**This a follow up article to the LIVE coverage of the Lufthansa A380 inaugural flight to JFK, by Rachel Levy**

On Tuesday, Shashank called me and asked “What are you doing this weekend?” Knowing him, I knew that was probably trouble =p Apparently Lufthansa was going to be flying the Airbus A380 from Frankfurt to JFK for the first time on Monday, SimpliFlying was invited, and the press group was leaving on Saturday. While I love to travel, this was very last minute, but given the opportunity, I said yes, of course.

I didn’t realize, just how incredible this opportunity would be. From flying business class, to a tour of the maintenance hangar, a tour of every inch of the plane, to interviews of the pilots, head of maintenance, a visit to the cockpit dinner overlooking the runway, this was certainly the experience of a lifetime.

The A380 is not new to Lufthansa, nor is it new to Airbus, but Lufthansa is set to be the largest A380 operator in Europe. Airbus currently has 244 orders from airlines, Lufthansa being #3 with 15 planes, after Emirates and Singapore Airlines. Each A380 customer has the ability to customize …

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

Qantas became the third airline to take delivery of the Airbus A380 aircraft last Friday, after Singapore Airlines and Emirates. Qantas has ordered 20 A380 planes from Airbus, the first of which will enter service from October 20, initially flying between Sydney/Melbourne and Los Angeles but in January next year expanding to the Sydney-Singapore and Sydney-London routes. But the fanfare and buzz is nothing close to that generated by Singapore Airlines’ first A380 flight to Sydney or Emirates’ A380 flight to New York City.

Given the significance of being one of the first few airlines to operate the Airbus A380, and since it will once be the 2nd largest operator of the A380, it’s a mystery why Qantas has not capitalized on this event to build its brand further. Moreover, given the recent negative press generated by the string of Qantas safety lapses, there is an urgent need to repair the damage done.
How did Qantas miss this golden opportunity?

Lack of radical product innovation: The four classes Qantas product for the A380 are not a radical improvement from its existing fleet of wide body planes. Moreover, the peculiar seat color choices make the cabin look dull. This, as opposed to the double-bed suites introduced by Singapore Airlines for First Class, and showers as well as a bar introduced by Emirates for First and Business Class, in their A380 planes. Both of these airlines took full advantage of these product innovations and marketed themselves well, rightly so.