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Part 4: The Ultimate Prank Phone Call
After posting my progress on the prank, I received this e-mail from a US Airways employee:
John,
I'm a total fan of the site. I wanted to encourage you to continue with the US Air prank. I have been an employee of US Air for the past few years. I'm embarrassed by their shoddy marketing tactics. Anything to get the company back in shape should be encouraged. Have some fun with it!
In order to help me "have some fun with it," the employee gave me the personal home phone and address of Travis Christ, US Airways's VP of Marketing.
Since my previous attempts to change the US Airways policy had gotten me nowhere, I decided to call Christ at his home. At 5:30 a.m. [Click here to listen]
TRAVIS CHRIST: Hello?
JOHN HARGRAVE: Hello, may I speak with Mr. Travis Christ?
TC: Yeah, that's me.
JH: Oh, hello Mr. Christ. My name's John Hargrave, and I'm here to tell you about a fantastic new credit card offer...
TC: Do you know what time it is here?
JH: What time?
TC: Five in the morning.
JH: Oh.
TC: So take me off your list and don't call me again.
JH: See, that's funny. I was sleeping on the plane the other day, and you tried to sell me a credit card.
TC: [Hang up]
I have to be honest, I felt guilty for taking the prank this far. Even in my book, when I woke up the spammer with his own spam in the middle of the night, it was in his hotel room. When you call a guy at home, it's getting personal.
So I gave him a few minutes to wake up before I called back. [Click here to listen]
TC: Hello?
JH: Hello, Mr. Christ? I'm sorry, we don't have a list. We just keep offering you the same credit card until you eventually purchase it.
TC: You guys are pretty funny.
JH: Can we stop having the credit card pitches in the middle of the flight?
TC: I don't think this is the place for that conversation, do you?
JH: Well, it's kind of difficult to get hold of you at the office.
TC: Why don't you give me your phone number, and I'll call you back and we'll talk about it.
JH: Sure. 617...
TC: No, your real phone number.
JH: 617...
TC: Why don't you give me your real phone number?
JH: [Trying to give him my real phone number] 617...
TC: Oh, wait a minute. Why don't you send all that to me in an email, that'd help a lot.
JH: OK. I'm happy to do that. And then can we have maybe a 5- or 10-point plan on how we're going to get rid of the credit card offers in the middle of the flight, while people are trying to work and sleep?
TC: Why don't you send me that information, and we'll have that conversation.
JH: So you want to arrange a time to talk about it next week?
TC: Um ... let's see, next week. I don't know, why don't you send me that information, and I'll get back to you, and we'll pick a time.
JH: That sounds a little bit like pussyfooting around the issue.
TC: Sounds to me like what you're doing.
JH: OK. What can we do in order to get rid of the...
TC: I don't want to talk about it right now. We'll talk about it when we get a time put together.
JH: Why don't we talk about it now? You're an action-oriented man, you're a top executive at US Airways, you can make this happen, biggity-bam.
TC: I've got places to go.
JH: Where do you have to go? It's 5:30 in the morning.
TC: I've got a trip. I've got to get to the airport in about 30 minutes.
JH: Are you flying US Airways?
TC: Thanks much. Bye bye.
JH: Are you going to buy a credit card?
TC: [Hang up]
I went to my computer and dashed off an e-mail to the risen Christ.
Sent: Friday, September 07
To: Travis Christ
Subject: Follow up
Travis:
Good talking with you this morning. As requested, here's my contact info so we can set a followup call:
[Contact info]
Working together, I'm sure we can find a way to get rid of the incredibly annoying credit card commercials during US Airways flights.
At the very least, we can find a way to make them less obtrusive (for instance, advertising your credit cards on the back of seats, in the airplane toilets, or on vomit bags).
Let me know when you'd like to talk.
John Hargrave
jhargrave@zug.com
Christ didn't e-mail me back, but I did get a phone call from US Airways Corporate Security. I promised to lay off the home phone calls, and the chief security officer promised not to sue. Fair deal.
So I think I've made the issue clear. Call me an optimist, but I do believe that someday soon, Christ will return ... and get rid of the US Airways credit card commercials for good. And that, my friends, will be the most rewarding airline reward of all.
Though I have to admit, it was pretty rewarding to startle him out of bed, too.
If you enjoyed The Airline Rewards Credit Card Prank, you'll also like The Credit Card Prank, in which we test whether anyone really checks the signature anymore.
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