Experience Is the Promise

What airline reviews reveal about the gap between brand and reality

Customers don't experience promises. They experience systems, policies, and everyday decisions. In this research collaboration with Jeannie Walters of Experience Investigators, Thematic analyzed thousands of real airline reviews against the five promises airlines make: Ease, Reliability, Value, Fairness, and Empathy. The question was simple: do the airlines that rank highest actually deliver on what they say? The pattern is clear. Customer experience is not a branding problem, it is an operational discipline.