Recent E-Mailing Suggests One Product... But Is Actually Something Else Altogether
ANN has made much of the fact that we, as a community, need to be able to depend on one another as we attempt to extract ourselves from several decades of bad times.
While there are a number of ways in which we can support one another while still protecting our own turf (in terms of commercial interests), fibbing to our customers or potential customers just doesn't seem to be the way to do it. You only have to look over the past many years at the mess made by Revolution Helicopter, FlightPrep, Icon Aircraft, Cirrus Aircraft, and others to see that a little bit (or a lot) of fibbing can have a significant effect on one's rep, if not the bottom line... though a few of the major fibbers, like Cirrus, seem to have gotten away with such issues a lot better than others.
But we digress... Imagine our mild surprise when a few folks sent several examples of an interesting email to us that seemed to be pushing a really big ForeFlight discount -- when in fact, it was pushing a non-affiliated competitive product -- ostensibly to those who had canceled accounts with 'FlyQ' at some point in the past. The general impression among those that sent this to us (whether they were the original recipient or those it had been forwarded to) was that the email was, at best, a bit desperate... and at worst, just plain deceptive.
Since the product is not one that has readily been mentioned when discussions of the mobile flight-planning software industry come up, let us explain that 'FlyQ' is produced by a company by the name of Seattle Avionics... the same company that was involved in a somewhat questionable sweetheart deal with AOPA several years back in which AOPA financed a new online program (destined to be offered to AOPA members) involving a LOT of money, that also upset many of the AOPA supporters and members that competed with Seattle Avionics.
It all added up to a mini-scandal and a lot of questionable conduct by AOPA and Seattle Avionics... until AOPA pulled the plug on the whole sad affair and let FlyQ try to survive on its own. It is unclear how successful that program was, how much of the product that was financed by AOPA is now being sold by Seattle Avionics, and what ownership stakes AOPA either had and/or relinquished in the deal. But then again, most of that is pretty old news.
While Seattle Avionics has crowed about being the best in its class in a number of venues, the feedback we get is decidedly unsupportive of that sentiment... with products like WingX Pro, ForeFlight, iFlightPlanner and others being mentioned as being more popular, if not more superior, to the FlyQ product that did not impress those of us at ANN who have looked it over, at various times during its attempts to maintain relevance in the highly competitive flight-planning/mobile software sweepstakes. Simply put, we just don't hear much about FlyQ and have a hard time accepting that this is a "#1" product both from what we've sampled as well as the input we get from thousands of ANN readers and viewers on a regular basis. Frankly; we do not recall any emails in the last year equating FlyQ to being a top product.
So... a few weeks ago, the aforementioned email goes out with the following subject line, "LAST CHANCE: $39 ForeFlight Upgrade!"
Wow! $39 for ForeFlight would certainly get my attention... and yeah, I'd probably open up THAT email to see what the deal was... because on first glance, that sounds like a winner... until you realize that the discount is NOT for ForeFlight... but an attempt to woo back former FlyQ customers with an aggressive discount that just screams desperation on the part of Seattle Avionics. The deal suggests that thousands of people have converted over to FlyQ from other products (uh, really?)... and that they're willing to offer another 100 customers a $100 discount (after 200 supposedly took advantage of a prior offer) to sign back up for FlyQ (after apparently dropping it or canceling it) -- which seems like a pretty arduous process to rake in another $4K.
When asked about the apparent issues with the original email, Seattle Avionics' John Rutter responded by stating that, "The original email sent 24 hours ago included the subject line of: Using ForeFlight, WingX or Garmin? The same people received a courtesy reminder of Last Chance 24 hrs later, same ad exactly except slightly modified Subject Line, as you state..."
Rutter also added, "Please find below the beginning of the original email we sent out a day ago, only to folks who have previously subscribed to FlyQ EFB, but have also subscribed to either Foreflight, WingX or Garmin Pilot. This is a one-time discounted offer to them to, what we consider, 'upgrade' from one of those three products to FlyQ EFB. And we have had hundreds of pilots thank us the past 48 hours for a reasonably priced way to try and compare FlyQ to the other apps they've been using, with a period long enough to be meaningful to them, a year to compare. And to see the dozens of new features that have been added, possibly since they last subscribed. We do consider this a private email and offer only to previous FlyQ subscribers, therefore consider the contents confidential."
How Rutter knows that former FlyQ subscribers also purchased other competitive products was not disclosed (and raises some interesting questions) and we have serious doubts about the claimed 'hundreds' of thanks they may have received in the aforementioned 48 hours, but the fact remains that while an earlier email may not have had the deceptive subject line and not been subject to the questions raised by the second, the ForeFlight-oriented subject line would be hard to correlate with the prior email and still raises questions about the honesty of such tactics. We're also a little suspicious of why Seattle Avionics responded to our inquiry with graphic 'evidence' of their intentions -- but without allowing its use in response to our questions and our intention to detail this matter, editorially.
In the long run, its not a major issue... but since it did raise a fuss among a number of readers and viewers, and since we did promise to look into the matter, we did so. In the past, our experience with questions to Seattle Avionics have been answered (if at all) with mild hostility, evasions, and the like... while that has not been our experience with ForeFlight, iFlightPlanner, WingX Pro, the Garmin products and a number of others both still in business and a few that have since disappeared.
So... overall the whole thing is definitely a bit cheesy, the inaccurate subject line is certainly somewhat deceptive... and the whole thing seems like a somewhat desperate ploy on the part of a competing product to use a subject line to make hay off the allegedly better rep of their competitor... and yet one more way in which members of the aviation biz kinda shoot themselves in the foot with bad or inaccurate marketing that can, ultimately, result in dissatisfaction and distrust. Members of the aviation community who are lured to become interested in one topic when it clearly isn't that... are often left with a bad taste in their mouths over the whole mess -- as appears to be the case here.
We, as an industry, can do better... and while its not an infraction on the scale of those we've documented recently with Icon and other bad actors, it apparently created enough dissatisfaction for a number of folks to call or email us about their concerns.
So... a lesson to aviation marketers... tell the truth, be as open and honest as you can be, and try to put your best foot forward... to avoid the kind of problems such inaccurate email pitches can be... and the fact that those commenting on the deception indicated that they'd be hard-pressed to believe or do business with the party involved... period. Ouch...
ANN's Daily Aero-Linx (04.15.24)
See All