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Friday, June 26, 2009

Rant - inappropriate airline frequent flyer marketing emails

I generally like getting emails from airlines and frequent flyer programs. I subscribe to dozens of email lists and it is a chance for me to be informed of deals and offers that I may have missed from other sources. Every day I get several such emails. Most I can't take advantage of but the few that I can use make it very worthwhile.

However, there are some marketing emails that serve only to annoy me. Here are a few recent examples from my inbox.

  • Click to enter a competition for free flight/holiday/miles, open only to residents of a certain country. The frequent flyer programs know I am not resident of that country, and thus I am ineligible for the competition.
  • Sign up for a new credit card for bonus miles. The card is only available in USA, a country in which it is notoriously difficult for non-residents to get credit cards. You guessed it, the frequent flyer program knows I am not a resident.
  • Sale offer which is almost over. What is the point of sending an email at the end of a 2 week sale? Extra rant points if it is a sale which I could have used but have already bought a higher fare during the un-notified portion of the sale.
  • Lengthy email about a sale, followed a day later by a long corrected email. The corrected email doesn't spell out what was corrected forcing a full re-read to see if the change affects me or not.
  • Fantastic one day only offers which due to lack of internet access I only get to read the next day. Okay, this one is my fault.

What are your airline or frequent flyer program email peeves?

1 comment:

Wantage Life said...

Ideally, you want to receive the email a day or two before the sale starts, and then a simple reminder just before the sale ends.

I don't particularly like the vague 'up to 30% off' deals. Give me something definite, such as £20 off all flights until June 30th.

And Monarch Airline's endless sale is beginning to get on my nerves.