Qantas Airlines epic social media fail!

Be careful with using Twitter hashtags in your company's PR campaign. Things might go incredibly wrong!

Qantas idea:

(a) log onto www.twitter.com;
(b) tweet a response in 140 characters or less to the @QantasAirways tweet 'What is your dream luxury inflight experience? (Be creative!)?'
(c) tweets must include the hashtag #QantasLuxury.
(d) ...
(e) PROFIT?

Not so much!

The airline posted a seemingly innocent tweet this morning using the hashtag #qantasluxury asking for entries to a competition with suggestions for a dream in-flight experience

Little did they know just how "creative" - and angry - the responses would be as Twitter users seized the opportunity to have their say in their hundreds.

While many of the tweets were sarcastic, most were from passengers unhappy with the state of the airline or who had experienced the disruption first-hand.

http://www.news.com.au/travel/news/fail-qantas-red-faced-after-twitter-campaign-backfires/story-e6frfq80-1226202445747

Extract from Twitter.com/QantasLuxury:

#qantasluxury was being abandoned at Heathrow for 4 days in the snow with no customer support while trying to get home to 8mo pregnant wife!

#qantasluxury is sitting on the tarmac for 90mins staring at a full-page SMH ad claiming "We're back on schedule!". Then returning to gate.

#QantasLuxury "Still calling Australia home" even after you've driven the airline into the ground to offshore it.



/Olle Westerlund