When Airline Social Media Account Goes Awfully Awry: US Airways Tweets Porn

Some airlines are better than others when it comes to social media, but American and Delta have really proven themselves to be leaders in helpfulness and customer response. Some airlines, however, are not so good. I recently needed help on a US Airways award to Australia, and when trying to get in contact with them, their phone lines were down and their Twitter team frustratingly acknowledged my tweet, but didn't offer to help in any way.

I have been waiting for the US Airways social media team to improve since the merger with American went through as both accounts will be managed by same people. One thing can be said: they certainly seem to not be sending back canned responses, as evidenced through a highly inappropriate and pornographic tweet sent early this morning to a frustrated consumer. This tweet was so vulgar that I won't even include an edited version, but for those who want to see what happened before it was deleted, have a look here - and please note that this is extremely NSFW.

I’ve attached screenshots of the conversation up until the point that US Airways made a truly huge error, realized their mistake and deleted the tweet. Shortly after pulling down the offending image, the US Airways team apologized for the tweet – but as we know, nothing is ever really erased from the internet.

This was most likely a hack of some sort or perhaps the handiwork of a disgruntled employee, but since it’s already been a busy week at American/US Airways (especially with a bomb threat tweet over the weekend), I certainly wouldn't want to be working on their social media team right now. I'm hopeful, though, that this experience is a wake-up call for US Airways to focus more on its Twitter account, which is now officially the laughing stock of the social media world.

Hat Tip: Buzzfeed