SimpliFlying

Image via Wikipedia

Airlines are finding innovative ways these days to engage the customer in the online world. Singapore Airlines organized an online design competition for their A380 launch flights to London. Malaysia Airlines keeps an active blog written by a number of their employees. JetBlue Airways follows its customers on Twitter! Now, the oldest big daddy of budget airlines, Southwest, has capitalized on its own popular blog to launch a blogging competition. The winner gets to blog on the official Southwest blog alongside Christi Day, its current author. What a great way to engage the customer.

You submit, you vote, you win!

Till the end of August, customers can submit a one-minute audition video on the official website and fellow customers will be able to view all video submissions and vote for their favorites. The top three ranked submitters will be invited to Las Vegas at the BlogWorld Expo in September and be given secret video assignments to complete. These will then be uploaded on the website as well, and customers will vote to choose a winner. How democratic!

Read the rest of this entry »

Image by caribb via Flickr

This is one of the most hilarious airline jokes floating around these days. Enjoy!

Attendant: Welcome aboard Ala Carte Air, sir. May I see your ticket?
Passenger: Sure.
Attendant: You’re in seat 12B. That will be $5, please!
Passenger: What for?
Attendant: For telling you where to sit.
Passenger: But I already knew where to sit.
Attendant: Nevertheless, we are now charging a seat locator fee of $5. It’s the airline’s new policy.
Passenger: That’s the craziest thing I ever heard. I won’t pay it.
Attendant: Sir, do you want a seat on this flight, or not?
Passenger: Yes, yes. All right, I’ll pay. But the airline is going to hear about this.
Attendant: Thank you. My goodness, your carry-on bag looks heavy.Would you like me to stow it in the overhead compartment for you?
Passenger: That would be swell, thanks.
Attendant: No problem. Up we go, and done! That will be $10, please.
Passenger:  What?
Attendant: The airline now charges a $10 carry-on assistance fee.
Passenger: This is extortion. I won’t stand for it.
Attendant: Actually, you’re right, you can’t stand. You need to sit, And fasten your seat belt. We’re about to push back from the gate. But,
first I need that $10.
Passenger:  No way!
Attendant:  Sir, if you don’t comply, I will be forced to call the air marshal. And you really don’t want me to do that.
Passenger:  Why not? Is he going to shoot me?
Attendant:  No, but there’s a $50 air-marshal hailing fee.
Passenger:  Oh, all right, here, take the $10. I can’t believe this.
Attendant:  Thank you for your cooperation, sir. Is there anything else I can do for you?
Passenger:  Yes. It’s stuffy in here, and my overhead fan doesn’t seem to work. Can you fix it?
Attendant: Your overhead fan is not broken, sir. Just insert two quarters into the Overhead coin slot for the first five minutes.
Passenger:  The airline is charging me for cabin air?
Attendant:  Of course not, sir. Stagnant cabin air is provided free of charge. It’s the circulating air that costs 50 cents.
Passenger:  I don’t have any quarters Can you make change for a dollar?
Attendant:  Certainly, sir! Here you go!
Passenger:  But you’ve given me only three quarters for my dollar.
Attendant: Yes, there’s a change making fee of 25 cents.
Passenger:  For cryin’ out loud. All I have left is a lousy quarter? What the heck can I do with this?
Attendant:  Hang onto it. You’ll need it later for the lavatory.

Image by Richard H Martin via Flickr

Singapore Airlines has always been admired for its consistently high-quality products and innovation, especially in times of crises. From using the latest aircraft like the Airbus A380, to customer service that even other airlines talk about. Recently, Harvard Business School Professor Rohit Deshpande talked about Singapore Airlines’ strategy for success in an interview on the HBS Publishing website, conducted by Scott Berinato. His conclusion - competing on price alone never bears fruit.

Thinking beyond price competition

Professor Deshpande explains in the interview that too many airlines around the world, and especially in the US, compete on price alone and this forces them to commoditize their businesses. They remove any additional frills and the concept of in-flight service is diluted substantially. This is exactly what Singapore Airlines doesn’t do. It never compromises on the quality of service, and charges a premium for that. In a world many airlines are eliminating services on-board, Singapore Airlines pampers those who’d pay for it  - and there are plenty of disgruntled traveleres today who would!

