For the first time on the web (and in English!), in this exclusive interview with SimpliFlying, we hear directly from the horse’s mouth. Aurelie Valtat was the person leading Eurocontrol’s much talked-about ashcloud response, and personally helped out thousands of stranded passengers using social media.
On April 14, 2010, the eruption of the Icelandic volcano [i still can't pronounce the name!] resulted in chaos — more than 100,000 flight cancellations between April 15 and 21 — affecting millions of travelers, and the fallout cost the airline industry $1.7 billion. The silver lining was social media – and how airlines and authorities reached out to stranded passengers to help them out. And Eurocontrol led from the front. Eurocontrol’s efforts were much admired on this blog, and on other leading websites like Mashable.
In my conversation with Aurelie, she spoke at length about how she handled the tasks, challenges encountered and lessons learnt. Below is a summary of the exclusive video interview (Click here if you’re unable …
Alaska Airlines is known for being nimble when it comes to customer service, and well loved, because it is smaller than most US airlines. When they got started with social media, there were one of the first to do things right, and had a great vision too, as I highlighted in my interviews and articles last year. However, it seems that things have stagnated. It may not be the case, but that’s what it seems like from the outside.
A reader passionately shared his ideas with me, which culminated in this guest post. Thomas Evans is a Marketing and Social Media professional in Seattle, Washington; and a loyal Alaska Airlines fan. And here’s what he feels about Alaska Airlines’ social media execution.
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Meeting the basics…
Currently, if I had to describe Alaska’s use of social media I would describe it simply as, decent. They have an online presence, but they are not providing a ‘north of expected’ experience for the consumers.  Sure, they have a Facebook page (in my opinion, one that is need of a major makeover). And yes, they have a Twitter account that is managed and updated regularly. But they could be doing so much more. …
Note: This article and slideshow, created by me, was first published on Mashable.com.
Hundreds of thousands of travelers scrambled to find alternative modes of transportation, last minute hotel bookings and even home-stays when the Icelandic volcano disrupted air travel around Europe over the last seven days. The official figure for airlines’ losses stands at $1.7 billion in just six days, with U.K.-based airlines British Airways and Virgin Atlantic likely to suffer the most.
Though it sounds like all doom and gloom, the silver lining of this crisis is that a lot of travelers looked to social media for help, and airlines and other authorities actually rose to the challenge. Here are some examples of winning information and customer service strategies that were implemented via social media.
Deep dive into social media for airlines
As I highlighted in-depth in my previous article, EuroControl was very impressive as they rushed to update passengers about the latest information about flights through a variety of online and offline mediums.
In just seven days, there were over 55,000 mentions of #ashtag, and the usage was so …
Virgin America created a splash today, by launching its first international destination, Toronto, on Twitter! They did not spend a cent on traditional advertising for this launch, and I personally think this is one of the smarter uses of social media I’ve seen by an airline in recent times.
The sweetener is that the first 500 people to book tickets using their Twitter ID would be able to redeem a 50% discount (still valid as of 2pm EDT, 20 Feb). If they’re not “following” the airline on Twitter, they will auto-follow. Even the official press release re-directed recipients to the Twitter URL.
“The first 500 Twitter followers who receive the airline’s expansion Tweet can score a 50 percent discount on flights to Toronto for travel June 23-November 17, 2010.* Virgin America is the only airline based in Silicon Valley, and its inventive use of technology, social media and design has made it a favorite among tech-forward flyers. For more: www.twitter.com/virginamerica”.
The press release was followed by a single Tweet. And that’s it. That’s a very simple route-launch for you.
What …
In times of crises these days in the airline industry, the website is no longer the place to go to – it gets updated far too slowly and the information is generic. Call centers too, are flooded with requests, and you don’t want to be placed on a long hold when you’re anxious about your next flight!
Real-time social media to the rescue!
The place to look for answers and support are no longer the Web 1.0 websites of airlines, or call centers – rather it’s real-time tools like Twitter. Most European airlines that have a social media presence have been updating their followers about their respective flight delays etc. Some are doing a better job at others.
While Lufthansa’s German Twitter feed is announcing cancellation of all flights till noon on Saturday (and probably beyond), Virgin Atlantic is posting updates on their Facebook fanpage. On another hand, airBaltic [Disclosure: SimpliFlying client] is tactfully handling customer service issues through Twitter.
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* Twebinar : tu/aeb/inar = Twitter + Webinar.
