But consider this little fact: every minute of boarding time on an airline flight costs $30 per flight. Sure, in an airport $30 may represent a few beers at the terminal’s TGIF or a hidden fee for some minor (and infuriating) infraction of small-print protocols, but that number adds up when multiplied throughout the day. Just imagine all of those fellow passengers and the number of flights in a 24-hour period. Cha-ching.

Airlines view boarding times as an exploitable revenue area. Reducing boarding times translates into more efficient procedures, more flights and increased income. Therefore, American Airlines is rewarding passengers who travel without overhead compartment baggage the luxury of boarding early, just after first-class and other premium level passengers. Yes, American Airlines is encouraging customers to be low maintenance.

By now the public has learned to abandon hope of air travel ever returning to its glory days. We fully understand the impersonal, probing, fee-mongering practices of a business model that struggles to serve its customers. Most of us have already found ways of taking our trip into our own hands. We already travel light. We show up galvanized in an attitude that expects things to go wrong. We emotionally prepare ourselves for stuff—delayed flights, lost luggage or weary customer service. continued…

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Southwest Airlines enjoys a strong brand identity associated with being a less expensive and reliable alternative to juggernauts like American Airlines that only deal with major hubs while charging exorbitant baggage fees.

Though Southwest Airlines is the largest domestic airline in America, the public still views it as a renegade and underdog brand in an industry vilified for being unconcerned and out of touch with customers. So industry experts and PR professionals were understandably confused by a new ad campaign launched by Southwest during the NCAA basketball tournament that is surprisingly, well, off-message and even serious.

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American Airlines

Jill Surdek, American’s managing director of brand and customer experience strategy, called the process a “saga”, reminding the audience that the campaign began prior to major unforeseen events (namely the airline’s late 2011 bankruptcy and recent merger with U.S. Airways). She then laid out, piece by piece, a plan that was that much harder given industry, financial and self-inflicted PR problems (with our comments in italics):

Multilayered rationale. “It was a slow, methodical process to build the case for change, but there wasn’t much pushback from senior management”, Surdek said. She explained the reasoning:

• AA’s competitors all refreshed their brands within the past decade, but American hadn’t done so since 1967.
• While many fans identified with American’s iconic look, it had undeniably lost its luster.
• American ordered several new aircraft a few years ago, so the time was right to change customer perceptions.
• Marketing priorities include expanding international business and attracting younger customers.
• The airline needed to streamline its vast array of different logos across business units.

Business reasons for rebranding were compelling. American competes with branding stars Jet Blue and Virgin (America and Atlantic) and with legacy carriers. Appealing to a younger base is essential moving forward.

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In July, for example, the chain launched an “info to go” app designed to help diners gauge the nutritional value of their favorite items and make healthier choices. This isn’t an unprecedented move: McDonald’s has the same sort of app in addition to a new one called “Mouth Off” which allows users to sing through that weird talking fish thing in another attempt to push Fish McBites.

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It’s done

Of course the merger is in the financial interests of all involved parties. But will it help them overcome the fact that the public hates them? We don’t think so. The Justice Department rejected the proposed US Air/United merger in 2001 because “it would reduce choice and possibly lead to higher fares”. Now try and guess what this merger will bring:

• Service cuts (reduced choice)!
• Fare hikes (higher fees)!
• More add-on fees for checking bags, re-booking reservations, choosing seats, etc…

Sounds great, right? Of course, American will now have the advertising and PR budget of the biggest name in town. How should they spend it?

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Mercedes-Benz

Before: A luxury car brand synonymous with “incredibly rich (and usually evil) people”

After: A premium brand that’s still affordable for those of us a little lower on the social ladder

Did it work? Nice commercial but no. An “economy” model Mercedes is like a subprime mortgage: you can tell us it’s less expensive and convince us that we’ll be able to pay it off in twenty years of installments, but the fact is we still can’t afford it.

But hey, at least we didn’t have to watch Kate Upton try to act.

Click through for the rest:

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So what can American do to redeem itself in the eyes of its public? How about a new logo?

Check out the official corporate video unveiling the “much-anticipated” redesign (and try not to gag on all the drama).

There are a few more bells and whistles involved, of course.

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We were intrigued, so we figured we’d peruse the list and see what we could make of it. What are these brands, and what did they do to offend the American public (and their investors) so badly?

Here they are, along with our past and present theories on why they suck:

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In order to bolster their bottom lines and increase profits, airlines have implemented fees for everything from extra carry-on bags to what once were basic amenities such as food and headphones. Today, airplanes resemble busses in the sky, where the quarters are cramped, worn and offer few creature comforts.

