MetaChat - American Airlines has added a subsite for women.

I can imagine the conversation over at AA headquarters:

"Hey Bob, did you know women have money now?!?!"
"They do??? What do they spend it on??"
"I dunno, beauty stuff?"
"We should create a website telling them to FLY places to get beauty stuff, we'll make a killing!"
"Ok!"

posted by ThePinkSuperhero 09 April | 13:55

Teeps nailed it.

This is the most useless piece of pandering fluff I've seen.

posted by Specklet 09 April | 13:56

Oy. The first two things I noticed were a link leading to advice on how to manuever a stroller through the airport, and another link leading to advice on how to book a romatic getaway. Kee-rist.

posted by iconomy 09 April | 13:56

Welcome to American Airlines AA.com/hawtwomen – the airline industry's first web page dedicated to connecting with hawt women who travel, and an example of American's commitment to hooking up with the growing hawt women's market.

This web page is about you – our smart, funny, interesting, ravishingly hawt customer. We've listened to hawt women like you and recognized the need to provide additional information tailored to your hawt business and hawt pleasure travel needs and lifestyle.

We also want to welcome you to the American Airlines hawt customer community and invite you to share insights, travel tips, and erotic stories by submitting them to weheartyou@aa.com.

Thank you for flying American Airlines! Wanna join our exclusive Milehigh Club?

posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson 09 April | 14:02

The email I got that announced it said:

We've been listening, a lot, to our valued female customers. Some of what we've been hearing is that women would like to have a place where they can connect with other women, and with American Airlines.

Today we're launching a dedicated online resource. It's all about travel for women, with things like:

- Quick links, making doing business with American even easier.
- "Women Connected Through Business," containing the latest travel information from safety and security to travel rewards.
- "Women Connected Through Lifestyle," with information about getaways and all the ways to redeem miles.
- "Women Connected Through Each Other," dedicated to our women's network, charities, interviews and profiles.

The "women would like to have a place where they can connect with other women, and with American Airlines" thing is just weird, and none of the rest of those things sound very unique to women travelers. And I love the assumption that only women need info on how to deal with traveling with small children.

Sigh.

Seriously, did they just get sued for discrimination or something? This seems like such a weird thing to do.

posted by occhiblu 09 April | 14:03

IRFH - Ha!

I was actually kind of surprised there was no "Meet our hottest pilots!" feature.

posted by occhiblu 09 April | 14:04

I wrote them a letter and instantly recieved this reply:

Thank you for visiting aa.com/women. We value your feedback and strive to make your travel a positive experience.

Thank you for flying on American Airlines.

How much you wanna bet that's all the response I get?

posted by Specklet 09 April | 14:07

American Airlines has had a subsite for gay travellers for a few years.

posted by ericb 09 April | 14:10

Aren't you women supposed to be scared of travelling alone or something like that? Maybe that's something to do with it?

posted by chrismear 09 April | 14:13

I was actually kind of surprised there was no "Meet our hottest pilots!" feature

Come fly me, indeed....

posted by jonmc 09 April | 14:23

Hey well at least they didn't make the subsite pink.

*looks in salon's direction*

posted by gaspode 09 April | 14:23

On a semi-serious note, they probably thought they were 'reaching out' or something. These days there's so many mixed signals coming from all directions that some people turn into Principal Skinner: "Just tell me what to say and I'll say it!"

posted by jonmc 09 April | 14:26

It's a really ugly crowded website; I can't see myself wanting to use it.

posted by ThePinkSuperhero 09 April | 14:29

Well, they might just want to differentiate themselves from their competition.

posted by pieisexactlythree 09 April | 14:41

It really bothers me that the marketing world thinks women would be attracted to "connecting", "sharing advice", etc. as if we can't research stuff and make our own conclusions based on that research and instead all simply rely on what "our friends" say is good.

posted by casarkos 09 April | 14:41

NYT article about marketing to women "and other minority groups."

posted by mudpuppie 09 April | 14:54

From the NYT article:

The trick to catering to niche markets, said Cary J. Broussard, a consultant for Wyndham, is to make sure no group is alienated while "taking great ideas and implementing them for everybody."

