Disgruntled Passenger Gets Even with British Airways for Losing His Bag
After British Airways lost his dad's luggage earlier this week, passenger Hasan Syed didn't get mad — he got creative.
Using Twitter's self-serve ad platform, Syed purchased a series of promoted tweets in two major markets — New York City and the United Kingdom — in order to publicly shame British Airways for mishandling his dad's stuff and their subsequent complaints.
"Don't fly @BritishAirways. Their customer service is horrendous," read the initial tweet that published Monday night.
Over the course of 24 hours, Syed's campaign was seen by nearly 77,000 people, costing him a total spend of $1,000.
But it was well worth it, according to Syed.
British Airways finally got around to responding to Syed's grievances with a series of tweets that aptly illustrated Syed's point:
"We would like to apologize to the customer for the inconvenience caused. We have been in contact with the customer and the bag is due to be delivered today," a BA spokesperson said in a statement released today.
And Syed's campaign has apparently managed to make a few airline execs worried about the future of customer outrage.
"Interesting; a disgruntled customer is buying a promoted tweet slamming a brand where they had a bad experience," tweeted JetBlue's SVP of marketing Marty St. George. "That's a new trend itself!"
"I got what I wanted," Syed concluded earlier today. "I win."
