Comments on: American Airlines: Separate but lavender

By: Do we really need women-only lavatories inflight? | Upgrade: Travel Better

Do we really need women-only lavatories inflight? | Upgrade: Travel Better — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 03:50:12 +0000

[...] gender for a while. (You may recall my skepticism of the efforts by American Airlines to create a website targeted at women. Granted, they’ve improved the site and made it less… lavender.) But this takes it to [...]

By: MSS

MSS — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 02:04:03 +0000

There is some b.s. in the air….

By: BlogZinger » American Airlines Stirs Things Up Online With Their New Site Targeting Women

Mon, 11 Jun 2007 22:21:37 +0000

[...] the site’s color-scheme. The color has since been changed–tag lines such as “Separate but lavender” were arguably not the sort of attention the airline was hoping would spread across the Internet in [...]

By: infrequent flyer

infrequent flyer — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 06:14:51 +0000

I don’t think that a company marketing to a specific gender will work, particularly an airline. It’s not cosmetics. With airlines I think marketing has to be a little more subtle. Hooters Air couldn’t quite stay aloft, and they basically marketed to intoxicated men with scantilly clad waitresses. You’d think that would have been a money maker.

By: Upgrades and Downgrades — April 12, 2007 — American’s website, more stranded passengers, wine and spirits, and more » Upgrade: Travel Better

Fri, 13 Apr 2007 16:37:52 +0000

[...] Lavender Update: The controversial and lame American Airlines website for women got a minor redesign, as Meg at the Consumerist noticed. See [...]

By: Kenneth

Kenneth — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 02:11:10 +0000

Mark,
Agree completely. We’ve also posted a critical note about this — giving both a male and female perspective — on http://howtotravelamerica.blogspot.com . It’s totally a marketing gimmick, with no real apparent value to women OR men.

By: Wendy Perrin

Wendy Perrin — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 20:27:44 +0000

I’m with you, Benet!

Mark, you ask what women travelers want. I just posted an entry about AA’s Web site myself, with a couple of suggestions for what AA can do if it REALLY cares about women:
http://www.concierge.com/cntraveler/blogs/perrinpost/2007/04/american_airlin.html#more

Hope you enjoy it,
Wendy

By: Mark Ashley

Mark Ashley — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 17:33:26 +0000

My wife, who is too ~~lazy~~ busy to comment here herself, just pointed out to me that the ladies’ booking box features an AA plane peeking in. “Seems awfully phallic,” she said.

By: Benet Wilson

Benet Wilson — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 17:01:35 +0000

Good lord – this makes American sound like they’ve just discovered women travelers. Pam makes a good point — you can’t just lump us all together because we’re women. I mean, I am a frequent business traveler, but I’m also a mother who flies with her 16-month-old baby. That means I have different needs for my flights.

I remember back in the mid-1990s, the second (or third – who can keep up) incarnation of Midway Airlines came up with a similar marketing program. They dedicated one lav just for women, and put in a larger mirror and flowers. Forget that – I need more room for my laptop!!

By: tom

tom — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 15:10:37 +0000

This is the silliest thing I’ve ever seen. I’m a man, so I guess I don’t get anything personalized, but…for real…what the heck is that site?

A purple search box? Some generic information? Lame.

If you can’t do something right, don’t do it at all. And yes, I’m an American Airlines frequent flier.