However, now, in a uniquely new initiative, Lufthansa Cargo has launched a new contest inviting people to use their imagination and present their “Green Solutions” and ideas for “Add-On Services” to help reduce the cargo company’s environmental impact and improve their services.

The initiative is unique because this is the first time a cargo carrier is entering the fray of social media to crowdsource ideas. Second, it has to be admitted that, if implemented, some of these solutions could not just pave the path for a greener planet but also for a huge change in the industry per se.

Great initiative, great ideas

The contest is open to anyone in the world and all entries are posted online in an open forum where people can review and comment. According to Lufthansa Cargo, proposals can cover any aspect within the Lufthansa Air Cargo Supply Chain (Sales, Handling, Transport,Customer Service) that fall within the categories of Green Solutions and/or Add-On Services. The exciting part for those who enter their proposals is the ability to receive feedback and exposure from people all over the world.

Already, a number of great entries have been received (I’m told around 100 ideas have been submitted), of which I’m highlighting some that struck me particularly:

Roof Farming: The roofs considered to belong to Lufthansa Cargo AG are mainly flat with much unused space. Add solar collectors, receive environmentally friendly produced energy and potentially use leftover organic material for a biogas plant.

Green Cargo: Reduce CO2 emissions and fuel usage by operating planes at higher capacity and by reducing number of flights. By booking GreenCargo customers accept a larger flexibility regarding shipping time of their goods and products.

Track your package: When a customer pays a shipment with their Miles and More credit card, a part of the credit card number could be used to track the shipments. One Miles and More mile could be awarded for every 10 Miles/1 kg of the shipment.

To crowdsource or not to crowdsource?

Mostly, the answer would be yes. (I say “mostly” because you only need to go a little back in time to the #QantasLuxury fiasco to understand how crowdsourcing could potentially backfire if the timing isn’t right.) There are a number of reasons why crowdsourcing is such an attractive option when done right. The rewards gained from the process itself can be quite significant. Here’s why I think crowdsourcing done well is a good idea:

1. It helps in building brand engagement since customers feel that the airline is willing to listen to them.
2. It can provide great rewards for the airline itself if it’s looking for creative solutions since there is the potential to harness the power of innumerable minds.
3. A feel-good viral initiative can create a great amount of buzz and goodwill for the airline.
4. It can extend the brand’s power to even those who aren’t existing customers and get them interested in flying the airline.
5. If the initiative is directly related to some in-flight service/product offering, the chances are that a generous amount of revenue could be generated since customers would feel that the airline is offering something in which they were “involved”.
6. Since a certain amount of active dialogue would generally be involved between the customers and the airline, often airline’s can clarify doubts or alleviate concerns about why they offer or don’t offer certain services.

As far as I see it, this initiative looks primed for great success due to its inherently feel-good nature and the excellent response from numerous people worldwide (many of whom, I’m guessing, are not Lufthansa customers).

Lufthansa Cargo says that it will award three winners with a trip to Frankfurt, Germany where they will get to present their proposals to engineers and management and disuss how their ideas may be implemented.  Winners will also receive flight training with a Lufthansa Cargo Flight Captain and up to 25,000 Miles and More Miles. If nothing else, it’s bound to be a great job exposure and training opportunity.

Here’s hoping at least a few of these great ideas become reality really soon!

Note: The contest is open till December 19th 2011. Entries can be submitted here.

Tell us what you think about this initiative in the comments below or tweet us @simpliflying.

• “Crowdbranding”: The Top 10 Crowdsourcing initiatives by Airlines
• Lufthansa shares love with their 100,000 Facebook fans by giving miles
• Does the latest social media application by Lufthansa have wings? 10 things I would do to ensure MySkyStatus flies
• For bringing us MySkyStatus and Cloudstream, the SimpliFlying Hero for July 2011 is Lufthansa’s Alison Russo
• A revamped SimpliFlying Heroes initiative – Vote for the Jan 2012 Hero now!

