The Royal Jordanian ad poking fun at United was cute. The Emirates ad is damning.
Emirates just won the Trip Advisor Travelers’ Choice award for Best Airline in 2017. Now I know it seems like these sorts of awards are a dime a dozen, but do you ever wonder why Emirates wins so many awards as opposed to say…United? More on that in a moment.
As for the award, Emirates President Sir Tim Clark stated–
We are honoured to be named the Best Airline in the World at the TripAdvisor Travelers’ Choice Awards for Airlines 2017. The fact that the awards are a result of unbiased reviews and feedback speaks to our commitment to deliver a superior travel experience for our customers. We want travellers to continue making Emirates their first choice whenever they think to travel. That is why we continue to invest in products and services across all classes, and why our service teams work hard and put their hearts into providing the very best experience for our customers both on board and on the ground every day.
Translation = boring corporate language.
But then Emirates released a video that celebrates its new award–
https://twitter.com/emirates/status/851845063999188994
This is powerful shade.
It mocks United CEO Oscar Munoz’s statement that “Those airlines aren’t airlines” in referring to Gulf carriers. I wrote about that statement in a post bearing the same title. Calling it an “emotional ruse to protect United from competition” I slammed Munoz, though I could have never imagined what would occur just weeks later.
The ad pivots from Munoz statement to a rebuttal–
Well Mr. Munoz, according to Trip Advisor, the world’s largest travel website, not only are we a real airline…we are the best airline.
But the best part of the ad is the end: “Fly the friendly skies…this time for real.”
What I love about this ad is that it eviscerates the false premise that the Gulf Carriers are somehow the bad guys. It goes beyond poking fun at United for its poor handling of a doctor dragged off one of its United Express contract flights. It achieves the goal of not just legitimizing itself, but of delegitimizing its competition in a fair way.
Think about it, it wasn’t more than a month ago that Munoz proudly boasted that United was on the rebound thanks to great customer service. Remember this video?
> Read More: I Love the New United Propaganda Campaign!
CONCLUSION
This story won’t die today. To make matters worse, a new denied boarding / flight removal story has arisen that I will soon address, a story that leaves no room for doubt. Sadly, United can look forward to another bad day.
(H/T: One Mile At A Time)
There is another interesting point in this. The OpenSkies battle between the Middle East carriers and the USA carriers. This “PR-stunt” of United could bring severe damage to the battle in favor of the Middle East guys.
This is just a terrible PR situation. It is interesting that Southwest and Emerates are banking on the issue to promote their airlines.
Well yes, there is an incredible opportunity for other airlines to take some of the marketshare from United Airlines. In fact, I’m in the market for finding other good airlines to fly… American, Delta, Alaska, Air Canada, Hawaiian, Southwest… and of course the international airlines including this one. In fact, I’d be happy flying on any other airline that guarantees that something like this would NEVER happen on their airline. And I’m happy to pay more: $200-300/roundtrip is small price to pay to make sure my head doesn’t get bashed in or to watch someone else’s head get bashed in.
That makes me a little sad to say, as I have supported United Airlines for many decades now. And have friends that work for them. Our flight attendant friend is super hardworking and responsible– the employees don’t deserve to be affected by the fallout from this. That is why I wish the employees would organize and demand the ousting of their CEO. Without this, I’m not sure United will survive. It saddens me to say it, but until he goes, I won’t be flying United. I would love to give them another chance, but they will need to regain trust. Leaving this CEO in charge– who showed his cards early as being callous and lacking in taking responsibility (not to mention common sense), doesn’t regain our trust. Neither do his words now, as they don’t mean much– we know how he ‘really’ feels, so he is just paying lipservice now.