Half I: Executives element investments in buyer expertise
Half II: Touring the IOC and Touchdown an A350
Half III: In a single day Upkeep, American’s DFW Digital Tower, and Epic Aircraft Photos
Most of you in all probability know that I weblog on a part-time foundation along with a full-time profession in finance. Once I acquired an invite to an all-night American Airways operations “lock-in” I used to be 1) honored to obtain an invitation and a pair of) hilariously uncertain relating to my vitality ranges. Irrespective of, final Monday I completed up at Actual Job round 5pm, went house for a fast nap, packed my digicam gear, stopped by Starbucks for a quad latte, and confirmed up at precisely simply after 7:45pm for an occasion which wouldn’t finish till 7:30 the next morning.
I met with my American contact and some different native media representatives and we carpooled over to American’s IOC (Built-in Operations Heart), a brand new state-of-the-art command heart for the airline, constructed to face up to an F3 twister.
Different media attendees had been already there, representing a veritable Who’s Who of publications: The Wall Avenue Journal, CNBC, the Fort Price Star-Telegram, Skift, The Factors Man, CrankyFlier, a legendary airline professional from Ambiance Analysis Group (you may be asking your self “Geez Andy how on earth did you get an invitation with all these different elite publications?” I can guarantee you I had the identical query). Everybody exchanged pleasantries as American Airways Company Communications employees arrived with all method of caffeinated drinks and containers of different issues. We had been all nervously excited in regards to the night forward. Since every little thing was on-record, I felt very at house snapping footage and began with the attractive artwork set up behind the safety desk on the IOC, detailing American’s hubs and focus cities.
A welcome from American Airways president Robert Isom
We assembled in the primary command heart throughout the IOC, a big assembly room which will be spun up throughout emergencies to assemble essential employees and decision-makers. As we had been grabbing seats, none apart from Robert Isom, American Airways president, walked in to welcome us to the night.
Isom spoke in regards to the significance of American’s Proper Begin flights (the primary flights of the day at every hub), emphasizing how essential they’re to the general operation, and gave us a quick historical past of the IOC. When the merger was full, American executives realized a necessity for a a lot bigger IOC and the constructing was accredited, funded, and in-built brief order.
Isom lauded the IOC’s accomplishments as “integral” to the operations of the airline and, due to this fact, its prospects. The IOC was pretty quiet that night, which, Isom accurately identified, “often means issues are going nicely, that’s nice information for us”. He then handed the torch to Company Communications and wished us all a nice night, as he was in all probability heading house to go to mattress like a standard individual.
In-flight and airport facilities
After a fast briefing in regards to the night from Company Communications, and introductions across the room (“Sure, I’m THAT Andy from Andy’s Journey Weblog”) we had been launched to Erwan Perhirin,managing director buyer expertise advertising and marketing, onboard merchandise.
Perhirin, an airline trade veteran, detailed the investments American was at present making within the buyer expertise. Among the many notable mentions:
- The model partnership with Casper for in-flight bedding has been an enormous success. Casper mattress pads will roll out on all Trans-Pacific flights starting this summer time. The Casper slippers shall be on all worldwide flights quickly
- New amenity kits (which I lined right here) function model partnerships to supply what prospects have been asking for essentially the most
- The objective is for all narrowbody plane to have the brand new XL overhead bins (which permit for rollaboard baggage to be saved on its facet). It will scale back the unlucky congestion on the gate when boarding begins as individuals really feel like they need to get on board ASAP with a view to safe overhead bin area
- Bose noise-canceling headphones are going away. Bose has determined to not manufacture headphones with the 3-prong plug (which to me looks as if they’re getting out of the airline enterprise). Beginning very quickly, American flights will function Bang & Olufsen noise-canceling headphones. American is contemplating concepts for permitting passengers to maintain the headphones for longer on the finish of a flight however didn’t have something to announce in the course of the occasion
- All narrowbody plane will function high-speed gate-to-gate web from Gogo and Viasat throughout the subsequent few months. The rollout of high-speed web has been tremendous quick and American has been actually proud of the product to this point. American additionally options 12 stay TV channels on home flights (4 for worldwide flights), and prospects have preferred the stay TV
- Just like amenity kits, American will proceed to search for partnerships for all parts of the in-flight expertise, evidenced most lately by their partnership with Apple Music totally free in-flight streaming for all Apple Music subscribers
- American Airways will at all times go searching on the aggressive panorama when jets just like the 777-300ER (which has a completely excellent enterprise class seat) are available for his or her labor-intensive upkeep checks (C and D checks) to see if it is smart to improve/change any seating. Nothing to announce presently, nevertheless
Of serious be aware: the brand new Flagship Lounge at DFW is scheduled to open within the second quarter of 2019 (there may at all times be delays, however that is the estimate they’ve proper now). Mixed with the brand new Admirals Membership and Flagship First Eating, the lounge advanced will whole over 35000 sq. ft (virtually double the dimensions of the brand new American Categorical Centurion Lounge at DFW)!