The future is mobile

Given the rapidly changing interactional/behavioural habits of the traveler, it has become important for airlines to target them where they can be found. Close your eyes and think for a moment about what the word mobile phone means to you: I’m quite certain that most of the readers here will at once think of an iPhone, Android phone, Blackberry or a similar device. It seems that the growth of social media – Facebook and Twitter primarily – as a valuable engagement tool to drive business goals has only helped create a more complex landscape. The growth of iOS and Android (especially iOS which is not just available on phones but on iPods and iPads as well), coupled with the ability to create custom apps to target customers and offer them value-added services right on their cellphones has changed the way airlines are thinking about customer engagement and driving revenue, customer service etc. In the past we’ve illustrated how mobile has been an important part of various airline initiatives in the social era: travel distribution, social loyalty and location-based-service initiatives. However, this case-pack deals purely with how airlines have specifically created mobile apps (in particular, on the iPhone and iPad) to engage customers while driving revenue and customer service as well.

Before we move on to the case-pack, here is a checklist of ways in which airlines have tried to differentiate their apps while offering value to their customers:

1. Booking: Some airlines, such as Turkish Airlines, have made it ridiculously easy to book tickets from within the apps in a crazily small amount of time. Customers love it of course: the easier and quicker you make the booking process, the more likelihood that the sale will be completed.
2. Convenience: British Airways allows boarding by flashing the QR code powered boarding passes that can be shown directly from an iPhone. Way to go paperless!
3. Travel inspiration: Lufthansa and KLM have created apps that are excellent at making the users of their apps drool at the prospect of travelling to delicious destinations on these airlines.
4. Complimentary travel services: A number of airline apps now allow customers to rent a car, know the weather and do more at their destination that is not strictly airline-related.
5. Augmented reality: A new player but one with huge scope for engaging the customers who’re usually more than happy (and mostly fascinated) to use the service for things such as navigating an airport or finding places to redeem loyalty points (Qantas).

That’s it, for now! Enjoy the case-studies!

Do let us know what you think of this Top 10 case-pack. Comments, suggestions, brickbats are all welcome in the comments section below. Alternately, you can tweet us @simpliflying.

• Top 10 Travel Distribution Initiatives by Airlines: Reinventing the booking cycle to drive revenue (from #eftamerica)
• The Always Connected Traveler – how mobile will transform the future of travel [Infographic]
• The Top 10 Viral Videos by Airlines (plus bonus videos)
• [Infographic] How mobile is re-shaping travel distribution (gasp!)
• Customer Service 2.0: Top 10 Airlines and Airports performing Customer Service through Social Media

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 coordinator of social media marketing at Lufthansa’s USA office, Alison Russo has been a key player in the launch of both these products, along with Lufthansa’s success on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms. It was not surprising, therefore, when she won comprehensively in our SimpliFlying Hero Poll for July 2011 with almost 60% of the votes.

Well-planned beginnings

Much of Alison’s (and Lufthansa’s) success can probably be attributed to the great amount of time and planning that is put in by the team at every turn. Right off the bat, when Lufthansa first started its social media journey, it realized that it was important to define a set of clear goals for each platform and each country. After that it was important to find the right people to ensure that those goals were met. Every step of the way, the idea was to leave as little as possible to chance.

Indeed, Alison believes that although social media might appear to be a godsend, in that it moves at supersonic speeds, engages customers like never before, and requires little financial investment. However, it does require a significant time investment. This time is needed to find a niche, develop a solid strategy, and come up with useful products. It is also needed to build the right support team, to learn your customers’ needs, to build relationships with your advocates, and to build a voice. As you can see, the list is not short.

Take Off

Lufthansa’s first foray into social media in the US was with an official Lurker in a FlyerTalk forum, which was then succeeded by a concurrent launch of its official Twitter stream and MySkyStatus. Lufthansa’s social media objectives then (and now) were an extension of their existing marketing objectives, namely, to establish a brand presence in the US market, build customer loyalty, convert customers to brand advocates, and to help customers become better connected travelers.

