In late 2012, Alaska Airlines’ FlyingSocial became the first to allow you to click on a map with your friends’ profile pics on it and click on them to book a ticket to their city, as I’ve shared in a number of my keynote presentations.

Germanwings’ FriendsFlight app

Now, with the help of our friends over at SparkLoft Media, Germanwings has introduced an app that allows you to book ticket based on your friends location in Facebook, through an app called FriendsFlight. The application, which lives on Facebook, sorts Germanwings airfare results by price, geographical distance or Facebook friends.

Integrating the social graph in booking

This app is part of a trend where airlines are socializing the booking process. It started with something simple Delta did like allowing the booking process, and it’s now evolved to what Germanwings and Alaska Airlines’ are doing – book by clicking on your friend’s face!

Gone are the days when you sort by price or schedule. Now, you just log in to Facebook. And this is part of the trend where the travelers’ social graph is being integrated into the booking process – ultimately reducing price sensitivity by introducing decision factors other than just the fares. And this is just the beginning. We’re likely to see many more such sophisticated, and hopefully successful, attempts by airlines to drive revenue from social media in 2012.

• Malaysia Airlines takes booking and check-in to Facebook. And now, you can sit next to your friend too!
• Ambush marketing comes to airlines: Germanwings takes over ITB Berlin using Facebook Places
• Top 10 Travel Distribution Initiatives by Airlines: Reinventing the booking cycle to drive revenue (from #eftamerica)
• Delta Assist brings airline customer service to Facebook
• Airlines in social media – the road ahead. Keynote presentation from #APEX2011

The innovations begin

When airlines initially began their adventure on the socialscape, it was all about about feeling their way about on the social platforms of their choice. The primary focus at the outset was first, discovering how to drive traffic and building a fan-base, followed by the more important aim of utilizing the platform for customer engagement and provide them a real-time medium of information-dissemination and customer service. Slowly, however, they realized that social platforms could also aid them in driving revenue. Flash sales, deals and contests became popular to attract more customers. However, the real innovations were still some time away.

A changing landscape

That time, it seems, has finally come. Airlines, more than ever before have realised that the social web can be utilized to change and influence the booking behaviour of patrons by incorporating their preferences, habits and social circles into the booking cycle. Slowly, we’re beginning to see the true emergence of the New Traveler Life Cycle which can be split into 5 parts: dreaming, validating, booking, travelling and sharing. Airlines have begun to recognize that the booking portion of the cycle alone might not be sufficient to draw customers to themselves. Hence, they’ve begun to incorporate the other portions, in various combinations, to their travel cycle. Our latest case-pack illustrates how airlines are effectively doing this.

Some key points about Travel Distribution emerging from this case-pack are:

1. Online Travel Agents (OTAs) are slowly losing ground as airlines increasingly attract customers to book through their own portals. eg. Delta’s Facebook booking engine is a neat “push strategy” to get customers to book without moving away from their favourite social network.
2. Immersive apps that aid in the dreaming, planning and booking process will not only be addictive travel planning tools but also great brand-builders by wowing patrons. eg. Virgin America’s chrome app.
3. Mobile (and tablet) apps are set to go huge. Whether it is managing bookings or redeeming frequent flyer miles or even checking in without a paper boarding pass, mobile apps will rule the next wave of social airline strategies. eg. British Airways’ cool iPhone app and Lufthansa’s iPad app.
4. Incorporating customers’ social graphs into the booking cycle could pay rich dividends by unleashing a “social multiplier effect”. Knowing which friends are in cities you could fly to (Alaska Air) and choosing seats alongside friends (Malaysia Airlines) are just some of the ways in which booking behaviour of customers can be influenced.
5. Flyers will always be deal hunters looking for the best (in other words, cheapest) fares. LAN Airlines’ Fall Sale, JetBlue Cheeps and Melbourne Airport’s cheap Twitter fares are prime examples. Also, even though the jury is still out on this one, Groupon type sales will continue to be effective in the short-term at least (ie, until they can be sustained).

Without further ado, here’s our case-pack on the Top 10 Travel Distribution Initiatives by Airlines. Enjoy!

You can find more of our Top 10 case-packs here.

• Mobile 2.0 – The Top 10 Mobile Apps by Airlines
• Socializing the airline booking process – Germanwings follows Alaska Airlines’ lead
• The Best Airlines in Social Media: the Top 7 nominees for the SimpliFlying Awards for Social Media Excellence 2011
• Best Airports in Social Media: Top 5 Airports nominated for the SimpliFlying Awards for Social Media Excellence 2011
• [Infographic] How mobile is re-shaping travel distribution (gasp!)

