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 …

Over on Twitter, I was alerted to a letter published in Business Traveller Magazine where a customer had sent in a legitimate complaint letter to United Airlines, sharing his experience of poor service in Business Class and suggested that more investments be made into customer service training.

It was great that United Airlines actually responded to the letter in the magazine itself. And that’s where the positives ended. Of the five key points raised by the customer, only one was directly addressed. In fact, the response went on to totally digress from the topic and talked more about the airline’s new premium cabins, and not customer service. That got me thinking, it’s probably not just the cabin crew at United who needs lessons in customer service, but even folks from Corp. Comms.

This is very ironic, because just a couple of weeks ago, at the Loyalty 2010 event, while having lunch with Robert Sahadevan, United’s VP of Loyalty, I was very impressed by the focus they have on their frequent fliers and premium passengers. Hence, this response was disappointing, to say the least.

I thought I’d do my bit here for United (and help other airlines too, …

It’s the long weekend in many countries. Canada, US, most of Asia-Pacific are on a holiday. Yet, it’s very nice to see that airlines are listening. Chris Brogan tweeted today that he’d pay JetBlue $7,200 for one year of unlimited flying “pass”. And @JetBlue immediately replied that they’re “listening”.     Somewhere else on Twitterland, Christi Day of Southwest Airlines was dealing with an outburst from @TheKevinSmith, on Valentine’s Day eve, which finally involved Southwest’s VP calling Smith personally. Though these may seem like normal twitter conversations, to me they reflect a paradigm shift in the way airlines have started to deal with their customers. It wasn’t too long ago, where I had to print out and post a letter to an airline for a missed-connection claim, because their email inbox was full! And the matter took over 5mths to get resolved (in the end, I didn’t get my $$). JetBlue and …

Think about this. You’re being helped by a very courteous flight attendant on your flight from New York to Mumbai, via Hong Kong. But there’s no way that you’re ever going to meet her again. You want to know her better, but there’s just no way. Or how about that Customer Service Rep who was so helpful over the phone in helping you change your flights? Again, he was no more than just a voice.

That’s partly because airlines have acted like faceless organizations all this while. You seldom get to interact with the people behind the brand. And that’s exactly what Cathay Pacific has tried to overcome, with their micro-site showcasing its people.

Meet the people – in a different light
On the people site, you can get to know better not only Cathay’s customer-facing staff like the Pursers or the Customer Service officer at the airport, you can learn just as much about the cargo handlers and the aircraft dispatchers. The flash-based interactive website literally has people “flying around” and once you click on them, you encounter two …

Last week, I attended a very refreshing workshop on customer service in Singapore. Ron Kaufman, one of the best-known customer service coaches in the region, led it. I found his ideas on how front-line staff should deal with customers immediately applicable to the airline world.

Inspired from Ron’s workshop, I’ve taken three of the best lessons from him and suggested here how airlines can use these to drive brand loyalty.
Do something unbelievable
In Ron’s words, delivering unbelievable customer service comes above delivering an expected or desirable customer service. Seth Godin would call this the “Purple Cow Effect”. It’s about doing something that’s customers don’t expect, in turn getting them to talk about to with their friends.

A very good example of this is the now-famous rapping flight attendant from Southwest Airlines. He did something mundane – reading out pre-fight safety instructions – in an unbelievable way. And not only was this much appreciated by those on the flight, but the word spread and this rapping flight attendant was a huge hit on YouTube. He even made it to Oprah! That’s the power of unbelievable.
There is such a thing as karma – …

In my recent brand review of Qatar Airways’ Business and First Class, I mentioned that the X-Factor in the whole experience was actually on the ground – their exclusive terminal for premium passengers in transit.

I experienced similar feelings last Friday, as I was given a private tour of JetBlue Airways’ swanky new Terminal 5 (old TWA terminal) at JFK airport in New York. Given the large proportion of time travelers spend in terminals these days, especially for short-haul flights, what JetBlue has created at JFK can be a game-changer. And here are three reasons why I feel it can do wonders for the already well-loved airline brand that is JetBlue.

1. It didn’t feel like a traditional US airport (at all!)
As  you walk in to T5, the first thing that strikes you the feeling of space – lots of it. That’s created by the high ceilings and tons of natural light coming through the glass panes. Moreover, there’s soft music playing at T5 (reminded my of Singapore …

Image by xrrr via Flickr

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I read one of the most shocking emails I’ve come across in the recent past concerning airline staffs’ adherence to rules. This was a story published on The Consumerist a couple of hours back. In this case, Mike was trying to rush his girlfriend to Portland, Oregon, from San Francisco, on United Airlines, so that she could be at her dying mother’s bedside. But they missed the flight because “it was time for [the ticketing agent] to go on her break.”
Is company policy more important than life?
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I know employees at United Airlines are unionized, and they have strict guidelines as to when they can work and when they need to take a break. But I wonder why this agent couldn’t issue the tickets, which took two minutes, as opposed to arguing with Mike for ten minutes justifying her break.
It’s the brand execution that matters
I’ve written about United Airlines eliminating their only call center, I’ve written …

Image via Wikipedia

In a startling revelation today, United Airlines announced that it’s closed down it’s sole customer service call center in India. This means that customers will no longer be able to call in to send feedback (positive or negative), as all comments have now got to go through the post (whoever writes those today!?) or in an email.

“Along with the decision to end its association with a third-party contractor in India, United will shut down its current customer relations telephone line and advise customers to write or e-mail feedback about their travel experience.” – BusinessWeek

The only positive I see coming out of this is some consulting offers for Oliver Beale, of the Virgin Atlantic fame, to help write some letters that have an impact. Cutting 165 jobs in India might save some money for United, but the long term damage of not giving customers a way to interact Live with a person from the airline …

Image via Wikipedia
This is a touching letter, from a flight attendant’s perspective, which was first published on Airliners.net. We felt compelled to share it.
To the Flying Public: We’re sorry
We’re sorry we have no pillows.
We’re sorry we’re out of blankets.
We’re sorry the airplane is too cold.
We’re sorry the airplane is too hot.
0AWe’re sorry the overhead bins are full.
We’re sorry we have no closet space for your oversized bag.
We’re sorry that’s not the seat you wanted.
We’re sorry there’s a restless toddler/overweight/offensive smelling passenger seated next to you.
We’re sorry the plane is full and there are no other seats available.
We’re sorry you didn’t get your upgrade.
We’re sorry that guy makes you uncomfortable because he “looks like a terrorist”.
We’re sorry there’s a thunderstorm and we can’t take off.
We’re sorry we don’t know when it will stop.
We’re sorry you’re crammed into a space so small that if you were an animal PETA would protest.
We’re sorry our plane has no music or video entertainment for your 3 hour flight.
We’re sorry we ran out of your favorite soda.
We’re sorry there are no more sandwiches.
We’re sorry that Budweiser costs $6.
We’re sorry we don’t have diapers for your baby.
We’re sorry we don’t have milk for same baby.
We’re sorry you can’t hang out by the cockpit door waiting to use the bathroom.
We’re sorry you can’t hang out at the back of the airplane.
We’re sorry you have to sit down and fasten your seatbelt.
We’re sorry you have to put your seat up for landing.
We’re sorry we don’t know when we’re going to land.
We’re sorry we don’t know whether your plane to (substitute any city in the world) will be waiting for you when we land.
We’re sorry we’ve been diverted because we ran out of gas waiting to land.
We’re sorry for these and so many other things that we have absolutely no control over but which we are held accountable for EVERY SINGLE DAY.

Please understand. Flight attendants are not the enemy. We share your space. More than anyone – we want to have a nice, pleasant travel experience.