But, you may ask, how did Lufthansa come up with MySkyStatus, and later Cloudstream, when other competitors were focusing on achieving their objectives through the regular Twitter and Facebook paths? For Lufthansa, customer engagement, above all, has been the main priority from the beginning. In fact, Lufthansa aims to be the Most Linked Airline Brand. This is because, according to a research driven initiative by Miles & More International, customer engagement is a primary objective for customer retention.

As such, Lufthansa found MySkyStatus and Cloudstream to be excellent opportunities to engage (and retain) their customers. In fact, both products are measured not according to the revenue they earn (they are free), but rather on customer engagement metrics such as the time spent on the product, the number of returning vs. new customers, profile creation, sharing activity, and how and why customers use these products.

Lessons learnt

Today, one can undoubtedly say that Lufthansa’s customer-centric social media strategy has been a roaring success. In the course of their journey so far, there have been pitfalls and many lessons along with them. Above all, Alison has learned that there is no one size fits all strategy for an international organization like Lufthansa. Every organization communicates and engages with its customer base differently, which is why it is important for any social media team to stick to its strategy once it is defined, regardless of what its competitors are doing.

Alison also acknowledges that SimpliFlying has been a great resource and learning ground for the “best practices, guidance and insights into the ever changing social media landscape”.

A Look Ahead

In the future, Lufthansa plans on looking deeper into how social media activities can be translated into sales, while keeping its core objectives unchanged. As Alison puts it:

“While it [social media marketing] differs from traditional marketing in how we present our product to customers, can we, within the framework of social networks and via social currency, influence purchasing decisions and generate revenue?”

That is the central question that Lufthansa will continue to contend with into the future, while keeping an open-minded approach to the rapidly evolving social media sphere.

SimpliFlying hopes that Lufthansa will continue to enjoy success in its ventures into the future, and congratulates Alison once again for winning the SimpliFlying Hero award.

Know someone who’s worthy of being a SimpliFlying Hero?

Simpliflying Heroes are individuals recognized for outstanding social media use in the world of aviation. Do you know of somebody who uses social media effectively in their airline or airport to achieve specific business results? Or do you think you fit the bill?

Then go ahead and fill up the SimpliFlying Heroes nomination form. By filling out the nomination form, you bring them a step closer to being recognized by SimpliFlying for their efforts.

• Lufthansa’s CloudStream carry-on solution allows you to read SimpliFlying in-flight
• [Slides] Social Media Strategy for Lufthansa – how a legacy airline built a strong customer engagement model
• Lufthansa shares love with their 100,000 Facebook fans by giving miles
• Vote for the SimpliFlying Hero for July 2011 – Virgin America vs Lufthansa USA vs Cathay Pacific
• Does the latest social media application by Lufthansa have wings? 10 things I would do to ensure MySkyStatus flies

Hence, from July 2011 onwards, you will be able to vote for the SimpliFlying Hero each month, from three nominees we put together (or you suggest). Additionally, we have decided that all SimpliFlying Heroes deserve a six month free membership to SimpliFlying Tribes, as opposed to the current one month. And that’s in addition to all the fame and the coveted certificate.

So without much further ado, please allow me to reveal the SimpliFlying Heroes nominees for July 2011 (…drumroll…): Jill Fletcher from Virgin America, Alison Russo from Lufthansa USA and Ali Bullock from Cathay Pacific.

Here’s a brief description of each of the nominee’s work at their respective airlines.

Jill Fletcher, Virgin America

Virgin America has been on the cutting edge of experimenting with social media and customer engagement this year. For example, passengers who are flying on Virgin America between the airline’s home airport in San Francisco and either Boston, Chicago O’Hare or Dallas airports between July 1 and September 30 will be able to check out a Google Chrome book at their gates. During their flights, they can test it using a free in-air WiFi pass.