As airlines become more active in this sphere, we attempt to answer a crucial question: Has social media truly benefited any airline? If so, how? To answer this question, we put together a series of case studies. In this set of six case studies, top executives from airlines such as Qantas, Volaris, airBaltic, Alaska Airlines, JetBlue, and of course, Southwest, talk about how their social media strategies are pushing their airlines into the next era.

Recently, Facebook announced that its user base now exceeds 500m. Twitter, on the other hand is still lagging in numbers, but the growth rate of users easily outstrips that of Facebook. As our case studies will show, both of these platforms offer their unique advantages in terms of customer engagement and information sharing. However, more importantly, each requires its own unique strategy.

The heady growth of social media has brought its own advantages and ills. While platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, blogs and wikis offer unprecedented levels of engagement and information sharing with customers, there are perils as well. For instance, a clear line has to be drawn between what is “too little” and “too much”. This is not always an easy task. Our case studies will show why and much more!

We’re sure you’ll find these case studies inspiring and useful. Please click here to download the PDF containing all of the six case studies.

Special thanks to Shubhodeep Pal, Li Guen and Matt Brennan – all of whom have put in a lot of effort in helping bring these to shape. All feedback welcome at feedback@simpliflying.com

• Top 10 Airports on Social Media – case studies of the airports best at driving engagement
• 52 Airline Marketing Strategies to engage today’s traveler: A walkthrough of our free iPhone app!
• The Best Airlines Driving Customer Service & Crisis Management Through Social Media: Top 5 SimpliFlying Awards nominees
• Airlines, stop putting lipstick on a pig!
• The SimpliFlying Social Media Cheatsheet for Airline Marketers

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.
————————

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.  As a loyal Alaska Airlines flyer and fan, I am curious as to why a company who focuses, emphasizes and does such an exceptional job with their customer service does not put forth a greater effort to build and keep relationships with their customers online.

Social media a competitive differentiation?

If you want to make yourself stand out from competitors you have to be willing to go the extra mile. On Twitter, don’t just sit and wait for someone to reply to a previous Tweet or ask you a question. Go out and look for individuals to interact with. Just the other night I took a look at Alaska Airlines’ Twitter page. It was 11 pm and there were zero responses or signs of interactions with customers all day. I then searched for mentions of the airline. One individual complained about damaged bags and said “Sorry Alaska, you just lost a customer.” As I’m writing this, more than 48 hours later, this person still hadn’t been responded to publicly. Perhaps this individual was dealt with through a DM, but still, the overall lack of interaction is confusing.

Mentioning new flight deals once a day and responding to customer questions that other followers honestly don’t care about is not going to make you stand out.

• Engage in conversations, ask questions that will provide free and valuable feedback and data, point followers to interesting or useful posts even if they are not Alaska Air related, engage in casual fun chit chat.
• Make it easy and interesting for customers to interact and feel like they have a relationship with the airlines.

Building a sustainable strategy

It could be that a single individual or small team handling the social media efforts simply do not have enough time to dedicate solely to Twitter and Facebook because they have so much else on their plates. If this is the case, more people need to be hired. Much of an organization’s social media efforts are simply extensions of their customer service team. Would you want one individual in charge of answering all of your company’s phone calls and emails from customers? I know I wouldn’t.

Finally, we have all heard by now that Alaska Airlines will soon be providing Wifi on all of their flights.  While this is a big deal for obvious reasons, it also could provide huge opportunities for the airline to catch up to its competitors in the social media game.  This previous Simpliflying post provides simple, yet great ideas of how an airline can obtain valuable information, form relationships and improve customer experience thousands of feet in the air. Among other things, it would be wise for Alaska to start planning ahead.

What do you think about Alaska Airlines’ efforts? How do you think they can do things better? Let’s hear it in the comments, and over on Twitter (@simpliflying)

• Alaska Airlines’ brand strategy on Twitter, revealed by Elliot Pesut in exclusive interview
• What makes Alaska Airlines a lovable airline brand? In conversation with Greg Latimer
• Greg Hounslow is the SimpliFlying Hero for April leading WestJet into the new age of social media
• Airlines and airports in social media should think about scalability of efforts, not just buzz!
• Karlis Smiltens – the man behind airBaltic’s rise in social media is the SimpliFlying Hero for August 2010

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 airline at least once? Or if he gets to meet in person with some of the people behind the airline? Or be invited to an event organized by the airline? The chances of turning a loyal online fan into a loyal customer increase dramatically when real-world interaction complements online engagement.