The one aspect of air travel that separates it from other forms of transportation, however, is the flight attendants. It’s nice to know that someone on board gets paid to be nice to you the entire trip, quick with a pillow or blanket should you need one. Not many businesses beyond upscale restaurants and beauty salons offer such services to average people.

Many frequent air travelers know the names and faces of the flight attendants who work scheduled domestic flights. Customers like to be recognized; it makes feel human and worthy. But the faces of American Airlines flight attendants are about to change.

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The discount airline has emerged as a survivor in the industry despite some PR problems like the Steven Slater emergency chute drama, the pilot “panic attack” incident, and the usual union debates.

The company’s new “Election Protection” campaign, created by the Mullen agency, makes light of an annoying habit that seems to arise right before every presidential election: celebrities and other passionate voters publicly announcing their plans to leave the country if their preferred candidate loses.

Curious customers can enter to win a free post-election trip out of the continental US by choosing their party alignment (what, no Rosanne?) and their ideal vacation destination in JetBlue’s poll.  Lest puzzled readers think JetBlue is undermining democracy with this stunt, all campaign spots repeatedly emphasize the importance of voting—a message sadly lost on the 40-50% of voting-age Americans who consistently fail to participate in nationwide elections.

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This week brought an outrage that managed to combine technical malfeasance with poor customer service: the seats on AA planes have begun to come loose in-flight. Seriously. Wednesday marked the third time this has happened in the past week.

Oh, and these aren’t just passenger seats: last night a flight was delayed due to “missing springs” in the pilot’s seat, and all 48 of the company’s are now going out of service for a second time after technicians discovered that the real cause of this mishap is something called “seat lock plunger mechanisms”. Spokespeople were previously forced to clarify that “Seat-gate” was not, in fact, the result of coordinated sabotage by angry pilots.

This isn’t even funny anymore, guys.

The AA Fail story has made its way around the PR news world over the past few weeks, of course, and in that time we’ve seen no one outside the organization defending the management of what looks to be a swiftly sinking ship. We don’t have much in the way of useful advice for the company, but we do have one piece of slightly good news: Despite losing a bid to block a unionization vote by “10,000 passenger service agents”, the airline workers’ existing union now claims to have reduced the number of coming layoffs by “more than 80%”, from 8,650 to under 2,000.

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This week, however, the opposite happened.

American Airlines suffered from flight cancellations, absentee pilots, planned layoffs for 11-14,000 workers, and an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal urging all readers to avoid the airline altogether. Wow, that last one was quite harsh. But we were even more disturbed by this story:

In short, a man (who happened to be a frequent business traveler and regular AA customer) bought tickets to Disney World for himself, his wife and his daughter. Four months after buying these tickets, his plans got complicated by the fact that American changed the flight plans for the return trip. Unfortunately, this meant placing all the paid passengers in arbitrary seating arrangements. As American set things up, the man’s daughter would be sitting on the other side of the plane.

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Has Words With Friends-gate finally reached its finale?

Alec Baldwin appeared on SNL this weekend dressed as American Airlines’ “Capt. Steve Rogers” to apologize to the star, talk up how wonderful his is, and explain why any normal person playing Words With Friends would leave their seat and slam the lavatory door as the plane is about to take off.

One PR blogger thinks the skit was a good move. Your thoughts?

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After apologizing to fellow travelers who may have been “inconvenienced” by the brouhaha, he addresses the airline directly.

“I suppose a part of my frustration lay with the fact that I had flown American for over 20 years and was brand loyal, in the extreme,” Baldwin writes. He then continues to talk about the tendency for passengers these days to use their electronic devices until the last minute and the ways in which air travel has become “inelegant.”

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Photo: Splash News

So yesterday, news broke all over Twitter that Alec Baldwin was booted from an American Airlines flight for playing Words With Friends after the flight attendant told passengers to shut down their devices. Today, visitors to @AlecBaldwin are greeted with a deactivated message.

Our TVNewser colleague Alex Weprin got a response via tweet (of course) from Baldwin’s publicists at Hiltzik Strategies about the disablement: “@HiltzikStrat: @alexweprin – just focused on #30Rock for now.” In a couple more words, reps told People, “It’s just on hold while he focuses on 30 Rock.”

Meanwhile, Baldwin was mobbed by photographers in New York when he landed because of the incident, which you can see in this bizarre Huffington Post slideshow that has 25 pictures of Baldwin getting into a car at the airport.

Here’s a statement from American Airlines on the issue.

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