***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 …

When it comes to airline branding, it’s the little things that happen at the various touch points that make the brand stand out, ultimately driving customer loyalty.

I flew from Mumbai to Delhi yesterday on Indigo Airlines, a leading domestic budget carrier in India, known for its tongue-in-cheek branding.

I have a habit of being engrossed in a book or a newspaper during the take-off and landing sequence on every flight I take. On the flight yesterday, once the safety demonstration was done, the stewardess walked down the aisle checking our seat-belts. As she passed me, she realized I was reading and reached out to turn on the reading light for me.

Let me write that again. Without even me asking her for anything, or even making eye contact with her (remember, I was engrossed in reading), she turned on my reading light, gave me a smile and walked away.

It was an aha-moment for me. Having taken over 20 flights in the last couple of weeks (including flying First Class), this was the only thing that stood out. Thanks to such a simple gesture, which made me feel special, I can say with confidence that I’ll be inclined to fly Indigo …

In the last two months, I traveled on a dozen different airlines, in three continents. Each with a different loyalty program. And each just a difficult to understand for the so-called “elite” traveler. It seemed that while trying to please an ever-increasing variety of travelers, airlines were creating a veil of confusion before the traveler even signs up for the program.

So then, what should an ideal frequent flyer program look like to make it truly work for the airline brand? Taking inspiration from the best loyalty programs in the world, as well as my own observations from the two conferences in Miami I spoke at last week, here are some thoughts.

What would make me a loyal traveler with an airline?

Simplicity – How often do you know exactly what you can redeem from the points earned from your next flight? What if it was as simple as for every $1 spent, you will be able to redeem $0.01 off your next ticket or a partner purchase? I think keeping the earning-burning process as simple as possible would attract many more customers for …

The Bombardier CSeries aircraft is probably the only thing that both Airbus and Boeing agree about – that it’s a real threat to their hold on the narrow-body jet market. Due to enter service in 2013, the CSeries will be the first new aircraft to be built since the Boeing 787, and will be flown by the likes of Swiss International Airlines and Republic Airways.

Probably because it’s the largest jet being built by Bombardier, which is well known for regional aircrafts like the Q400, there are lots of innovations both inside and outside the cabin. I was privileged to be led on a cabin tour of the aircraft mock-up at Bombardier HQ in Montreal, followed by an in-depth tour of the aircraft’s aeronautical capabilities, by Sam Cherry – a Director at Bombardier who knows the product inside-out. And for the first time one the web, SimpliFlying has videos of what would exclusively be shown to airlines when they’re making a purchase decision.

The following video is of the CSeries cabin tour, which highlights the key game-changing features in passenger comfort being introduced …

Yesterday, Mary Kirby of the RunwayGirl fame told me on Twitter that our previous discussions on iPad being used as an in-flight entertainment system are being realized rather soon. Around the same time, I received a guest post about the future of personal wireless IFEs in airplanes. And couldn’t help post it here immediately.

This guest post is written by Toms Purgailis, who is a student from Riga, Latvia interested in all modes of transport and synergies between transport and land use. He runs blog www.rigmobility.blogspot.com about transport and planning issues in the Baltic states.
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This post is inspired by Shashank’s Can the Apple iPad revolutionize the way airlines do business? and aims to take a step further. I want to share my ideas how to benefit from passenger’s devices and their content, save weight and cash.

A big part of travelers bring their laptops and smart-phones with them on-board for ground activities but use airline’s provided in-flight entertainment system (IFE) to kill the time during flight. No-brainer that such a system is not the most effective as hundreds of gadgets just lay somewhere in bags during the flight.

A simple (and very effective) solution would be to …

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 …

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 …

Last week, I spent three days in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, hanging out with Loyalty marketing professionals from around the world at the Loyalty 2010 conference. I met a number of very talented and interesting people, from airlines, hotels and even retails chain that are trying to drive loyalty.

Also part of the event was the Loyalty 2010 Awards for the Most Innovative Loyalty program. The judges had shortlisted the Top 3, and the audience voted for the best. Air Berlin came out tops, though I think each program was very unique. And I share with you here, what makes them so good!

1. Air Berlin’s MyRoute customers earn double miles on their frequently flown routes
Try to solve this problem. You need to get price sensitive customers to fly you on their most-flown routes, which are also the most competitive due to many airlines offering an undifferentiated product on those routes. You know you got to think out of the box when solving this one. And Air Berlin’s Johannes Ganser and Sophie Wennekers, along with their Loyalty Marketing team, did just that.

In April 2009, the airline launched MyRoute where members select …

Did you ever know where the black box is located on a plane? Did you know what A.P.U stands for? Probably not, unless you’re a geek. Kulula Airlines of South Africa, which is known for its quirky branding, has come up with a solution – an airplane painted with facts about…the plane itself! Now here’s one plane that’s bound the become the kids’ favorite. In fact, I bet that adults would be intrigued too. I’d let the pictures do the talking, and you be the judge.

So you and your team have been driving social media strategy at your airline or airport for over six months. You’ve managed to get over 5,000 fans on Facebook, you Tweet regularly, may be even have an iPhone app and have a ton of proposals already in mind to implement. Awesome! Now, what?You do realize that it’s the in-flight experience that makes or breaks a customer relationship, right? How do you make their in-flight experience an unforgettable one using social media? And then how do you get them to talk about it? Well, here are 5 ways to do that: 1. Use a unique Hashtag for the flight Aim: Improve customer experience Why not include a hashtag for each flight number with the booking confirmation? It can be something simple, such as #0311JB1263 (March 11th, Jet Blue flight #1263). That way, when people send a tweet saying they just booked a flight, or are heading to the airport, they use that hashtag, and then can search for others using the same hashtag. Passengers can make their own arrangements to meet up at the gate, share a …