So, how can airlines foster real-world interaction?

Here are 10 simple-to-execute ideas, that work

1. Organize a Tweet-up – It’s as simple as sending out a Tweet, or going to http://twitvite.com/ to create an event for your followers. If your airline doesn’t have a Twitter account, then create a Facebook event and invite your fans to hang out together. The value you’re offering is to connect them with one another in the real-world. The benefits of such events can be far beyond expected, as we experienced with the Bombardier Tweetup on-board a Q400 at the Singapore Airshow 2010.
2. Translate ideas sought online into real-world action – Full fledged ideation communities are popular with brands. Starbucks is famous for My Starbucks idea, Dell has Dell Ideastorm. Airlines need not do something as extensive – but anything that gives their customers and online fans a sense of ownership of the brand can do wonders. AirTran very successfully introduced wifi on all its flights after running a competition on Everyflight.com. More recently, airBaltic [Disclosure: SimpliFlying client] painted the flags of the EU nations on its planes after seeking suggestions on its Facebook page.
3. Invite your online fans to your facilities – AirAsia ran a competition on their blog last year, where the winners would get to come down to their training center in Kuala Lumpur. The event generated a lot of excitement among the fans, who got to check out what goes on behind the scenes – certainly fostering stronger bonds with the brands.
4. Have a gathering in each of your major cities – Alaska Airlines is very good at organizing such meetups, especially with their loyal fans and frequent fliers. I’ve been to one of them myself, in Seattle, and it was a revelation. These meetings really help!
5. Get senior executives to have candid conversations with fans, online and offline – Malaysia Airlines did a fascinating job when it got its CEO, Idris Jala, to meet with some of the selected Facebook fans from the airline’s Fanpage. And the event ended with Mr Jala playing a song on the guitar, himself. That connection was hard to achieve otherwise, and made the “CEO of an airline”, very human. It helps bridge the gap.
6. Complement new route-openings with online events tied with offline ones – Southwest Airlines opened up a cafe in New York’s Bryant Park, to commemorate opening its flights to LaGuardia! And for the launch, they invited again – their Facebook fans and Twitter followers. I was there as well, and it was the first time I interacted with so many Southwest “fans”. Feels good to be part of the family
7. Recognize your most loyal online fans – Just like FourSquare Mayors get free coffee at certain cafes. Boston Logan Airport sent me a black hat with the words “I’m a followers of @bostonlogan”. And what did I do? And I told everyone about it on Twitter and even posted up a photo. “Real love” always helps spread the brand further.



8. Drive awareness about your online efforts, in-flight – I’ve always believed that airlines have that unique advantage that few other brands have – they hold their customer captive for long periods of time. Brand engagement in an airline’s case is much longer – in-flight, and this can be leveraged upon, for interacting with the customers at a new level. How about giving your Facebook fans free on-board wifi-access? Or giving your Twitter followers priority boarding on their birthdays? Little gestures can go far. Very far.

So, what do you think? How crucial is real-world interaction in making airlines’ social media strategy a success? Do you have examples to share? Let’s here it in the comments and on Twitter (@simpliflying)

• Three ways the Cathay Pacific brand can come alive by infusing social media into the People site
• #FollowFriday realization: It’s about real-world relationships, stupid! That’s what the social “we”b is about
• The Point (or Secret) of Social Media for airlines
• Alaska Airlines’ brand strategy on Twitter, revealed by Elliot Pesut in exclusive interview
• Airlines on Second Life – 5 ways to dramatically increase brand value

Heard of Morgan Johnston? On Google, “Morgan Johnston Jetblue” produces over 37,000 results, as compared to “Dave Barger jetblue”, which returns 26,800 results. Dave Barger is the CEO of the airline, and Morgan Johnston leads JetBlue’s social media branding strategy. Morgan was into video production, before he joined JetBlue’s Corporate Communications department in early 2007.

Heard of Christi Day? She was voted the Employee of the Quarter earlier this year at Southwest Airlines, because of her tremendous efforts in leading the airline’s brand on various social networks. It’s not very often that a personin the PR dept. of an airline gets such a prestigious award.

Heard of Elliott Pesut? He was featured as the Geek of the Week, in one of Seattle’s leading daily this summer. Why? Because he is the “Head Twit” for Alaska Airlines. Elliot is a trained pilot, who was earlier at Flight Operations in Alaska Airlines. He volunteered for this new role, when the opportunity arose.

