Etihad Premium, Marriott Mobile Request – Social Media at Your Service
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Search for Etihad Airways’ premium Twitter account and you may find yourself barred from reading the airline’s premium tweets. They include notifications on deals, retro-mileage claims, and a five-minute response time for customer inquiries – access is privy to Etihad Guest Gold members only.
Announcement of the new @EtihadPremium Twitter handle was delivered by e-mail last week to Etihad Gold, and possibly, Platinum members. To register, Etihad Guest members were asked to send an e-mail with a copy of their member card, date of birth, postcode and Twitter handle. Once approved, Etihad Premium Twitter followers would have, what the banner describes as an “exclusive home for support, deals and travel inspiration.”
Etihad’s invitation-only Twitter account may be an airline first, but social networking channels that target top-tier flyers are not new. Last year, Air Canada launched Altitude Community, its exclusive hub for frequent flyers to share travel tips and interact with like-minded travelers. An early example of an airline experimenting with elite social media statuses would be American Airlines’ Klout campaign that invited passengers with scores over 55 into its Admirals Club lounges. Klout, which scores an individual’s social media influence from zero to 100, even partnered with Cathay Pacific to grant visitors, with a score over 40, access to the Cathay Lounge at San Francisco International Airport, even if they weren’t traveling with the airline.
To date, the @EtihadAirways handle (presumably for passengers in economy and business classes) has more than 239,000 followers. Compare this to the @EtihadPremium handle that has 592 followers – not even one percent of Etihad’s Twitter following at large. But invitation-only memberships, used when Google+, Spotify and Facebook first launched do the job of rousing curiosity and emulating the curtain that divides first-class passengers from the rest of the cabin.
In the same week that Etihad launched its premium Twitter account, Marriott Hotels introduced its Mobile Request app for Marriott Rewards members. The program, which launched with the #AppYourService campaign, grants premium guests with a 72-hour window prior to check-in, but also during and after their stay to make requests for extra towels, feather or foam pillows, a wake-up call, or late checkout. The “Anything Else?” option initiates a direct chat, providing services that require a personal touch: making restaurant reservations, arranging airport pick-up, and yes, even sending an iPhone 6 charger up to your room.