I’m not sure if watched the Super Bowl last week, where the New England Patriots made a historic come back to win. My post isn’t about the game itself, but it does play a part.
Making bets is a popular topic when it comes to sports, especially the Super Bowl. Sometimes, those come back to bite you if have a large Twitter following, like Secret Flying. When you back pedal after losing, people don’t like that even more!
The Secret of Back Pedaling
The Tweet that started it all
Now, when this tweet was made the Falcons were winning big time. No team in history had ever come back from more than 10 points, so I’m sure who ever made this tweet felt pretty comfortable. Especially, since the Falcons were winning by 25 points.
If I have learned anything, you NEVER count out Tom Brady. Well, as you (hopefully) saw, the Patriots eventually won in overtime.
Once this happened people wanted to cash in the wager Secret Flying had made. But, when you have 57,000 followers, this could be VERY expensive.
The Back Pedal Begins
Now, I’m sure as the 4th quarter went on, Secret Flying started to think, “What did I do?”
As far as the excuse? I think it was pretty weak. The first tweet clearly said, “If the Patriots win,” and I’m sure they thought they were safe.
To say we were talking about regulation? That is different that saying if a team wins. Needless to say, the people commenting were not very happy. Some (many?) started to threaten lawsuits.
Now I am not a lawyer and I am not sure if they are obligated to pay for anything as they aren’t a ticketing site. They also made sure to tell their followers this:
Lessons Learned:
I don’t expect Secret Flying to pay for every followers flights. Although, I would be happy to take 2 tickets to Toyko 🙂
I’m pretty confident on 2 things:
- Secret Flying will not be making any more tweets of this nature
- Secret Flying will not bet against Tom Brady anytime soon 😉
Conclusion
I don’t think anyone can expect Secret Flying to actually pay up on their wager. It was a pretty ridiculous tweet to begin with as the game wasn’t finished. In the future, I think Secret Flying will sit on the bench when it comes to tweeting during the games.
I put this in the area of boneheaded tweets without thinking if the ramifications. Also, if you didn’t realize it, you shouldn’t count out Tom Brady.
On a bright note, think of all the points they would have if they paid with their Chase Sapphire Reserve, or American Express Platinum 😛
What did you think of their wager? Do you think they’ll actually pay up?
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I could have sworn it’s pedal not peddle.
Hey P,
Wow, you are right! Not sure what I was thinking!! I updated the post. Thanks for correcting my embarrassing error!
I appreciate it!
Dustin
It’s a great post nonetheless.
Thanks for writing about this. I didn’t expect them to pay. But I wished that they owned up to their mistake.
Hey Jason,
I agree, I think if they owned it rather than make an excuse, people would have been more likely to accept it.
Thanks for reading!
Dustin
Still love the site, though.
Me too, they are human. We all make mistakes, I mean I wrote peddle instead of the correct pedal. Oops 🙂
I think it is absolutely silly to take a tweet like this seriously and threaten law-suits etc. People need to get a life. Especially considering the website is 100% free and saves thousands of people PLENTY of $$$ on tix.
I agree. It is silly on both parties. They shouldn’t have tweeted and people should understand they aren’t a multi billion company. Now if AA or United made this bet, I think it’d be a different story :-).
Thanks for reading, I appreciate it!
Dustin
No one on this site threatened a lawsuit! The point is that it is a dumb move to tweet something like this when you have no intention of following through and then trying to wiggle out of it. The best thing for them would have been to own it – “yes, we tweeted an offer in the spirit of fun thinking not even the great Patriots could make a comeback at that point. Obviously, we never thought they would and sorry if we got anyone’s hopes up and had you cheering for a Pats win just to get a free ticket! What we can do is to continue to provide you with great sales to help you see the world for less than you would normally pay.” Yeah, that would have to be a few tweets. 🙂
Also, just a note – they make money just like any website (including this one) does by advertising and affiliate links. Nothing wrong with drumming up some extra business and attention but it was also a business move to gain more followers and clicks.
Hey John,
I’m not sure why there was a need for political statement. This has nothing to do with politics. So let’s keep that out. Not the forum for that.
Dustin
Wow. Obviously a joke in the first place and obviously a joke on the follow-up. You have no sense of humor, apparently.
And you missed the tone with which Dustin wrote the post. It is more of a recap of what went on then anyone here insisting that they have to honor it. And, Secret Flying learned their lesson anyway that some people certainly did not get their kind of humor so they will likely avoid it in the future!
Hey Hans,
I think they felt it was impossible and rightfully so, but they made a crazy tweet. Although ridiculous, some people hold onto every literal word.
I don’t think they should be held to it, but instead of owning they made a weak excuse for their ridiculous tweet mid game. That’s why they were getting some bad PR.
Thanks for the comment,
Dustin