Why should YOU lead social media branding for your airline?

See a common thread in the stories above? All these people have no background in IT or new web technologies, yet have created an in-formidable stature for themselves in their respective companies. They’re crucial to each airline’s success in engaging their customers, and are most likely to keep their jobs, even in these difficult times.

In June, when Elliot was taking me around Alsaka Airlines’ HQ in Seattle (watch his video interview), I was pleasantly surprised to note that almost everyone knew him (even in different buildings!), people were asking him questions about Twitter and Facebook and what they could do to help him, and congratulating him for his Geek award in the newspaper. I personally have not seen such rockstar-status for anyone under thirty in an airline before.

Morgan, Christi and Elliot have positioned themselves as an asset to their airlines; by leading an effort that airlines want to get into, but are often reluctant due to a lack of proven models, and just the “newness” of the practices. So, how can you help your airline (and become a rockstar in the process)?

Eleven steps to becoming a rockstar by bringing your airline brand on social media

1. Familiarize yourself of what businesses (not just airlines) are doing on social media. A good place to start is Chris Brogan’s article on 50 ideas on Twitter for Business, and the 360i social media playbook.
2. Learn how airlines around the world are using social media to engage their customers. My recent keynote presentation on the topic at the Aviation Outlook Summit in Sydney features over 25 airline examples. You can view it online here.
3. Gather a couple of your colleagues in the airline, who’re interested in doing something in this area. Generally, these people would either be young, forward thinking or open to exploring new ideas. Tell them it’s just a personal effort, with no official backing as yet. They may even not be from your department, and may be people who’re already active on social networks personally.
4. Listen. Get onto a few key social networks and start listening what’s being said about your airline. For a start, use Twitter search, Google blog search and search YouTube. Do this for at least a week.
5. Plan to Engage. Together with your colleague, come up with a mini-plan to engage these people talking about your airline brand online, and list the benefits and risks of doing so. Also include what will engaging them help the airline do.
6. Email the bosses. Depending on how open the communication channels are in your airline, write an email to the highest-ranking executive you feel comfortable writing to, and CC it to the Marketing and Corp. Communications Heads. In the email, seek an appointment with them, and tell them that you’d to share your findings listening to conversations about your airline online, and propose a plan to engage these people.
7. In the presentation tell them you’d like to lead the effort by allocating just an hour a day to this activity, which can be increased over time. Remember to outline the risks + mitigation of this initiative, and key milestones. Make this plan reviewable every 30 days.
8. Establish a presence. Start with the medium where most of your customers are talking about you. If it’s Twitter, start a Twitter account. If it’s on Facebook, start a Fan page for your airline, or start participating on the official one.
9. Get Cracking on the plan. Start engaging the people who’re talking about your brand, by responding to their queries and talking personally about the airline.
10. Announce and track. Work with Corp. Communications to figure out what can you announce first to your online fan-base, before announcing to the traditional media. Make this announcement, and track who re-tweets or forwards your message to their friends. Then, pamper these people with more love in your subsequent conversations.
11. Review the plan every 30 days, see what are the lessons learnt and discuss with the management where to take this next, ultimately as a full-fledged marketing strategy.

There you go! Those are the steps to becoming one of the most valued assets for your airline, and have fun while at it. Airlines like people who take initiative, and take part of the risk the company doesn’t want to take on its own. And this is where you can help. This list is especially useful if your airline is not yet on social media, or doesn’t have a very strong presence.

If you have questions about the process, or would like to seek personal help in making this work, feel free to reach out to me by email: shashank[at]simpliflying[dot]com. Meanwhile, I’d love to hear your thoughts on your efforts in social media in the comments or over on Twitter (@simpliflying)

P.S: Morgan, Elliot, Christy are teaming up at South by Southwest festival early next year, for a panel discussing their stories about being on social media. And I’m moderating! We need your vote: http://bit.ly/OqF9g

• Alaska Airlines’ brand strategy on Twitter, revealed by Elliot Pesut in exclusive interview
• How does JetBlue build a strong digital airline brand?
• “Chris Brogan: If I was an airline CEO.” Exclusive video interview with the social media mogul
• Five Steps to Succeeding as an Airline Customer Service Social Media team
• How can legacy airlines, airports or hotels make an entry into social media? Start from within

In this exclusive interview with SimpliFlying.com, Elliot details the airline’s Twitter strategy, and talks about the unique challenges of his job, as well as Alaska Airlines’ forays into social media and how it’s all about connections, online and offline.