Prior to that, the airline used Squabbler to create a viral video competition for their ads, they named a plane with a Twitter hashtag, partnered with Foursquare for an in-flight game, and ran several promotions that trade check-ins on location-based services for rewards like plane tickets and frequent flyer points. The best part is that the customer service they provide through social media, with a limited staff has given them a 96% positive sentiment online!

And Jill Fletcher has been part of the core team of two, leading the day-to-day engagement from the front.

Alison Russo, Lufthansa USA

While Lufthansa globally has been doing a great job engaging customers, the team in the US has been more adventurous and achieved great results too. They did a brilliant job with the A380 launch flights to JFK recently. And the real claim to fame are the two key projects launched by the team – MySkyStatus last year and Cloudstream, earlier this year.

The daily engagement on social media is handled by Alison, who does a great job for managing social media at a legacy airline, which can often be a challenge given the organizational structures.

Ali Bullock, Cathay Pacific

Cathay Pacific Airways has been the leading legacy airline in Asia engaging customers proactively, and effectively too. They’ve left other worthy competitors like Singapore Airlines, Emirates and Qantas light years behind in their efforts on social media. And one of the key players leading the charge from Day 1 is Ali Bullock.

Ali was instrumental in creating “Meet the Team” campaign where you can interact online with Cathay Pacific’s crew and learn more about them. He and his team also created the “Art of the Dessert” contest, which crowd-sourced the best recipes online. And in the last Airlines on Twitter report, Cathay Pacific was rated as having the best food reviews on Twitter!

Among other efforts like the Rugby Seven’s competition, the most impressive had been the launch of the new Business Class, where almost 3000 bloggers from around the world were flown in the Hong Kong to witness the unveiling and try out the product!

So, what’re you waiting for? Vote now for your favorite!

Know someone who’s worthy of being a SimpliFlying Hero?

Simpliflying Heroes are individuals recognized for outstanding social media use in the world of aviation. Do you know of somebody who uses social media effectively in their airline or airport to achieve specific business results? Or do you think you fit the bill?

Then go ahead and nominate someone by emailing us at heroes [at] simpliflying [dot] come. You can bring them a step closer to being recognized by SimpliFlying for their efforts.

• For bringing us MySkyStatus and Cloudstream, the SimpliFlying Hero for July 2011 is Lufthansa’s Alison Russo
• A revamped SimpliFlying Heroes initiative – Vote for the Jan 2012 Hero now!
• For leading KLM into social media, Lonneke Verbiezen is the SimpliFlying Hero for Feb 2011
• Karlis Smiltens – the man behind airBaltic’s rise in social media is the SimpliFlying Hero for August 2010
• Vote for the SimpliFlying Hero of February 2011 – Finnair vs Delta Air Lines vs Malaysia Airlines

For now, let’s discuss the merits and pitfalls of such offers, with Lufthansa Brazil as a case study.

A word of caution about group-buying for airlines…

1. Marketing costs. Typically, to sell on a site like GroupOn, a minimum of 50% discount it required. Additionally, the site itself takes a commission that typically goes up to 50% of the sale price. That means for a $1000 ticket, the airline would only get $250. And $750 is the cost of marketing, which is steep by most standards.
2. Revenue management troubles. Group-selling sites require a specific quantity to be sold at a certain price. Many of the revenue management systems airlines use aren’t well suited to this – a new fare category might need to be created and the push-back from RM to Marketing can often be strong.
3. Fulfillment in doubt – A lot of sales that happen on group-selling sites are impulse sales – that means people buy the tickets based on price, whether or not they intend to travel. And this results in a higher than usual no-show numbers for airlines, since the opportunity cost is low. And because the travel period is spread over a few months, it’s difficult to predict when passengers might not turn up.

Despite these hurdles, a number of airlines have tried selling on group-selling sites, and one of the more successful efforts has been by Lufthansa Brazil, whose case study I’d like to share here.

How Lufthansa Brazil sold successfully on GroupOn…

Lufthansa’s very first group buying site action, worldwide was led by the Brazil office. In Brazil, Lufthansa is the only “international” airline to have done an action with a group buying site. And here’s a screenshot of their offer.

