High Klout Score = Perks at American Airlines

American Airlines is deeming high Klout scorers worthy of its posh Admirals Club, free of charge.

If you don’t know what a Klout score is, you probably don’t have a very high one, so don’t get too excited.

Klout, a social-influence measurement tool, determines a person’s influence based on a proprietary algorithm that considers how often users contribute to social media, how many people follow and share their posts, and more. A high Klout score can result in various perks from companies that Klout partners with, and one of those, as recently announced, is American Airlines.Screen shot 2013-05-30 at 10.29.52 AM

The company is offering those with a Klout score of 55 or above to qualify for a one-day pass to American Airlines’ Admirals Club in 40 different airports, regardless of whether they’re booked on one of the carrier’s flights.

Admission to the club for the day includes first-class benefits like free Wi-Fi and beer.

Other similar partnerships with Klout include The Palms Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, which introduced the “Klout Klub” in 2010 to offer special amenities to people with high rankings on the service.

In some cases, brands have used Klout for product launches, like Microsoft with a new version of the Windows Phone and Chevrolet to let people test drive the Sonic.

It’s notoriously difficult for airlines to be a brand that consumers really love, but they’ve certainly become savvy users of social media for customer service. Remember our interview with Delta?

Other carriers too, like Southwest and JetBlue, have teams who are tasked with proactively responding to customer complaints on Twitter and other channels.