DALLAS, TX – Taking a page out of Frontier Airlines’ playbook, American Airlines unveiled a new employee bonus program rewarding poor customer service experiences.
Under the new incentive, the Texas-based airline is offering employees a $50 bonus per customer complaint that can be tied directly to the “offending” employee.
The new program is loosely modeled after the now-infamous oversized bag fee bonus program used widely by Frontier Airlines. Gate agents are awarded a $10 bonus for every oversized bag they stop at the gate during the boarding process.
The new American Airlines incentive is, according to Chief Customer Officer Richard Suchenn, is intended to help reorient employees who may have overstepped their bounds by providing stellar customer service.
“The American Airlines brand is our most important asset,” Suchenn said, “It’s imperative that we uphold our long tradition of providing poor customer service and an average to below average flight experience. Employees are now incented just a little bit extra to make sure they are pissing our customers off.”
Unconfirmed reports from inside the airline suggest that a much larger bonus – perhaps even as high as $500 – was considered before an observant middle manager reminded executives that most American Airlines employees actually don’t need much incentive given their default workplace state of bitterness, desperation and indifference.
The post you read is…satire
As a past AA Platinum (now a happy United Global Services) I would believe this. It’s the only explanation for the AA horror stories I endured for yrs.