British Airways has apologized to a man after he attempted to humiliate the airline via social media.
Twitter user Hasan Syed vented his frustrations with British Airways on Monday by buying a promoted tweet to complain about his father’s lost luggage. Sye, who goes by the handle @HVSVN, used the Twitter’s self-service ad platform and purchased a sponsored tweet aimed at the airline’s 300,000 followers. The message read, “Don’t fly @BritishAirways. Their customer service is horrendous.”
The sponsored tweet then went viral.
British Airways responded to Syed’s complaint on Twitter Wednesday, saying: “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”
Syed hit Twitter following the public apology, saying that his sponsored tweet cost $1000 and received just over 76,000 impressions on Twitter. He also noted that he was satisfied.
Of course, Syed’s not the first disgruntled customer to take on a giant corporation via social media, but the use of a sponsored tweet may be a first. After seeing the tweet, Marty St. George, senior vice president of marketing at JetBlue Airways tweeted that Syed could be setting a new trend.
