’s parents, for instance, that I’m not just giving them a place to sleep – I want to be ensuring them a seamless stay. That reflects on me.
United Airlines gives the spouse or domestic partner of its Million Mile members the same elite status each year as the Million Miler.
Some programs let elite members – or ‘overachieving elites’ who go beyond the minimum requirements for their status – ‘gift’ status to someone else. However, like United’s Million Miler benefit, it becomes available only to a single person. And the people you want to take care of tend not to be frequent travelers. Giving them status for a year is overkill when it may be used just a couple of times. Hyatt’s approach is better. You may not even realize they’re going to travel during the year, and there may not just be one person you need to help.
Air Canada Lets Elites Gift Anyone ‘Status For A Day’
When Air Canada Aeroplan introduced ‘Status Passes’ last year as a choice benefit.
Status Pass options:
- 50K elites can choose 2 Status Passes
- 75K elites can choose 3 Status Passes
- Super Elites can choose 4 Status Passes, in addition to 2 they’ll earn every year
Status Pass benefits:
- 3 free checked bags up to 70 pounds each
- Priority check-in, baggage, security, boarding (zone 2) and standby
- Maple Leaf Lounge access
Of course not everyone values this benefit, or has someone to give it to. I once overhead a passenger on a Southwest Airlines flight talking about the irony of their Companion Pass – they travel so much in earning the pass, they haven’t had time to find a companion. So it’s a choice benefit, which makes sense.
Caring For The People Your Customers Care About Is Make-Or-Break
The reason my wife has an authorized user card on my Amex Platinum Card is so that if she’s traveling without me she’ll have access to Centurion lounges and Delta Sky Clubs (if flying Delta, and if there’s not a massive line for either lounge type) and it gives her hotel and car rental status, too. I want her trips to be as smooth as possible when I can’t be there to ensure it.
At the same time the quickest way to lose a customer is to treat the people who are important to them badly. That doesn’t just hit a loyal member more than a single instance of bad treatment for themselves, it embarrasses them as well for the loyalty choice they’ve made (“I can’t believe you are loyal to ____, they are such a bad company”) in front of someone whose opinion really matters to them.
Status passes both engender loyalty and protect the loyalty relationship. That’s a strategy more programs should think through. And this Concierge Key member’s experience underscores that American Airlines should have a better way to take care of the moms of their best customers.
United and Delta need this, too. And Southwest surely should allow its best customers, perhaps those beyond A-List Preferred, to gift A-List for a day (though they do allow premium cobrand cardmembers to charge and get a statement credit for purchased A1-15 boarding if available at the airport, and cardmembers can give their loved ones an authorized user card).
Entitled twat much?
Indeed.
The road warriors who earn status do so by putting their families second at times. This is a low-cost crumb that goes a long way to mollifying those families.
Yeah United has this already, they apparently allow anyone to inherit GS status just by using the GS members FF number. The problem with all of these schemes is that once everyone has status, no one does right?
I’m just going to toss out there that one shouldn’t have to be elite to get a wheelchair for their mother – that should be standard issue. And if you can’t find people to roll them around, buy those electric carts they have in grocery stores, they can take themselves and the staff can spend their time retrieving the carts to various corrals.
Heartfelt article but…one solution is:
I now fly with my 88-year-old mother so she gets my United Million Miler & 1K treatment.
Contracted wheelchair pushers cannot accompany Mom from checkin through security tk the lounge then wait for boarding, deplaning, etc.
My wife gets my 1K status so I have to fly with my Mother and other family members for them to benefit. I did this last week in Lisbon, getting my daughter and son-in-law quickly through security and into the TAP Portugal lounge.
So he is entitled enough to demand good service from AA, but doesn’t care to buy first class for his mother so that she can be in the priority line? Ridiculous. He could have saved his mother this issue real easy.
