I just spent the past 45 minutes catching up on tweets and “chatted†with fellow BoardingArea blogger AAdvantage Geek back-n-forth a couple of times (as well as VeryGoodPoints… hi Stacey!). Anyway, AAdvantage Geek congratulated me on my Executive Platinum status and hoped to see me soon in flight when lo and behold:

Now this wouldn’t have happened, of course, unless American weren’t already following us both. But it did and it reminded me that I need to get back in touch with my contact there at American’s social media team to do an interview I have been planning for my blog on CNBC.com. Why do I want to interview them? Because they understand the power of social media interaction with customers.

How cool is it that a large airline empowers their social media team to have a personality and a bit of fun? It’s soooo refreshing and it certainly left a lasting impression on me. And this isn’t the first time American has done this, either. I’ve had other interactions with them, as well as witnessed hilarious back-n-forth dialogs with OneMileAtATime, among others. All this while providing what I consider to be the best active response to customers in need on Twitter – and at lightning speed no matter the time of day.

As far as airlines that don’t get it? Err… I’m looking at you @united. Besides the admittedly interesting “plane chat†series they conduct once a month, I rarely see an active presence on Twitter from United. They do occasionally reply to customer questions, but not to the level I’ve seen from American and Delta.

At this year’s Frequent Traveler University in April, a representative from United’s Customer Experience group fielded questions from a large group of frequent flyers and United was shocked to find out how many people use Twitter. From Wandering Aramean’s summary:

So, I’m hoping United will take note and if there’s ever a time they could benefit from creating a positive brand awareness in the mind of a customer via social media, it’s now.