It’s a very simple proposition. “Like” a Facebook fanpage to get a random reward. In the case of American Airlines’ AAdvantage, the reward is to get between 100 to 100,000 miles just for liking their Facebook fanpage, in their Mystery Miles contest.

If the smart folks at AAdvantage had run this campaign a week earlier, they’d have surely made it to the Top 10 Facebook Contests by Airlines, which we put out last week. Because the results they’ve achieved in just three days seem phenomenal!
The most successful Facebook contest by an airline, till date?
The loyalty group at American Airlines, AAdvantage, set up the Facebook fanpage on Feb 1. And in the first couple of weeks, they managed to garner 2000+ fans, organically. Then they decided to launch the Mystery Miles campaign to drive membership, and the numbers hit through the roof.

In 24 hours, they went from 2,558 fans to 163,000 and had reached a staggering 210,000 fans at the time of this post, just 54 hours after the campaign was launched. Moreover, the interactions and engagements on the fanpage increased dramatically too, from just 41 likes for one of the initial posts, to over 1,200 likes for …

Recently, I discovered that Hainan Airlines of China has been awarded a “5 Star” status by Skytrax putting them in the same reign as Singapore Airlines and Qatar Airways. While Hainan might be a decent airline, putting it in the highest category seemed out of context. And it wasn’t just me, discussing sprouted up around the web on this. Someone on Airliners.net said that Skytrax is becoming “Skytrash”. Someone else called it “Skycash” due to allegations that airlines need to pay big to acquire a new star level.

I feel rating Hainan as Five Star was the final nail in the coffin for Skytrax. Here are three reasons why I believe Skytrax is dead:

Irrelevant – If I’m a Kobe Bryant, then the only Business Class seat that’s Five Star for me is Oman Air’s – not Asiana or any other 5-star-classified airline. Because I can fit in there. Moreover, service and products differ dramatically for airlines on different routes and sectors. Hence, airlines ratings need to be relevant – which Skytrax is not.
Not real-time- Annual ratings are no longer desirable as airline service levels can dramatically change over a much smaller period of …

Spanair delights holiday travelers
Just around when thousands were stranded at London’s Heathrow Airport and missing Christmas gatherings, Spanair had delightful surprise in store for their customers.

On Dec 24, Spanair’s flight from Barcelon to Las Palmas arrived close to midnight. And when the passengers reached the baggage belt upon landing, they were surprised to see that instead of their luggage, out came beautifully wrapped Christmas gifts, each specially packed for each passenger and tagged individually too. Now, wouldn’t you be delighted if this happened to you? Just see the reaction of the passengers in the video below, and you’ll see what I mean.

KLM Suprises digital travelers
By now, you must have heard of the KLM Surprises campaign. Here’s how it worked: KLM started delighting digital customers at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam before they boarded their flight.

After travelers announced their presence  on Foursquare or Twitter, KLM staff contacted online them to learn of their departure gate and time (1st surprise). Then, after doing some online research about …

How often have you been on a flight, browsed through the in-flight magazine, flipped through the IFE channels, only to find nothing that interests you? In fact, as you increasingly travel on budget airlines, there are hardly any entertainment or reading options to begin with. Lufthansa has created a solution, called CloudStream.
Your in-flight content solution
CloudStream is a tool that creates a “digital carry-on” for travelers to pack with their chosen content (i.e. articles they’ve been meaning to read) as well as content they’ve discovered from our curated set of feeds. It is essentially the first digital media platform that takes advantage of travelers’ time in air.

The tool allows you to browse through a number of content categories, which include travel, health, sports or technology and choose from a variety of mediums, like blogs or podcasts. Once you’ve complied and downloaded your content, you can save it to your pen drive, or even share it with friends.

Keep Discovering, and share content with friends
What I personally like about CloudStream is the ability to discover new content, in the “Featured Carry-on” section, where SimpliFlying is showcased as well. …

Forget iPads, Malaysian regional airline Firefly (we’ve interviewed the Marketing Director) is using the huble iPod touch to collect feedback from passengers, while they’re in the air! Yeah, you got it right, in-flight. Now that’s stricking the iron when it’s hot.

