I found the call odd due to what I perceived as a lack of professionalism in the nature of the questions and also (yes, wincing on the whole profiling thing here), the person was of Middle Eastern descent. In fact, when I asked for his name, he did give it to me which I have since forwarded on to American. (the Platnium reservation desk found this odd also)
Question to the board is: Have others received calls of this nature? Are these types of calls common? Did I overreact? I have nearly 2M miles on American and have never received a call like this, but we now live in different times.
Feedback welcomed
Happy 2002 to all.
Needless to say, the more weird the questions became, accordingly the more bogus my answers were.
Lewdog: The odd part of the market research angle (which is plausible) is that the individual said he was from AA. The other part was, the unprofessional nature of his questions and how he carried himself. All in all....odd
This board seems to be a priceless wealth of information and feedback, I figured if anyone else had a similar experience....this would be the group who could provide it.
[This message has been edited by AA in CA (edited 12-27-2001).]
Sounds unique to me?
He asked when my next travel date was
Let's hope he was not a con artist trying to figure out when your house will be empty. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif
Personally, I would never answer such questions over the phone, especially when I was not the one who initiated the call.
[This message has been edited by Eugene (edited 12-27-2001).]
I had an intern work for me this past summer. I actually had to tell him that at work you don't answer your phone by saying "Hello?"
Eh, what do you say, "Goodbye?" http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif
FewMiles..
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The Executive Desk would, in my experience, not make such a call. They only calls they make are call-backs (if you want to talk with a specific agent, for example, and he/she is on another call at the time), flight change notification and other calls directly related to your flying.
Someone at the Executive Offices could have placed this call, but it sounds odd. One strategy, absent another means to identify the caller and his/her legitimacy, is to ask for a name and say you will call him/her back at the published main number of the company. I will let the person give me an extension if he/she wants to, but not the number. Just saying this has led several impostors to hang up on me over the years.
I'd call AA to verify the person's employment there, since they gave their name. If it was an AA employee, I'd think that AA would want your feedback on improving the level of professionalism with this caller, and if it was bogus, they'd want to know that too.
A couple of years ago, while Gold, I had a message from AA on my answering machine wanting to know what I thought about how they were doing. The lady left her name and extension on the message. I called back, answered some questions for about 10 minutes about my AA likes and dislikes. She was thoroughly professional and friendly throughout.
When we were done, as a thank you, she deposited 4 e-upgrade stickers into my account http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif
Now that sounds more like it http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif
AA in CA the call you got does sound suspcious...did you try to call Exe office back and ask?
Thanks for the update...it's quiet relieving to see that the call was no prank...but just an employee asking some unprofessional questions...
Maybe it is part of the recovery, but I would remain suspicious until you reach your own conclusions as to what it is.
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1/2 Million Plus Miles, AAdvantage Platinum - Priority Club. Free Flyer for 8 Straight years.
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AAExecPlat; Lifetime AAirpass; 3MillMiles; UApremier-PassPlus
Did he do anything to cross-confirm your address, AAdvantage number, something?
The call was from the 'executive offices' not the exec desk. Took place at about 3:30 pm Pacific Time, presumably after offices might have closed in Tx (who knows though). Caller ID was blocked.
Needless to say, the more weird the questions became, accordingly the more bogus my answers were.
Lewdog: The odd part of the market research angle (which is plausible) is that the individual said he was from AA. The other part was, the unprofessional nature of his questions and how he carried himself. All in all....odd
This board seems to be a priceless wealth of information and feedback, I figured if anyone else had a similar experience....this would be the group who could provide it.
[This message has been edited by AA in CA (edited 12-27-2001).]
I had a somewhat similar call a few months ago (before 9/11). And likewise the caller said she's from AA exec office but she did not sound smart. She just asked if I was satisfied with the service from AA and did not sound really interested in what my answer was. It sounded to me like she just wanted to check me off some kind of a list.
On another occasion, another woman from the exec office called me because I cancelled a flight reservation in light of 9/11 and she wanted to know if there's anything she can do to perhaps extend the reaccommodation period with no change fee. I ended up doing exactly that.
AA in CA, seems to me he should have been able to pull up your future reservations (unless you didn't have any).
said he was from AA. The other part was, the unprofessional nature of his questions and how he carried himself.
Yeah, that is kinda weird. Any MR firm I've ever worked with has their reps identify themselves as calling "on BEHALF of American Airlines" (or Alpo puppy food, etc.)
The unprofessional nature part is also strange. That being the case, I reduce my bet amount from $100 to $10.
Color me stumped, then......
[This message has been edited by LewDog (edited 12-27-2001).]
I had an intern work for me this past summer. I actually had to tell him that at work you don't answer your phone by saying "Hello?"
When we were done, as a thank you, she deposited 4 e-upgrade stickers into my account http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif
It turns out the call I received on 12/27 was legitimate. The person who called that day is an AA employee and was doing his job (I am relieved and somewhat embarassed).
FYI, AA Marketing has developed so called 'Win Back' tiger teams. These teams are contacting selected (read random) long time FF's (over 10 year, over 1.5M miles) whose travel seems to have declined since 9/11. They are trying to get feedback on what AA can do to improve services etc. I did mention to the person I talked to, to check out this board...a pretty good source of what is working/not working. (fyi, my travel went to almost a dead stop for 6 weeks after the tragedy...has picked up since)
She did note the individual's name and apologized for what I described as an unprofessional line of questioning.
All thats left is to see if any upgrades get put in the account! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif (just joking). Sorry if this original post alarmed anyone.
The blocked callerID sounds weird to me. I've never gotten a call from any business that blocks its number
FWIW, that's a common practice for telemarketers.
In fact, I'd be willing to bet $100 you were RDD'd out of American's elite lists and asked the questions that you were for the purposes of gauging the flying public's concerns about safety, service, security, etc.
They called and told me that one of the employees at HQ saw my post in Flyertalk and passed it on. They told me they apologized for any inconvenience and the matter was being resolved. I just found it interesting that they would take the time to call.
-Eli
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Washington,DC/Miami
AAdvantage Gold
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