What’s a Twebinar? Not just your usual sit-back-and-listen format! In SimpliFlying’s Twebinars, you will not have to wait until the end of the session to ask questions. You can join the discussion LIVE on Twitter using a hashtag (#SMairlines), where you can ask questions and get answers in real-time – from the speaker and all the participants, while the presentation is going on.
Now that you know what’s a Twebinar, I need to tell you what’s the fuss about!
Driving revenue from social media for airlines is critical
I first spoke about this topic during a keynote in Abu Dhabi. The presentation and the ideas were so well liked, that I was invited to speak again in Singapore on the same topic. And this was followed by an article on Mashable on the same lines. Given its popularity, SimpliFlying has partnered with Canadian web events company, WebSolutions, to bring you a series of innovative Twebinars over the next three months on driving revenue and engagement from social media, specifically for airlines.
Twebinar details
5.5 ways airlines can drive revenue through social media branding …
I have received an enthusiastic response to my article written late last week, about why the social “we”b is about the real-world relationships, just as much as it is about online interaction. In that, I recollected how the best side-effect of Twitter has been the number of highly talented individuals I’ve been able to meet around the world.
I’ve got a bunch of emails, tweets and comments over the last couple of days asking me how this observation applies to airlines. Firstly, let me address why airlines need to have real-world interaction with their online “fans”.
Why is real-world interaction needed to complement social media engagement?
Online interaction is good, because it allows the airline to connect with a lot of people across geographies, and allows those people to connect among themselves too.
Where online engagement falls short is often the creation of a long-lasting emotional bond, which comes only through real-life meetings. Imagine a Facebook fan of an airline, who has never flown them before, but has always taken part in online contests or discussions. Wouldn’t the relationship be cemented only if he flies that …
Three continents, three encounters, same story
Story 1, Los Angeles, early March 2010: Early last month, after a 22 hour flight from Singapore to Los Angeles, I was picked up by someone who works at Boeing, has a PhD in Aeronautical Engineering from Stanford, and an MBA from UC Irvine. In the six hours I had in LA, he introduced me to another very talented friend of his, who drove us to a vantage point from where we could see all of the LAX runways. We ended up spotting planes for over an hour.
Then we drove to the famous “In & Out” to spot more planes, before heading to a restaurant under the flight path of landing planes, for dinner. For a plane freak like me, this was like putting a kid in a candy store – all day long!
Story 2, Santiago de Chile, late March 2010: I had spent my first day in Santiago mostly sleeping in the hotel, as opposed to checking out the city. In the evening, I met with an airline industry veteran, who not only met me for …
I saw this advertisement on four different websites today. So, Mexicana and OneWorld are doing a great job with banner advertising. But I’m not really sure whether it gets any points across the viewer. Why do I say that? Because an airline brand is no longer what you [the airline] say it is, it’s what they [the customers] say it is.
First impressions matter
When I first saw this advertisement, these questions would come to the travelers’ minds:
Why is Oneworld the “most important” alliance in the world?
And whose claim is that? The alliance itself? Or an independent third party?
Who is Mexicana? A new airline from Mexico? Or an old one?
Are they any good?
Do they fly anywhere other than Mexico?
Oh..and which of those logos is Mexicana? The first or the last… they both look similar!
None of those questions were answered. And from a marketing standpoint, what’s the “call to action”? Being the curious type, I clicked on the advertisement anyway, and I came to a “Promotions” landing page, which didn’t quite make sense.
Repetition doesn’t work anymore
The page I was led to repeated …
This wasn’t just the Easter weekend, it was also the weekend when the iPad hit the stores. Before I could get over the initial frenzy, I saw an article on Mashable that talked about a university buying iPads for all its incoming freshmen! That bold idea got me thinking…does the iPad have the potential of chancing the way airlines do business too?
In fact, there’s been ample debate already, with the queen of in-flight entertainment (IFE), Mary Kirby, concluding that it’s a fad, even as the CIO of JetStar, Stephen Tame was quoted as saying that the iPad “may lead in the future the end of airline in-flight entertainment systems”.
Why does the iPad matter for airlines?
It matters because no longer are mobile devices limited to small screens only centimeters wide, with the iPad. Combine that with the advent of in-flight wifi and we’re talking business.
I’m not talking about every passenger carrying on-board an iPad. That’s probably not possible. At least not very soon, and not across nations. What I’m suggesting is that it might be a good idea for airlines that do not have …
