This has been quite a discourse, though it hasn't really gone much anywhere especially regarding the question raised in the original post. On occassion, following this has been like listening in on a backyard BBQ...
AFF is probably quite well inoculated against undue external influence because the travel experiences of the majority of the active members. Any overly positive or negative post will eventually get a respective counter-reaction and balance posted to the thread. I also appreciate that many arguments are founded on real-life experiences and/or factual information. Also, as many have recently mentioned, most members can simply skip over or temper the posts which seem dubious for whatever reason. If anywhere, the external influence may have a better success rate in some social media channels or groups filled with the occasional traveller (Bali twice a year on JQ and an annual family holiday to Gold Coast).
On flagging members who work for airlines or related companies, that would be a long shot. E.g., if I worked as a financial analyst on a contract to QF and loved to travel on my spare time, it'd be pretty farfetched to think I could speak with any authority about QF internal affairs or practices (plus, their policies and my contract would most likely prevent me from sharing any info that's not already publicly available).
Only if an AFF member is specifically assigned and paid for by a travel industry operator (e.g. an airline, hotel chain, etc) to listen in here and gather info from the conversations, and possibly also respond to specific questions or scenarios, they could (should?) be tagged accordingly (e.g. in their signature: 'A member of the Public Relations team at
Virgin Australia', or similar).