Volcanic rise of @alaskaair on Twitter

Alaska Airlines’ social media efforts got a real boost after a volcanic eruption a couple of months ago, near Ancourage, one of their hubs. The eruption caused unpredictable delays to flights and the airline needed to inform its customers about changes in real-time, as well as sooth nerves. And they turned to Twitter, calming nerves online while updating passengers of their flight status. Don’t you think that is so much better than receiving an insensitive SMS telling you that your flight is cancelled?

Today, Elliot updates followers of which planes each day are wi-fi equipped and seeks their feedback on everything from new destinations to service levels on Alaska Airlines.

The importance of making real-life connections

In June, Elliot helped organize @alaskaair’s first tweet-up, a meeting of the airline’s Twitter followers. The incentive for the attndees was a chance to be part of the aviation geek night, where they would get to experience the airline’s flight simulator. A large variety of people attended, including me, all the way from Singapore. Though, it was the ability to connect with the locals in Seattle-area and Elliot and his team relished the most. Many discussioned turned into informal, impromptu “focus groups” where ideas about the airline were shared openly. In fact, there was even a large sheet of paper we could pen ideas for Alaska Airlines’ future efforts on Twitter.

Personally, I feel that meeting the “faces behind the mask” is as important as conversing with them online. And having regular real-world meetups is crucial to building strong bonds between customers and airlines.

Social media works when it’s a team effort

It’s difficult to imagine just Elliot managing over 9,000 followers Alaska Airlines has on Twitter. Moreover, he may not have the answers to all the questions he gets on Twitter. Hence, he is constantly supported by others in the Corporate Communications dept. and often reaches out to others from customer service and even IT when the need arises. And this support from subject matter experts is what I believe is the backbone of @alaskaair’s success on Twitter.

For these insights and more, I’d like to invite you to watch Elliot’s 10 min interview with SimpliFlying, Enjoy!

• Is Alaska Airlines’ Social Media Execution heading South of Expected?
• Karlis Smiltens – the man behind airBaltic’s rise in social media is the SimpliFlying Hero for August 2010
• Exclusive Interview: How Eurocontrol battled the ashcloud crisis through social media
• What makes Alaska Airlines a lovable airline brand? In conversation with Greg Latimer
• Simpliflying Hero, May 2010: Aurelie Valtat from Eurocontrol

I recently had such a conversation with Greg Latimer, Managing Director of Brand and Product Marketing at Alaska Airlines. He made me believe again, that an airline brand is indeed what it does, not what it says it does.

How does Alaska Airlines build customer loyalty?

When you hear Greg’s thoughts, you know you’re talking to an industry veteran. Alaska Airlines is well known for having very loyal customers, partly due to the rewarding loyalty program that they have, but there are many other factors, as I discovered.

Greg reveals that Alaska Airlines is religious about focusing on its primary brand differentiators, which drive customer loyalty, such as its caring customer service (for which the airline has won numerous awards.) Moreover, since what gets rewarded gets done, employees were rewarded at least $900 each last year, when customer service metrics were met.

Alaska Airlines also involves its customers in being part of the brand - literally. Senior executives are in close touch with the frequent fliers, they have customer panels, and recently even got a student to design a plane’s livery through a “Paint-the-plane” competition! And passengers then return all this love back, by choosing the airline over its competitors.

Alaska Airlines strives to make travel easier (no, really!)

Greg reveals that the airline has been a pioneer in using technology inovatively to make travel easier. They were the first to introduce self-check-in kiosks at the airport, which is a common sight now. Alaska Airlines was also the first to have a “live online travel assistant” named Jen, to help travelers out. Jen still sits pretty on the top-right corner of AlaskaAir.com.

Greg has some amazing gems that he reveals in this interview about airline branding. Enjoy the interview!

Exclusive interview with Alaska Air’s Greg Latimer on airline branding from Shashank Nigam on Vimeo.

• Greg Hounslow is the SimpliFlying Hero for April leading WestJet into the new age of social media
• Southwest Airlines’ success secrets on social media revealed by Paula Berg
• How to keep the airline brands flying high in bad weather?
• Alaska Airlines’ brand strategy on Twitter, revealed by Elliot Pesut in exclusive interview
• [Infographic] How travel brands are using social media to achieve ROI

Thanks to some nifty work by @elliottp from Alaska Airlines, I now have the name of the gentleman in the yellow vest – Mike Chalich, who’s the Seattle Station Supervisor for AS. Kudos to you Mike!

Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kmemav8r/3516916832/

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This picture has a lot of meaning as the guy in the vest just took this over as his project, having tried to leave Seattle three times he knew that tensions were high and he worked like a madman to get us out including checking on baggage on the ramp and even pitching in to help catering finish their jobs.

I believe he was at the airport on a visit from corporate as he was not in uniform and only had security ID that was visible.

How many airlines do you know where an executive rolls up his sleeves, so to speak, to get everyone out as quickly as possible.

On top of that, he had asked every member of our crew if they felt ready to go and comfortable that all had been handled well because of the turn around once the plane was towed to the gate.

Amazing. If only other airlines would follow half of the good that I saw out of what started out as a frustrating mess, I think the flying public would have more respect for most carriers.

Then again, Alaska is an exceptional airline – one of a kind – and the first to help me out when I moved to Seattle and needed advice, contacts, and tips on spotting.

By the way, there is still one more autographed book on Singapore Airlines to be given away, and a 4gb Apple iPod to be won. You too can be a winner, just by re-tweeting a comment from SimpliFlying or leaving a comment on this site. Learn more here.

• United Airlines shows how NOT to “fly the friendly skies”. A very sad incident.
• Join us for an #AvGeek meetup in Seattle on 9/11 at Future of Flight Museum
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• Alaska Airlines’ brand strategy on Twitter, revealed by Elliot Pesut in exclusive interview

To rub salt to the wounds, “Horizon and Alaska Air left customers fuming because they were unable to get through to Alaska or Horizon reservations agents on the phone or on the Web site to rebook travel”, the Seattle Times reported. Under normal circumstances, these services would have worked fine. Unfortunately, Alaska wasn’t the only airline badly affected by the mess, but also others like United Airlines. Though I haven’t heard too many good things about United, Alaska Air has certainly impressed in the past when it came to caring for their passengers. But things like these still happened. So, what can the airlines do to capitalize on externalities like these to actually build their brand further?

Be prepared

In case of inclement weather, passengers should be provided with up to date information (can’t emphasize this more!). Call center staff and website servers should be beefed up in advance. Items essential for the successful operation of a flight must be stocked up – like the de-icing fluids Alaska Air ran out of. It wasn’t that this snow storm came out of nowhere. There was ample warning given to the airlines.

I know, this is easier said than done, but in tough times, the preparedness of an airline must be clearly visible to the customers, in order to prevent a complete depletion of trust. A brand that stands by their customers in tough times commands their loyalty.

Be resilient

The most important factor for building confidence in a brand is the ability of a company to bounce back from a shock. If Alaska Air and others had made alternative arrangements for the passengers to get to their destinations, or at least put them up in hotels for those flying coast-to-coast, some passengers might have been less furious. But this didn’t really happen. Again, the lack of preparedness and advance planning was be visible for all to see and spoke volumes about the management.

It is difficult situations like these, which if handled well, can turn into hidden opportunity for airlines.

Show some empathy

Tempers generally run high during unexpected emergency situations like these, in which no one can do anything about it but sit and wait. This is when the airline staff has a crucial role to play. They will only aggravate the situation further if they simpy react and only go by the book.Simply, they can appear in control if they smile more, as Patrick Hanlon recommends.

There is a need for the staff to put themselves in the passengers’ shoes and comfort them a little. If it takes bending the rules a little, so be it. The goodwill generated will go a long way in building brand loyalty. Most importantly, airlines should empower the employees to take decisions on their own to a certain extent, when the situation demands it.

Stop being a faceless airline, add some personality

Rohit Bhargava mentions in his new book, “Personality not included“, that it’s very easy to get angry at and attack a faceless corporation. But once you add personality to the brand, people see the individuals behind the company and tend to empathize with them. After all, suddenly the company is more human, and humans make mistakes.

A prime example of an airline that has done a great job at this is JetBlue Airways. Having faced with a much worse crisis in Feb 2007, David Neelman, the then CEO, posted an apology on the blog for the massive delays caused due to severe weather in New York. At the end of the day, JetBlue’s efforts resonated well with customers, who lauded the personal touches from an airline.

Response to externalities is a crucial, but often overlooked, strategy that can be utilized by airlines to win the hearts and minds of their passengers. Do you have any instances to share when an airline dealt with an emergency in a professional manner and totally impressed you? How could the airlines have dealt with this particular situation better? Let’s discuss in the comments section.

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