Continental wants you to know your place
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I received an account update from Continental Airlines OnePass this past week — it’s an airline I have some orphaned miles with, but I haven’t flown with them in a while, and I’ve never had status with them.
What struck me was the way my OnePass membership was framed. Right up top, I was labeled “Non-Elite.”
Why not call me “Riff-Raff” or “Pond Scum” while you’re at it? Will the airline be honoring my reservation, or will I need to wait at the bar?
I can understand the idea of incentivizing flyers to attain elite status, but labeling me “Non-Elite” sure doesn’t make this customer feel like the airline is interested in winning my business.
So I pulled up other family member accounts to see how other airlines label their low-rung riff-raff can’t-get-an-upgrade board-last sit-in-the-back middle-seat “non-elite” members.
Northwest: “Base Member”
United: “General Member”
Delta: “SkyMiles Member”
Notice the word “Member” appears again and again. Inclusive. Part of the club. Continental’s scheme doesn’t allude to membership at all, and focuses entirely on how close you are to elite status. Aspirational? Maybe. But it’s kind of off-putting. How would you feel if you logged into your bank account and before you even saw your balance, your account was labeled “Low Margin Checking”? (Unless you’ve got a 7-figure balance, of course…)
I guess I’ve learned my place.
Related: Debating the value of elite status
tags: travel | Continental Airlines | OnePass
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July 30th, 2006 at 4:54 pm |
wow, they found a great way to make sure that you strive to be part of the elite. guess they didn’t take the trouble of consulting a thesaurus dictionary or maybe they are just that insensitive.
July 31st, 2006 at 9:05 am |
Continental is one of THE most snobbish airlines around and I wonder if that’s why they frequently won those JD Power awards. I once sat on a flight where some guy kept complaining that he didn’t get upgraded to first class over and over again stating, “I’m a platinum member and I didn’t get upgraded!”
I felt like slapping the guy down hard. He was a little winnie guy too.
July 31st, 2006 at 12:37 pm |
A separate line for elites is okay, since elites can board first. But calling you “non-elite” is pretty stupid and yeah, snobbish. Bad marketing, too. They should draw attention to the people who _are_ elites, not the people who _aren’t_. Reward the best, but don’t punish the rest.
October 26th, 2006 at 12:28 pm |
I am an “Elite Member” with Continental and was removed from my first class upgrade by gate agent Van Fossen. This rather large woman yelled at me and told me to “get back in the back of plane, you get what you paid for”. Funny, who pays for upgrades, we’re all frequent flyers! I had barely caught my flight, and was told by a rather nice gate agent, to grab the first seat. Being “elite-ess” I asked, do I still get my first class upgrade? He said yes, he had several late connecting flights and missing passengers,if I saw one available sit down and tell the 1st Class flight attendant. I did as told, so excited to see an open seat. You quickly learn, 1st Class attendants aka waitresses, have a power isssue. You may never sit unless they tell you to do so if your the last passenger on. Who knew? I told her the man at the gate told me their was room in 1st class and to grab the 1st seat I saw. She did not like my explanation and had the door re-opened so Van Fossen could remove me. Van Fossen asked if I was eligible for an upgrade, it would say so on my boarding pass. I assured, it did. She told the attendant, “watch this” I handed her my Golden Ticket which clearly stated, “Added to 1st Class Standby List”. I was forced into submission, removed from my seat, and placed in the last row in a middle seat. I was forced to walk all the way to back of the plane while everyone stared at me, extremely humiliating. They had no idea I was right and I earned my seat. They all thought I held up the fligh. So much for Elite status! I’ll never fly Continental again, I’d rather arrive early to the airport & fly Southwest in Group A and hand pick my seat with no fear of being humiliated.
April 15th, 2007 at 10:23 am |
[…] The question remains if airports and airlines should divide the lines into elites and non-elites. I say […]