This makes sense, and I think AA completely missed the whole "implementing them for everybody" part of that equation.

And this:

As a sign of its intent to cater more to women travelers, American Airlines named Nora Linville director of women's sales and marketing in March. Ms. Linville said women were responsible for 70 percent of travel decisions.

would seem to imply the minority group here is men, and that the entire AA site should be catering to women, with a www.aa.com/men subsite. With the engineering specifications of the planes or something.

posted by occhiblu 09 April | 14:59

Well all I know is, as a lesbian, this is awesome.

Girlfriend Getaways. Nice.

posted by hojoki 09 April | 15:10

For some reason when I saw the link title it gave me a flashback to back to the 90s when the game industry honchos tried really hard to make "games for girls," which to them meant "fuck gameplay, just make it pink and Barbie." While I'm sure there was a subset that absolutely adored these games it usually resulted in a very confused look on my 11-year-old face before reaching for Castlevania. Before clicking on the link, I had like a Psychometre Eiji meets the Deadzone meets Millenium "whooooshh" of images of the page being HOT pink and purple, and have articles like, "Ideal destinations for pony rides!!!" or "How to talk to that hunky steward." And like...pastel-colored labrador retrievers and penguins with stars for eyes and Lisa Frank rainbow zebras shitting Brach's Rocks and Sweet Tarts or something.

posted by kkokkodalk 09 April | 16:04

the minority group here is men

Good point.

Also, though I might want to "connect with other women" about particular topics, I have absolutely no interest in using an airline as the madam.

Speck, what's the address you sent to?

posted by Miko 09 April | 16:14

Miko, to the address listed in the third paragraph of the page:

We also want to welcome you to the American Airlines customer community and invite you to share insights, travel tips and stories by submitting them to wehearyou@aa.com.

posted by Specklet 09 April | 16:51

Thanks, fired off.

Now, girls, who wants to have a cup of Suisse Mocha international coffee and sit together on the porch swing having a heart-to-heart?

posted by Miko 09 April | 17:04

We can talk about how navigating strollers is hard!

posted by occhiblu 09 April | 17:05

Let's dance around in fancy underwear!

posted by ethylene 09 April | 17:10

We can talk about how navigating strollers is hard!

That's why all my kids are getting jet-packs!

miko: once my mother had a shit-screamer of a fight with my younger sister about her loser boyfriend. My sister stormed out of the house and when I walked in to see if the coast was clear, she was actually making a cup of Suisse Mocha. "Would you like some?" she asked. "Sure thing, mom" I answered "Let's celebrate this moment in our life."

posted by jonmc 09 April | 17:21

Wow, that is patronizing.

posted by grouse 09 April | 18:09

Hehehe!

posted by Miko 09 April | 22:14

an example of American's commitment to the growing women's market.

"Oh my god there are MORE of them! DON'T PANIC, let's give them a site, they can talk about their vaginas, anything they want...just don't let them in the COCKPIT. We named it that for a reason!"

the page being HOT pink and purple, and have articles like, "Ideal destinations for pony rides!!!" or "How to talk to that hunky steward." And like...pastel-colored labrador retrievers and penguins with stars for eyes and Lisa Frank rainbow zebras shitting Brach's Rocks and Sweet Tarts or something.

Funniest ever. Holy crap.

posted by SassHat 09 April | 23:00

Let's dance around in fancy underwear!

pixplztia

posted by dersins 09 April | 23:54

... did they just get sued for discrimination or something?
If I were a woman (and not too lazy to follow anything through), I would sue them for discrimination based on making a site for women in the first place. Firstly, it seems to make an assumption that women need more help than men to arrange travel, when the opposite is more likely the case. Secondly, unless they are going to make a site dedicated to men's travel needs as well, they are discriminating against men. Either way, they (and their stupid site for "the girls" suck.

posted by dg 10 April | 16:16

09 April 2007