DO NOT TRUST DELTA WITH YOUR LUGGAGE!

This blog is actually intended to be a test. I am curious to see if this shows up in a search and if so, how long it takes. But while we wait, let me tell you the very real stories which inspired the use of Delta for this test of the online grapevine.

In August my husband and I flew to California for my high school reunion. After an exhausting trip with many delays we finally arrived at our destination only to discover that our luggage had not made the trip with us. "No problem", says the attendant, "just fill out this form and we guarantee it will be delivered to your home in five days". At this point I had to step away from the discussion. We were 3,000 miles from "home" and what was worse, THE dress that I had shopped for weeks to find, and THOSE shoes that I paid dearly, oh and my best jeans were all in a bag that was God knows where. Plus I had no time to re-shop before the many scheduled events we had planned. Just as I thought I would really freak out, the attendant announced that our bags were in Salt Lake City and would be at the airport by early morning. At that point they would deliver our luggage to our hotel, at no charge, by the following evening. And to be fair, that is exactly what happened. Okay Delta, mistakes happen. We forgive you.

My grandmother in-law recently took a trip with her friend for a two week European cruise. Upon arrival to the ship they find that their luggage did not make it with them. "No worries", says the attendant, "we will deliver your luggage to the ship as soon as it comes in". So the ladies board the ship and buy essentials and hope their luggage will be at their next destination. So sets the theme for the entire trip.
Here I should mention that both women have impeccable taste and brought their best clothes and shoes for this amazing trip. I should also tell you that due to the promise that "the luggage is at the next port" they only bought a few small things hoping all along to get the clothes they had planned for and packed a month in advance.

Their luggage never made it to them. In fact, here we are a month later and still no luggage. The last anyone heard one set is in Amsterdam and the other is in Africa somewhere.

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First Google search of the text "Delta Luggage" at 9:30 am September 30 yeilds nothing but the ways in which Delta is trying to fix various luggage problems. LOL

Second Google search of the text "Delta Luggage" at 2:45 pm. No blog on the first page, but a second search of the term "Do not trust Delta with your luggage" yeilded other blogs of the same theme! Double LOL.

10/4 search of all major search engines and no blog from me. However, this seems to be an issue for Delta. Click here to read about Delta blunders in just the past year!/a>

The power of the online interview

In today's world, with the power of search engines, one has access to literally thousands of publications. Articles which may have once existed only in obscure magazines are now available to anyone, anywhere at the click of a mouse. As students of Internet Public Relations, we must understand and appreciate the power of this connectivity and advise our clients to always be aware that what is said is what is shared and can have long lasting effects be it positive or negative.

Case in point:

My passion is in community development. A quick search of the terms "rebuilding after natural disaster" led me to an article in an online publication called Live Science. The article was titled "Ike Underscores the Foolishness of Building on Barrier Islands".

Full Article Here

A particular quote by Bob Morton, a geologist at the U.S. Geological Survey's Center for Coastal and Watershed Studies in St. Petersburg, Fla. caught my attention. Not only is it a bold statement, but it is utterly false as we do not build or live on barrier islands in Mississippi.

"Every year there's reporting on the foolishness of building on barrier islands, but people are going to do it anyway," Morton told LiveScience. "We don't learn from the past. If you look at the barrier islands on the Mississippi coast in particular, after both Hurricane Camille in 1969, and Katrina, what did they do? They rebuilt. It's a perfect example of a coastal area that did get hit as bad as it can get, and they just go back and rebuild."



A new trend in online article publications is the feature which allows guests to register with the website and allows them to post comments on a particular article. This article went online September 12, 2008 and within a couple days already had twenty comments. A few comments addressed the false statement made by Bob Morton.
On September 16 I sent an email to Mr. Morton expressing my concern in regards to the statement in the article. Later that day he returned my email with this response:


From: rmorton
> Subject: Re: mississippi barrier islands
> Date: Wed, 17 Sep 2008 11:57:38 -0500
> To: Andrea Rogers

After a lengthy interview covering many topics and geographic areas,
reporters sometimes confuse different topics that were discussed as
they attempt to prepare quotes for an article. Having recently published a report summarizing the land loss and storm impacts on the MS-AL barrier islands and currently generating up-to-date maps of the MS barrier islands for the NPS, I am well aware of their ownership and development status. Reporters are on deadline and interviewees dont get to proof the text of an article before it goes out. I have received multiple emails about the quote originally put out by Live Science and apparently picked up by other news services.
End Email

So in less than one week this article was written, published online, and Dr. Morton had received "multiple emails" notifying him of his mistake. This is a prime example of how quickly things move on the web. It is also a valuable lesson in the art of a published interview. I would urge any future client to proof the text of any article in which they are quoted. What are your thoughts?