Erwan then tell us that they had some amenity kits, pajamas, Casper slippers, and worldwide blanket and pillow units for us every to take house with us.
We additionally had quite a lot of meals obtainable from American’s in-flight meal accomplice, Zoe’s Kitchen. I dived into the hummus earlier than getting an image of it however Brett Snyder from CrankyFlier unknowingly posed for an image with one of many Zoe’s sandwiches whereas everybody else had some chit-chat, and by chit-chat I imply CAFFEINE.
I’m a fairly horrible mannequin, however fortunately a number of of the opposite attendees enthusiastically turned into the pajamas, and Brett, from CrankyFlier, put the bedding to a radical take a look at on one of many convention tables.
Social media group offers with tens of millions of feedback from prospects
Annette Hernandez, senior supervisor social media customer support, introduced some really unbelievable statistics in regards to the sheer quantity of messages American Airways consumes throughout their social media channels.
- There are 25 full-time social media group members who present customer support throughout Twitter and Fb (primarily Twitter)
- Social media group members are fully-trained as reservation brokers and plenty of are recruited from the Govt Platinum and ConciergeKey reservation desks
- Final yr, American acquired 1,657,261 incoming tweets and direct messages, a median of 4500 per day!
- Per Annette, all tweet replies are hand-typed, there are not any robots and no copy/paste reply templates
She confirmed us a pattern of various “classes” of tweets they acquired (all had been publicly shared on Twitter by public accounts) to indicate the true spectrum of every little thing the social media group has to deal with, every little thing from compliments about American employees to safety threats towards the airline. She defined that, because the group grew from 12- to 18- to 24-hour protection of social media they gathered for intense talks on the “voice” of American’s social media group to make sure a constant expertise for patrons.
Social media group members have entry to myriad different American programs (baggage, ticketing, and so on.) with a view to present all kinds of providers for patrons, thereby offering one other outlet of customer support along with reservation desks and airport employees. American’s IT division constructed a home-grown answer for the social media group not simply to trace tweets however to tag and categorize them with a view to observe up with the correct division. Final yr there have been 29000 items of suggestions tagged by the group!
Social media has grown more and more essential to the airline primarily because of the immediacy of the suggestions acquired. When American revealed their new livery in 2013, executives simply walked all the way down to the social media group to see what the general public was saying about it, as a substitute of ready for focus teams. Extra lately, a passenger complained a few pathetic-looking meals merchandise in comparison with the image on American’s menu. That suggestions was despatched to a F&B supervisor, who was horrified and instantly pulled the merchandise from the menu, fleet-wide, inside an hour.
Loads extra to come back!
The social media session wrapped up the primary a part of a really busy schedule for us.
Keep tuned for the following a part of this mini-series of posts, the place we head out onto the ground of the IOC to fulfill the individuals whose fingers are on the heart beat of American Airways!