Read the rest of this entry »

Image via Wikipedia

It is always good to learn from the best - and when you think of the most memorable brands in the world, Starbucks ranks right at the top. Like Ritz-Carlton, Starbucks can offer key lessons in branding to airlines, many of which often don’t cost a lot to implement and can create great leverage for the brand.

What does the brand stand for?

In his book, A New Brand World, Scott Bedbury - the former Chief Marketing Officer of Starbucks - details how he personally led the creation of the formidable Starbucks brand. This is how he explains the Starbucks core identity.

“The Starbucks brand’s core identity is less about engineering a great cup of coffee than about providing a great coffee experience….the Starbucks brand is about what Abraham Maslow might have called the coffee “gestalt” - the atmospherics.”

Similarly, airlines need to understand that they’re not in the business of just transporting people point A to point B. Even freight companies like Fedex and UPS talk about principles like on-time delivery, rather than transportation. The first thing airlines need to realize is they will only survive in the long term if they deliver a decent pleasant flying experience - after all, passengers can be on-board the plane anywhere from one hour to twenty two hours (I’ve been on one!). As it is, going through security and immigration before getting on the plane is extremely stressful. They need to feel cared for and enjoy the in-flight experience.

Airlines like JetBlue in the US do it well, with their on-board amenities and convey the message across well too, with their “Flying - That’s why we created Jetting” campaign. Just like Starbucks, it talks about delivering an experience, and not so much the basics of transportation. Singapore Airlines talks about bringing back the “romance of flying” - which is indeed becoming a novelty these days. Simply put, these airlines know what their core brand identity is, and work to deliver an experience that is consistent with it.

Read the rest of this entry »

On 11th August, the pilots of Delta and Northwest agreed to the proposed merger between the two airlines, smoothing out the way for a new world’s largest airline to emerge. What does this mean for American and international commercial aviation world? A peek into history may give us some insights.

The glory of Pan-Am

The decline and demise of Pan-American World Airways in 1991 marked the end of an era in United States. Pan-Am was, for many decades, the de-facto flag carrier of the United States with an extensive international work. It was arguably the creation of American politics in the pre-deregulated industry before the early 1980s, as the airline flew international routes while other airlines were largely restricted to domestic routes.

For over three decades after the Second World War, Pan-Am held the stature as the leading international airline in terms of innovative products, as well as opulence in luxury travel, ushering in the jet age by launching the Boeing 707 in 1959, the iconic Boeing 747 in 1969 and record-breaking non-stops between New York and Tokyo, and Los Angeles and Sydney with the Boeing 747SP in 1976. Pan-Am also pioneered business travel with the launch of its clipper class, a market that was to become today’s lucrative business class. Pan-Am was a brand that Americans flew with pride - hardly a case with US based airlines today.

Read the rest of this entry »

Image via Wikipedia

This is a touching letter, from a flight attendant’s perspective, which was first published on Airliners.net. We felt compelled to share it.

To the Flying Public: We’re sorry

We’re sorry we have no pillows.
We’re sorry we’re out of blankets.
We’re sorry the airplane is too cold.
We’re sorry the airplane is too hot.
0AWe’re sorry the overhead bins are full.
We’re sorry we have no closet space for your oversized bag.
We’re sorry that’s not the seat you wanted.
We’re sorry there’s a restless toddler/overweight/offensive smelling passenger seated next to you.
We’re sorry the plane is full and there are no other seats available.
We’re sorry you didn’t get your upgrade.
We’re sorry that guy makes you uncomfortable because he “looks like a terrorist”.
We’re sorry there’s a thunderstorm and we can’t take off.
We’re sorry we don’t know when it will stop.
We’re sorry you’re crammed into a space so small that if you were an animal PETA would protest.
We’re sorry our plane has no music or video entertainment for your 3 hour flight.
We’re sorry we ran out of your favorite soda.
We’re sorry there are no more sandwiches.
We’re sorry that Budweiser costs $6.
We’re sorry we don’t have diapers for your baby.
We’re sorry we don’t have milk for same baby.
We’re sorry you can’t hang out by the cockpit door waiting to use the bathroom.
We’re sorry you can’t hang out at the back of the airplane.
We’re sorry you have to sit down and fasten your seatbelt.
We’re sorry you have to put your seat up for landing.
We’re sorry we don’t know when we’re going to land.
We’re sorry we don’t know whether your plane to (substitute any city in the world) will be waiting for you when we land.
We’re sorry we’ve been diverted because we ran out of gas waiting to land.
We’re sorry for these and so many other things that we have absolutely no control over but which we are held accountable for EVERY SINGLE DAY.

