The Power of Social Media

For those who scoff at the idea of using Twitter or cringe at signing up with Facebook, here's a story on the power of one tweet I sent on Dec 10th Here's the tweet...

"Won a free trip on @flyfrontier at a Rockies game, no date/location works for me to use it! Worthless promotion? Probably"

Here's the story. I participated in an on-field promotion with the Coloardo Rockies at the end of the season 'The Frontier Airlines flyball challenge'! Catch two fly balls, get a free roundtrip on Frontier. I caught the balls and won free RT ticket. The caveat was the need to book the ticket in certain class over the phone and the trip needed to be complete by August 2010. So my first attempt to use the ticket was on our family vacation to Disneyworld. No luck booking the ticket in early November for a January vacation. A month later I knew that I had three different trips coming up to try and use the ticket. San Fran, Minneapolis, and New Orleans. Frontier doesn't fly to New Orleans so that was out. San Fran was in February and Minneapolis in March. Two and Three months out for those places. Upon calling Frontier, I found that I couldn't use my ticket for either one of those destinations, even with flexible dates over a long weekend in both cases.

At that point, I figured I was out of luck, so I asked how I could file a complaint with Frontier. They transferred me, I submitted my complaint and was told there wasn't much that could really be done becasue the free ticket was restricted to a class that doesn't have many available seats.

I was frustrated because I couldn't look up availability on the web, had to work with someone over the phone and just keep guessing for a location and date that would work. Further I figured my phone complaint had fallen on deaf ears. So I sent my tweet!

Within 18 minutes @flyfrontier (Frontier Airlines) started a twitter conversation with me about how could they help resolve my situation. Several tweets back and forth and within 24 hours, they had booked a seat for me to San Francisco. The result is that Stephanie and I will have our first weekend away from the kids in just two weeks.

Simply, when you make a complaint directly to the company, there isn't always the incentive to respond. However, when you share you complaint/concern using social media the power of your network, connecting to the networks of your followers and friends, provides a powerful incentive to respond and handle the issue.

In this case, I was more than impressed with the speed and willingness of Frontier Airlines to respond to my situation. Thank you Frontier! Unfortunately my loyalty to Froniter is starting to slip. With a family of four, we always need to fly with bags. Until the baggage fees kicked in, I would always choose Frontier over other airlines. The direct tv is a big draw when travelling with kids. But with baggage fees there is an additional $120 cost when compared to flying with Southwest Airlines, plus the $16 to $24 in Direct TV costs. Sure you can purchase the Classic Fare, and my solution would be purchasing two seats in Classic and two in Econmony for only $80 more in most cases. Unfortunately, they don't let you book that way online so the entire family is on the same itintary. With only an $80 cost, I might make that choice, but over a $140 difference, I'm a Southwest Airlines guy when possible. Maybe someone at Frontier will read this blog and change how they do business, but I doubt it. (Hey my doubt worked last time!)