It doesn’t take an air traffic controller to see that Qantas is experiencing turbulence.
First, following a labor dispute, the airline grounded all flights for a weekend in October, leaving thousands stranded. Now, Australia’s flagship carrier is embroiled in a Twitter debacle.
Qantas’ social media team started a competition yesterday asking users to describe their best luxury experiences using the hashtag #QantasLuxury, and travelers, no doubt fed up by the airline’s current labor woes, slammed back faster than a seat-back tray.
“Getting from A to B without the plane being grounded or an engine catching fire,” an Australian journalist tweeted. Another traveler tweeted, “Waving at stranded Qantas passengers on the way to Air New Zealand check in.”
Many of the more than 5,000 tweets Topsy tracked were similar in tone.
“Quick note to corporate Australia: when you’re in the middle of crushing your workforce, don’t start a twitter promotion,” tweeted Jeremy Sear.
A parody account mocking the airline’s public relations department, @QantasPR, mocked the competition tweeting “In hindsight, trialling the #QantasLuxury campaign on MySpace was a really good idea.”
Photo by @kellulz