Please understand. Flight attendants are not the enemy. We share your space. More than anyone - we want to have a nice, pleasant travel experience.
Read the rest of this entry »

The JetBlue Airways in-air communications division, LiveTV, purchased the Airfone network from Verizon in early June 2008. The purchase includes 100 ground to air transmission stations as well as any remaining corporate and government customers. More importantly, LiveTV plans to use the network for voice, email and other online services on board planes, starting with their own aircraft. This has been an exciting journey, ever since JetBlue acquired LiveTV from Thales earlier in the decade.

The airplane is an island no more

With LiveTV in-seat video, every passenger on the aircraft gets a personal TV screen with up to 36 channels of live satellite programming, a GPS map channel and four additional channels of stored content. In addition to this, LiveTV allows people to listen to XM Satellite radio, and now with the acquisition of AirFone, connect with those on the ground using their communication devices too. Having built a strong and popular product, JetBlue has now started to encash on LiveTV.

Time to set the cash registers ringing

The LiveTV product provides authentic value-added services to JetBlue’s customers. The keyword here is authentic. Unlike a number of other airlines who seem to be charging for basics like a cup of water in order to make money, LiveTV actually charges for a real value added service. The best part is that many of the channels and services on LiveTV are free, and customers can pay more for what they really want - a very sound business model.

Read the rest of this entry »

Image by John Creasey via Flickr

One of my aviation junkie buddies from Singapore recently posed an intriguing question:

For airlines, does the product come first or the brand? Essentially, if an airline is losing money (as is the case with many airlines these days), does the management concentrate on revitalizing the product so that it can turn a profit in the short term, or is it better to focus on brand building, for long term sustainability?

On the surface, the answer may appear simple enough – what’s the point in thinking about long term profits, if you’re not sure of surviving another month with the current product offerings and operations?

More importantly, concentrating on just the brand without a strong product is like putting lipstick on a pig. It just doesn’t work, regardless of the quality of the lipstick. Especially so in the highly volatile, and very competitive airline industry. This concept is visible in the latest United Airlines advertisements shown during the Olympics, which show animated figures supposedly (since there it is difficult to infer) enjoying the luxury of United’s new international first class. It’s so far removed from the reality that the nickle and dimed customers probably don’t feel any connection with it. Here’s a sample of that advertisement.

Read the rest of this entry »

A Virgin America boarding pass

In a recent blog post, Cam Beck at MarkeringProfs.com mentioned that he had attended a workshop by Stephen Anderson and Travis Isaacs on effectively organizing information. The result of that class was an airline ticket redesign Cam and friends did, as shown below. Cam went on to suggest in his article that once unnecessary information has been removed, there enough space for a special offer for the passenger too! Personally, I feel the both the re-designs below are an immense improvement from the existing ticket designs. So how can these better designed tickets help increase brand affinity? Read the rest of this entry »

Emirates Airlines‘ A380 is currently doing a showcase tour around North America.  We were there to catch the show Live at JFK Airport in New York City on Aug 1, 2008. While there, we took the time to chat with Nigel Page, who is Emirates’ Senior Vice President of Operations for the Americas. Being with Emirates for 15 years, and 20 years with British Airways, Nigel shares his wisdom with us in the video interview. Below, you will also find key talking points in the interview. Enjoy!

1. How would you differentiate Emirates A380 from Singapore Airlines‘ and Qantas’ product?
   1. Geographic advantage - Dubai is located mid-way between Russia and Africa, US East coast and the Far East and of course, Europe and Australia. We will take full advantage of this, once our 58 A380s are in service.
   2. Cabin crew of 130 nationalities - each plane has a crew that speaks over 10 languages between them  Read the rest of this entry »

      

      Tags: Dubai, Emirates Airline, Nigel Page, Singapore Airlines, United Arab Emirates