***This is an article written and published from scratch at 35,000 ft, in-flight on Virgin America flight 342 from San Francisco to Fort Lauderdale. Made possible by Gogo Wifi. A first on SimpliFlying**

In a recent conversation with a South American airline executive, we were talking about the state of commercial airlines in the US. And the consensus we reached was that the travel experience  within the US is just bearable at best, often frustrating and most noteworthy innovations are actually taking place in other regions around the world.

Then I took my first Virgin America flight. And I stand corrected – innovation is indeed taking place in the US too. And in addition to just flying their own airlines regularly, I’d highly encourage every senior airline executive in the world to come give Virgin America a shot on their next trip to the US. And here’s why.

Red, White and Purple – ah..so..Virgin

Virgin America probably has the best in-flight product on a narrowbody aircraft (trust me…I’ve flown a lot of them). And the brand personality truly stands out!

The ambience: The number of innovations inside the cabin are astounding. The first thing that strikes you is the cabin ambience – purple lights and swanky music. This may be common on some interrnational airlines like Emirates, but is a rarity in the US domestically.

The IFE: The advanced IFE allows you to order food on-demand, watch movies on demand and chat with other passengers on the flight – and for things you need to pay for, you just swipe your credit card right in the IFE screen! It’s all very user friendly.

The seat: When I relaxed into my seat, it felt very comfortable. After checking Seatguru.com, I realized that they have one of the widest seat in a narrowbody aircraft… in the world… both in First Class and Main Cabin (Economy), and the seat pitch is generous too.

The Service: On the flight, I was served by Aladdin, his brother Mazen and Cheryl (see photos below). One has been flying for almost 20 years, another is a former lawyer! Mazen actually made the effort to pronounce my name right – which was impressive. Again – the personal touches made an impression.

At the airport: Even on the ground, there is a diffence. Only two airlines use the International Terminal for domestic flights from San Francisco – Virgin America, and JetBlue. Is it a surprise that they’re two of America’s favorite airlines? The good thing is that you can choose to relax in the Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse (another world beater), which is at the same terminal.

In-flight connectivity = future of IFE

The biggest revelation has been the in-flight wifi made available thanks to Gogo in-flight. Now, I know that there are a number of airlines trying it out, but only Virgin America and AirTran have implemented it fleet-wide. And that I feel is a competitive advantage, until the others catch up.

I have shared my views in the past that the future of in-flight entertainment, especially for budget airlines, might mean providing a power outlet and a wifi connection. These are both enablers. They empower passengers to use their own devices the way they want to.

And after flying Virgin America today, I feel the future of IFE is indeed in-flight connectivity. For the first time, I did not feel “jailed” in a tube. I even Skyped my mom and showed her the view from my window!

Delivering on the brand eXpectations…

Now,  you’ve probably already heard a number of the things I’ve shared here about Virgin America. After all, it’s been over two years since the airline launched all of what I’ve just experiencedfor the first time today. But that also meant I had sky-high expectations of the airline.

The good news is that they not only met the brand eXpectations (remember, the whitepaper?), but exceeded them at times too. And that in itself is an achievement.

The Verdict

If you’re in the airline industry – you need to fly Virgin America (and soon) to get a glimse of what the future looks like. If you are living outside the US, make sure you fly Virgin America on a domestic route if possible – it will be a totally different experience.

And if you are living in the US, then come fly probably the best airline flying domestically in the US.

P.S: Special thanks to Bowen Payson from Virgin America for meeting me for coffee early in the morning at the airport!

Thanks to David Parker Brown, I was alerted to a security situation on American Airlines flight 24 (AA24), bound to New York from San Francisco as someone had called in a threat to the jetliner. Thankfully, within a few hours all passengers had de-planed and gone through security checks and no one was hurt.

Crises Management 2.0 – Live on Twitter!

While the situation was unfolding, there were at least two passengers (@cmckella & @jaysears) on board the airplane who were tweeting away regular updates of the situation from their perspective, which included photos of the cabin and cops around the aircraft. Soon enough, major newspapers and news channels were quoting these two for the most current information about what’s happening on-board the aircraft.

Though, it wasn’t long till American Airlines’s Twitter account (@aairwaves) jumped into the middle of the arena and took on the queries head-on. It seemed like they had read our infographic on crises handling through social media (see below), because AA did a good job at it.

Infographic – Five steps to successful crisis management for airlines, in the age of social media

Here is a graphical journey of AA24 on Twitter

Passengers Jay Sears and Campbell McKeller sent out tweets every couple of minutes from inside the plane, which were very detailed. It started with them sharing the situation with their friends, before the media caught wind of the situation and started tapping on them too.

How American Airlines’ @AAirwaves took control of the situation

1. They engaged directly with Jay and Campbell, who were on-board the airplane
2. They started to answer queries from the local media
3. They calmed nerves by ensuring transparency in the situation by clearly stating the cause of the incident (a phone call, not a hijacking attempt).
4. They became the go-to source of information for anyone interested in the incidence, as can be seen from the final screen shot of the “AA24″ search on Twitter, where a majority of the retweets are originating from @AAirwaves

In essence, American Airlines did a commendable job of keeping things straight during the crisis, and engaging with the key stake holders directly. They looked well prepared for a situation like this, and have set the bar high for other airlines to follow.

Great job, @AAirwaves! For this feat, their effort is also being featured on SimpliFlying’s Clever Airlines.

As the sun set over Farnborough 2010, it became clear that Boeing emerged a clear winner. Not just by beating all expectations in getting new orders, but also by shaking off the dust in terms of excellent social media work to engage the community. Farnborough was the epitome of work that Todd Blecher and his team has put in over the last year.

