Yahoo! will Pay for your Baggage Fees
As part of a simple, yet clever marketing tactic, Yahoo! sent employees to the two largest airports near its headquarters, the San Francisco International Airport and the San Jose International Airport, and offered to pay the baggage fees for any customers flying home this holiday season.
The program was part of the “Yahoo For Good” division of the company run by employee Meg Garlinghouse, who had this to say about the project: “One small act of kindness can ignite a ripple of generosity, and we hope to inspire the Yahoo community to create a wave of goodwill.”
The timing for such a promotion was ideal as it has been proven that simple acts of kindness have a much longer lasting positive impact when provided in stressful situations, and during the holiday season, delays, crowds, poor weather, and canceled or delayed flights make for airports full of stressed travelers.
The program was only run on December 23rd, which is unfortunate as I flew out of San Francisco two days prior and had to pay over $40 in baggage fees.
Ad Age reported that Yahoo! should have nationalized the program and offered it throughout the holiday season, much like Google did with its free WiFi offer. They suggest they could have used some of the $100 million they are spending on their debatable Its Y!ou” campaign and spent it on officially paying the baggage fees for travelers across the nation throughout the holiday season.