@PHL smart people check-in at C and then walk over to PreCheck @ D to get through in 5 mins. This line @ C checkpoint has been the same for months. Unacceptable, but there is a workaround A CK should know this
Some CKs can gift EP to someone. Don’t know his situation. That would give someone priority TSA (not to be confused with Pre-Check). Alternatively, as was mentioned, buy a premium cabin ticket.
But, the bottom line is that an airline should be looking at the whole relationship. Perhaps add benefits to anyone whose reservation is linked to a Business Extra account. Gary, run with that.
It is absurd to think that ‘someone else’ will take care of things for travellers … especially travellers needing mobility assistance. It was dicey before, but since the virus it’s ridiculous to think that there is always extra help available. Why do people persist in thinking that they can take a flight on their own if they can’t walk or stand for long periods? How many stories do we need to read about an elderly, handicapped person in trouble at the airport because a family member couldn’t be bothered to accompany them? And it’s always the ‘entitled, outraged family member’ screaming about the situation.
Alaska Gold 75k’s can gift one MVP status annually.
It’s a good perk and allows my wife to have access to better seats when I’m not flying with her
Smart airport authorities take care of handicapped accommodations as most handicapped passengers do not have elite status.
Doesn’t Hyatt do this for Globalists?
Woofie, are you too stupid to read the article?
Maybe, just maybe, people who are not able to travel alone should not be, you know, TRAVELING ALONE.
Elderly, mobility-impaired folks, minor children, whatever.
The verdict is: disabled passengers deserve better, regardless.
Yet, giving elites something to give away is cheap and brilliant. Being generous makes people feel good. Doubt me? The next time you have a really good meal with friends, pick up the check. Tell them that, for all the crap we pay for in this life, it’s an honor to cover a truly memorable moment.
On the other side, someone without status who doesn’t travel much might suddenly see the point in lucrative premium cabin tickets.
Hell no.
Some entitled OPM corporate drone flyer who doesnt pay a penny for his flights should not have this ability.
This strikes me as the entitled crap FA’s and Pilots use to talk about how awful their home lives are and how they sacrifice…so give us more. The fact is, you fly, you stay, you accepted this life. I appreciate Hyatt GOH. So have those I have redeemed for. But it is not entitled or expected, it is a benefit and I am grateful for it. If everyone did it though than Gary would probably be here complaining that he can’t get any AA upgrades on the airline he decided is bankrupt because of all the freeloader GOH’s.
No sympathy here. Elite status shouldn’t be given away to friends and family of members that earned that status like day passes. I’m fine with CK or EP having one elite status they can gift but providing matching status daily to all family members is nuts
CK guy doesn’t come across as the sharpest tool in the shed.
Hi I am a CK. I m actually a nobody and my status is because my boss pays for my flights, and I m too cheap/poor to buy comfort for my old mother.
The entitlement….
It’s hard to tell from the photo, but based on the carpet, planters, and lighting, that is the line for Terminals D/E. American flies out of A/B/C/F – not D/E. It looks like the CK member put mom on Spirit or Frontier.
I have never heard such an entitled twit.
Wheelchairs should be available for ALL who need them regardless of status and that is a completely separate issue.
The security is TSA and the comments about Term C vs using other checkpoints are spot on from other posters and if this guy is a PHL based CK then something doesn’t pass the smell test.
All in all this is the behavior that ruins the status holder(s) reputation within loyalty program management.
I went thru Rome 10 days ago. I arrived 4.5 hrs early. Got up at 3:15am for my flight to the US. I saw such entitlement in the lines. I was paid business class and a 1K on UA. No upgrades. Over 50 people showed up with 2 hrs to depart and ended up getting pushed ahead in the 1K line. Finally said to the lady running the lines.. If they don’t show up on time let them miss the flight or they will never learn. I was not going to miss my flight because of the twits. This guy is NO different just more entitled.
Self entitled DYKWIA. All of our self identified “elites” in the US these days are actually pretty crappy people. Pay for a better experience or fly with your 80 year old mother yourself if you want to make sure she is treated to your perceived station in society above the hoi poloi.