Todd is Boeing’s Communications Director and has spearheaded the organization’s ascent into a new level of statusphere, where better engagement through blogging, use of Twitter and ‘the personal touch’ are a major factor. And for this, Todd is the SimpliFlying Hero for July 2010.

Boeing’s social media engagement at Farnborough

Boeing’s social media efforts were stellar at the Farnborough 2010 – especially for an organization its size and complexity. As industry analyst Ludo Van observed,

Boeing’s onsite videos were very professional and to the point. They produced 32 reports for the show (most of them on site) while maintaining a very high level of quality and interesting content. With their new website and Farnborough microsite, I think Boeing has really taken the lead in online presence and is a great example to follow.

Boeing’s Farnborough microsite

Boeing engaged constantly with the people present at the show, and also fans who couldn’t make it there. But what was achieved at Farnborough was the culmination of a laborious process that began a few months prior.

How Boeing got started with social media – the road to Farnborough

In an interview with SimpliFlying, Todd shared how Boeing moved slowly into what had before been uncharted territories for the aircraft manufacturer.

“I would say that by the middle of 2009 we realized that we could use the tools in ways that would help us tell stories that weren’t otherwise being told.

Since we had blog experience, notably through our Commercial Airplanes VP of Marketing Randy Tinseth’s Randy’s Journal and our site for the U.S. Air Force tanker competition, and since we already had a lot of traffic to www.boeing.com even without that being a compelling destination, we decided to first focus on longer-form storytelling through a refreshed boeing.com.

The guiding principle came from our corporate advertising campaign, which features Boeing employees. The genuineness of our employees is powerful and so we try to feature them whenever possible.”

This idea about authenticity in communication accompanies those that Todd expressed in “Obi-Wan and Boeing”, a presentation about the organization’s use of social media (watch video). Todd and Boeing have truly captured the “personal touch”.

It does not come off as faux or forced; employees are featured on the newly renovated www.boeing.com, and their smiling, honest faces make even the 787 look like a gentle giant. This was furthered at the Farnborough airshow, where press kits had an ode to Boeing employees; pictures attached to job descriptions aided the media in identifying representatives.

Todd mentioned a key to Boeing’s successful integration into social media was a gradual effort:

“Maybe it was lucky timing or maybe we did a really good job presenting the plans but by September or October of 2009 we were beyond questioning whether to do something and well into planning the new www.boeing.com. It also helped, frankly, that we were starting cautiously and not proposing to spend a lot of money on the efforts”.

He also mentioned that because of such, less internal resistance was faced. Instead, open discussion became a key tool in allocating resources to the new communications work.

“I think one of the monumental benefits of social media is that it almost forces entities that want to be successful to communicate more clearly and present stories that are more interesting. I know I thought 140 characters in Twitter was impossible to deal with. Now, I relish the challenge.”

Todd and Boeing provide an insightful look at social media and how the root values of an organization must shake to accommodate revolutionary thinking.

The catalyst – Harry Winsor, the 8 year old kid, now a Boeing fan

Every strategy needs a catalyst to get all engines firing. In Boeing’s case, it came in the form of Harry Winsor. As featured on SimpliFlying Clever Airlines, Harry (an 8yr old), drew an airplane design on a paper and his mailed it to Boeing. When all they received back was a form letter that was obviously not meant for a child, Harry’s father wrote about the issue on his blog. One thing led to the other and this turned into a significant PR situation for Boeing.

That’s when Todd dived head-on into the situation and took control. Here’s what Harry’s father had to say about Todd’s efforts:

“….most impressive of all was Todd Blecher…who jumped into the conversation in such a positive way. He started by commenting on the post. He tweeted, even though Boeing has only had a Twitter account for two weeks. He even called Harry asking him if he’d like to come on a tour of Boeing. That call made Boeing a hero to an 8-year-old boy.

In his interview with SimpliFlying, Todd said, “I think through this we recognized the value of engaging on Twitter, which has influenced what we have done with that tool since then.”

And things have taken a turn for the better over the past few months. Todd shares an incident.

“In late April we posted a story about cold testing our new 787 airplane. In the past we probably would’ve talked in very technical ways about that. This time we allowed the people on the testing team to talk as real people about what they were doing. It was much more relatable and memorable.

It’s a great example of a mindset that’s changing the way Boeing communicates. We do remarkable things every day in this company. We need to talk about those in ways that are less mysterious so our audiences appreciate what the men and women of Boeing are doing” (Check out the video here)

Boeing has enjoyed an enormous response to improvements in social media. Just as any large organization should, however, Boeing understands that communication is an ever-changing field and thus we must always look to the distance.

What’s in store for Boeing’s social media strategy?

Now that Boeing has got such a strong lead in social media, expectations are high. When asked what we should expect in the future, Todd shared:

“I expect [focus on] YouTube and Facebook. We also need to develop a mobile strategy. Those all fit with what we’re trying to accomplish. After that, who knows? Things are happening so quickly that trying to predict what we’ll use down the road is really challenging. As long as we maintain a commitment to engage  with our audiences and be engaging in doing so, I think we’ll do pretty well”

SimpliFlying thinks so too, and we are looking forward to Todd and Boeing communication’s contribution to social media.

Congratulations Todd Blecher, your hard work in making Boeing communicate and engage the community in a more human way has made you a SimpliFlying Hero!

Update: airBaltic has kindly agreed to fly in the winners of this contest to London for FREE, from anywhere on their network! All you have to do is fulfill the conditions below, and follow airBaltic on Twitter.

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This is a guest post by Jonathan Haysom, who is a respected marketer and business development strategist. Currently working for Australia’s number 1 telco and number 1 company by brand value, he is responsible for maintaining and growing a multi-billion dollar product portfolio focused on next generation products. He has recently received awards for innovation in marketing and accolades for his social media campaigns and brand strategies.

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