1. Discount on a voucher, not on a ticket..

In essence, Lufthansa (LH) Brazil issued several discount vouchers (value: BRL 170 – roughly US$105) to be used by customers directly on Lufthansa.com at the time of the ticket purchase. The voucher would only be used on Lufthansa.com and each customer received a “discount code” on the voucher which would be inserted in a special field on the website and the ticket price recalculated.

This way, Lufthansa solved the Revenue Management problem – there was no special fare category required. A simple discount code could be used at the time of payment. This kept things very simple.

2. Voucher validity and other conditions

Additionally, the discount could be applied to any LH operated flight originating in Brazil. Tickets had to be purchased by 31 May, 2011 and the the flight must be taken by August 31st.

Lufthansa ensured that the discount vouchers would be used by a certain date, and the flight taken in possibly lean times, as opposed to peak holiday periods in December.

3. Cost of Marketing

Interestingly, instead of keeping only 50% of sale price, Groupon sold the vouchers for BRL 20 and they kept all the revenues. That means while Lufthansa didn’t give out or receive any cash and only issued the vouchers, the cost of marketing was essentially BRL170 per voucher.

While that might sound counter intuitive, since it’s cost a lot, it turns out that Lufthansa Brazil chose to do the action with Groupon much more for the brand exposure than to use it as a sales tool.

What results did Lufthansa Brazil achieve with GroupOn?

1. Brand Awareness – exposure to over 10 million Brazilians!

The Lufthansa Brazil offer was Groupon’s “offer of the day” and the “national offer”, meaning that in addition to being displayed on Groupon’s homepage, the brand was sent out to roughly 10 million subscribers via e-newsletter and made available via Twitter to approximately 55,000 followers. And that’s pretty significant for a regional office of an airline.

2. Double the number of expected vouchers sold

GroupOn sold 423 coupons on this deal, as opposed to Lufthansa’s initial target of 200. While that’s good, it also amounts to over US$300,000 in revenue when these 423 coupons are redeemed – assuming an average Economy class fare out of Brazil at US$700.

Now, the cost of sale for Lufthansa worked out to about 15% – given each ticket would be discounted by $105. That’s actually quite a good ROI for driving the revenue we’ve discussed, and the exposure also can’t be ignored. Moreover, the website hits from Brazil were almost 8X the normal traffic, on the day of the deal and a few days following it.

And this was achieved without any outbound communication from Lufthansa Brazil, other than tweets from their local @Lufthansa_BR account and retweet the messages from Groupon.

Due to these reasons, the action was deemed a huge success and Lufthansa is likely to repeat the deal in other countries.

So, when should airlines use group-buying sites?

1. When driving brand awareness is a need – like during the launch of a new route. For example, I’d expect Singapore Airlines to run a GroupOn deal in Brazil to bolster their service to Sao Paolo, but not so much in Singapore.
2. When they have a lot of ancillary items to cross-sell and up-sell, where they can still make the numbers despite heavy discounting on the ticket price. This would work very well for budget carriers, which sell a number of ancillary services, in addition to the seat itself.
3. Little or no cash outflow involved – Like Lufthansa Brazil did, it’s important to keep costs as low as possible

What are your thoughts about group-buying sites? Do you have stories to share? Let’s hear them in the comments and over on Twitter. And for a more in-depth analysis and lots of case studies to learn from, be sure to attend our webinar on this topic.

Special thanks to Marcelo De Biasi, Rodrigo Erthal and Flavio Amancio from Lufthansa Brazil for sharing their lessons from this campaign.

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If you recall, the Lufthansa USA Marketing team has been behind some significant efforts in the past year, like Cloudstream – the digital carry on, and MySkyStatus – which updates your social status real-time, as you’re flying!

