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(c) Elliott Publishing.

Show Me the Money
Err Travel · July 18, 2000

Maybe you've seen the ads. In March, Delta Air Lines kicked off a new advertising campaign. According to a company press release, the advertising pitch "is designed to strengthen the relationship between the carrier and its passengers by highlighting Delta's services and benefits from the passenger's, not the airline's, perspective."

If you haven't seen these ads, Delta would not be pleased. According to the Wall Street Journal, Delta is coughing up $100 million a year to support the campaign.

A hundred million bucks?

Wait a minute, Fred. (Frederick Reid is the executive vice president and chief marketing officer at Delta.) Instead of depositing that money in the bank account of Leo Burnett (Leo Burnett Company is the firm that landed Delta's advertising contract), how 'bout scratching the ads and doing something that will really "strengthen the relationship between the carrier and its passengers."

Here are my ideas. These truly come from a "passenger's, not the airline's, perspective." And Fred, you can have them all for only two bits:

Create a "Delta Force." Not the Chuck Norris kind fighting in the jungles of Southeast Asia, but one that would battle for us customers against the tangles, snags, and nonsense that we so often find in a far more confusing place: the ticket counters of the world's airports. A $100 million budget could support a Delta Force of roughly 2000 people.

Pay your current employees more. Pony up $1300 as a bonus to each of your full-time employees. And, Fred, if anything is left over, make sure it goes to the flight attendants, ticket agents, gate agents, and other customer service personal - all the people who have it within their means to make our travel experience either a delight or a disaster.

Initiate cash-prize flights Want a fun way to blow through a hundred mil in a year? Hold a drawing for a $50 cash award on each of your 5465 daily flights. Or …

Institute "Buck Back Boarding" Hand me and each of your other 106 million annual flyers a dollar as we board your airplanes. On a round-trip, cross-country jaunt from, say San Francisco to Washington with a stop in Atlanta, I could pick up $4. If I took a trip like this once a month - a relatively light schedule for a business traveler - I'd collect 50 smackaroos a year.

There you are: four ideas from Main Street instead of Madison Avenue. Fred, forget about highfalutin ad agencies creating recondite ads. Here are direct, in-our-pocket ways for you to strengthen your relationship with us.

Please make your check for 25¢ payable to Terry Riley.

(By the way, if any of you Err Travel readers have ever chosen to fly on one airline rather than another based on the ads you've seen, I'd really like to hear how you made that choice. Write to me at terry@ticked.com. I don't expect much mail.)

Dr. Terry Riley is a psychologist and travel security authority. His column appears on Wednesdays. He is author of the popular book Travel Can Be Murder. Visit his site at http://www.appliedpsychology.com or e-mail him at terry@ticked.com.