Last week, I flew Singapore-KL on Firefly (first time on an ATR) and just before landing 3-4 passengers were given the iPods, enclosed in a plastic case, with a note from the MD of the airline, asking for feedback. I guess I looked keen, hence was handed one of those devices.

I went on to answer about twenty questions, on the iPhone app, and didn’t feel the pinch because we were landing soon an I had nothing to do anyway!

I felt this was a simple, yet effective way to solicit feedback. What do you think?

On SimpliFlying, we’ve spoken about AirTran’s EveryFlight.com, and more recently about Cathay Pacific’s Art of the Dessert contest, among others. What we see is a trend that shows airlines adopting the technique of brand co-creation, often using social media. Which simply involves the community’s inputs in coming up with new initiatives and rejuvinating current ones.

Here are nine airlines doing it right. Quite inspiring actually!

View more presentations from SimpliFlying.
So, what do you think about these airlines’ efforts? Serious social business, or hot air? Do you know other examples? Let’s discuss in comments, and over on Twitter

How would you like to be served a dessert on a flight, which you created yourself? Well, now you can actually do that thanks to Cathay Pacific. The airline is encouraging its Facebook fans to submit photos and recipes of Asian desserts they’ve created, to win Business Class tickets (read review here) to Hong Kong (I wouldn’t mind that at all!), and the chance to have it served in-flight.

A fantastic way of involving the customer in the brand – what I call brand co-creation, which is now possible thanks to social media. I’m up for some home-made dessert – are you?

I still stand by my belief that Cathay Pacific is way ahead on social media, when compared to most other legacy airlines. What do you think? Anyone with a sweet tooth thinks this is a good idea? Let’s hear it in Comments or over on Twitter
P.S: Special thanks to Dennis from CX to drop me a line on this!

On social media, it is just as important to give love, as it is to seek out favors from fans. After winning the SimpliFlying Best Social Media Campaign award last week in London, for their MySkyStatus tool, Lufthansa has now reached 100,000 Facebook fans. And to thank them for their love, Lufthansa is giving away 100,000 miles to 10 of their fans! Sweeet!
Too often, airlines get sucked into just asking more and more from their fans, without stopping to give back. And what better timing, than the Thanksgiving period (it’s the Canadian one today, US one in a couple of weeks).
I’m sure this will drive engagement not just one the social media front for Lufthansa, but also spur activity on the Miles and More program, and not just for the winners.
Bloody brilliant!

So, what do you think about Lufthansa’s effort? Serious social business, or hot air? Let’s discuss in comments, and over on Twitter

Special thanks to Khoa, one of my most respected aviation geeks, for this tip-off. …

Most of us familiar with AirAsia X know their deep desire to fly in to Sydney, but they’re being hindered by the Malaysian government (Malaysia Airlines’ ex-CEO is in the govt). So to raise the tempo, what does AirAsia X do? They take a leaf out of Virgin Atlantic’s books. Take a look for yourself…. clever, I’d say


This is bound to get the message far-and-wide for AirAsia X, and hopefully they’ll be flying to Sydney sooner than later. It’s good for us, consumers

Over coffee in Kuala Lumpur…
I had an intriguing debate with a new friend (and long-time Twitter follower) during my recent trip to Kuala Lumpur. When I asked about her organization’s resistance to even listening about the brand on social media – her answer was that their Head of Corp. Comms strongly feels that if it’s important enough, it will appear in the newspapers – after which there can be a proper response.

I recognize where she’s coming from, but I just couldn’t accept that reasoning. It’s like saying that I will never check my email, because my name card has a fax number, and whatever is important enough will pop out from the fax machine. It just doesn’t work that way anymore!

I won’t whisper feedback in your ears!
Customers are using a variety of mediums to communicate (and rant) these days, and press releases or forum submissions to newspapers rank way at the bottom.

If I don’t like the food on an airline, I’d submit a NOW review to Eezeer.com- instantly. If I find the wi-fi at your airport slow, I will tweet about it, or include it in …