The presentation was made by Nicola Lange, the airline’s marketing head honcho for the Americas. Yes, it’s the same Nicola, who famously invited the guy who lost the iPhone4 prototype on a free Lufthansa flight to have beer in Germany! (Yes, Germans have a good sense of humor too

After her presentation, I had a chat with her, about the impressive work her team has put in, bringing a legacy airline into the brave new world of social media. And she kindly agreed to allow me to publish her presentation from the conference SimpliFlying readers. As you’ll see, there are a number of gems of wisdom in this presentation that will be useful in helping you craft your social media and customer engagement strategy. One such screenshot is highlighted below, and the full presentation is embedded in this article as well.

I’m sure you’d have learnt a lot of things from this presentation by Lufthansa. What’re some of your tips/lessons learnt by implementing social media in your organization? Let’s hear it in the Comments or over on Twitter!

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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 the plane to their liking.

Welcome to the A380!

The Airbus A380 is a double decker plane with the 2^nd floor spanning the entire length of the plane. The two passenger decks have a total area the same as three tennis courts! Economy class is on the bottom floor and Business/First Class is on the 2^nd floor. It seats 526 passengers (420 in economy), which is 40% more than a Boeing 747. Overall, here are a few of the features of the plane that make it the incredible plane that it is:

• Reduced noise foot print
• Lowest fuel burn per seat (20% less than Boeing 747-400)
• Overall improved comfort level
• 3 in-flight cameras, including a front facing view from the top of the plane, a rear view, and a view looking straight down. (This greatly enhanced my experience during takeoff and landing, particularly because I was in the middle section so wasn’t able to see out the windows.)

Here’s a look at each seating class

Economy Class

The one feature that stands out in Economy is “living space”, which includes not only the seat pitch, but the overall room and legroom the passenger feels. The seats were very comfortable, and reclined significantly more than other Economy seats I’ve felt, which is important on a long flight. Each seat also has an individual TV with movies, games and TV shows. The Economy Class level is designed with multiple partitions, giving the feeling of a smaller plane, although it seats 420 passengers.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Business Class

Not only did I receive a tour of the Business Class section while the plane was in the hangar, but I was lucky enough to be seated in this section for the flight from Frankfurt to JFK. What stood out to me in this class, was the superior service and attention I received from the flight attendants. In addition, the seats reclined fully into flat beds (although with an 8% pitch, which I found slightly uncomfortable), and included a massager, which I loved.

The menu, prepared by chef David Burke, was definitely not your typical “airline food”. Appetizers included fresh shrimp or a caesar salad, and entrees included chicken or a red snapper. For dessert, I had “cheesecake lollipops”. Yum! The only negative thing I noticed which was not even to do with the plane, was the lack of water bottles, which is important on a long flight to prevent dehydration.

Each seat had access to a private TV, power outlet and a USB port, although wireless internet is not yet available.

Click here to view the embedded video.

First Class

The First Class cabin seats just 8 passengers. Overall, it seems their goal is to make the passenger feel like they’re not on a plane. The walls are light brown suede and the seats are real leather. There are no overhead bins, instead, the passengers stow their belongings in personal closets. The floors are specially insulated for noise control. One of the features that differs from the Emirates A380 is how Lufthansa handles privacy. On the Emirates A380, seats are enclosed in private rooms, whereas, Lufthansa felt it was important for passengers to be able to choose the level of privacy they prefer throughout the flight. While working on your computer, your screen can be down. When you’re sleeping, a screen ascends between the two seats and partially around your seat.

The First Class cabin also has noise control built in. From the extra insulated floor, to the sound insulation curtain separating it from Business Class, and sound insulation in the fuselage. The other unique feature is the humidity level control – first of its kind in an aircraft– has a significant impact on how tired you feel after a flight. Normally humidity levels in First Class are 5-8%, but on this flight, it’s increased to 22-25%.

The washrooms are more “room” than “wash” to me. Not only was the design beautiful, but a changing room was built-in, giving lots of space to change. There are also urinals, which apparently is a nice feature – and also a first on commercial aircraft!

With a First Class ticket, you are entitled to use the First Class Terminal at the Frankfurt airport. Lufthansa is the only airline with this service, which offers service from security check-in to boarding, including private bedrooms, offices, showers, spa services, a dining room and a cigar lounge.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Takeoff and Landing

Landing was not as smooth as I had heard it would be, but I suspect that was due to the weather when we were arriving. Takeoff felt very smooth, especially given the size of the plane.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Here are my photos from the trip:

Photos from Day 1 (hangar tour, dinner, first class terminal)

Photos from Day 2 (the flight and ceremony at JFK)

Overall, this is an incredible plane – I recommend flying on it if you have the opportunity to! I’ve lost my A380 virginity. Have you?

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Once again, we’ve been fortunate enough to be on the inaugural flight of an A380 to New York. Almost two and a half years ago, we brought to you the first Emirates A380 flight Live, and over the next couple of days, we will share the experience aboard the Business Class on Lufthansa’s first A380 flight to the US.

On Monday, February 28th Lufthansa’s A380 will make its inaugural flight from Frankfurt to JFK, landing around 2pm EST. Rachel Levy (@bostonmarketer), who’s been an integral part of the SimpliFlying team over the last year, will be sharing her experiences on Twitter and here. We have also created a Twitter list of all those on the inaugural flight, and you can follow them here.

Photos being uploaded from Lufthansa A380 inaugural flight proceedings by SimpliFlying Associate, Rachel Levy

Photos being uploaded from Lufthansa A380 inaugural flight proceedings by SimpliFlying Associate, Steven Frischling

If you’re not already doing so, do follow us on Twitter (@simpliflying) for the latest updates, photos and videos from the inaugural flight. You can also follow the #LHA380 Twitter hashtag.

Very exciting times!

• Lufthansa Airbus A380 from Frankfurt to JFK inaugural flight: The Best aircraft, Best Airline, to the Best City?
• Ambush marketing comes to airlines: Germanwings takes over ITB Berlin using Facebook Places
• Emirates A380 inaugural flight to JFK. Live coverage on August 1, 2008.
• What makes Lufthansa a successful airline brand in India?
• Lufthansa shares love with their 100,000 Facebook fans by giving miles

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. This is where Lufthansa’s team selects leading online content sources. I believe this would keep an element of surprise going, and keep people coming back.

I also like that while the service is created by Lufthansa for its customers, anyone can use it on any airline, as long as they have access to wifi anytime before their flight. This reflects well on Lufthansa’s social media strategy to add value first, then seek favors. Just like it did with MySkyStatus.

Lufthansa treads its own path on social media

One of the key reasons Lufthansa won the SimpliFlying Award for the Best Social Media Engagement campaign, for MySkyStatus, was because it was truly value adding. There was no direct selling of tickets and no hard-sell of joining any contests.

Under the leadership of Dr Torsten Wingenter, Lufthansa has been busy lately, creating a slew of social media initiatives, which simply add value to travelers. Evidence is clearly visible from initiatives in the last few months, including the Stephen Fry-endorsed Virtual Pilot game and the Munich Oktoberfest Foursquare promotion, where over 2300 badges were unlocked.

I believe this is a distinctive social media strategy, which is creating a unique brand positioning for Lufthansa when it comes to interacting with travelers using tools they are already familiar with. I will be keenly observing what’s next for Lufthansa, and we’ll be sure to talk about it here too.

For now, it will be interesting to see how people using wifi on Virgin America and other airlines adapt to the CloudStream service. I’ll be sure to give it a shot on my next flight. Would you?

• [Slides] Social Media Strategy for Lufthansa – how a legacy airline built a strong customer engagement model
• For bringing us MySkyStatus and Cloudstream, the SimpliFlying Hero for July 2011 is Lufthansa’s Alison Russo
• Lufthansa A380 First Flight to New York JFK: LIVE coverage from brand new Business Class
• Lufthansa shares love with their 100,000 Facebook fans by giving miles
• What makes Lufthansa a successful airline brand in India?