Most social media and aviation geeks would have heard of or even used MySkyStatus and Cloudstream, two applications brought to travelers by Lufthansa. MySkyStatus instantly sends updates to your Twitter and Facebook accounts to indicate your departure, location, and arrival information. Cloudstream allows a traveler to “pack” articles, videos, and other entertainment into a digital carry-on that can be perused later on the flight, even without an internet connection. The best part about both these applications is that they are completely free of charge.

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 …

As many of you are aware, I recently did the opening keynote on driving social ROI for airlines, at the Social Media in Travel Summit in San Francisco. I was honored to share the stage with some well-respected travel brands, like TripAdvisor, Google Travel and IHG. Though, the highlight of the conference for me were the presentations by KLM (remember Lonneke?) and the one discussion the social media of Lufthansa USA.

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 …

On social media, it is just as important to give love, as it is to seek out favors from fans. After winning the SimpliFlying Best Social Media Campaign award last week in London, for their MySkyStatus tool, Lufthansa has now reached 100,000 Facebook fans. And to thank them for their love, Lufthansa is giving away 100,000 miles to 10 of their fans! Sweeet!
Too often, airlines get sucked into just asking more and more from their fans, without stopping to give back. And what better timing, than the Thanksgiving period (it’s the Canadian one today, US one in a couple of weeks).
I’m sure this will drive engagement not just one the social media front for Lufthansa, but also spur activity on the Miles and More program, and not just for the winners.
Bloody brilliant!

So, what do you think about Lufthansa’s effort? Serious social business, or hot air? Let’s discuss in comments, and over on Twitter

Special thanks to Khoa, one of my most respected aviation geeks, for this tip-off. …

After 12,000 votes in just over a week were received, the top 3 most voted airlines made their presentations to the panel of judges before the winners were decided, for the inaugural SimpliFlying Awards in Social Media Excellence for airlines.

These presentations were made at the SimpliFlying-Airline Business ‘Social media for the aviation industry‘ conference held in London on Oct 1, 2010. You can view all the Live activity from the conference here.
Categories and winners

Best Social Media Campaign - Lufthansa’s “innovative” MySkyStatus
Best Use of Social Media for Crisis Management - SAS Scandinavian Airlines - for communication during the #ashcloud chaos
Best Use of Social Media to drive Revenue - Malaysia Airlines’ 72 Hours Merdeka promotion
Simplyflying Hero of the Year - Aurelie Valtat, Eurocontrol’s online communications manager for her social media management of the ashcloud chaos to the aviation industry

View more presentations from Shashank Nigam

Moments from the conference
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Congratulations once again to all the winners, and thanks to the attendees and …

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 …

Let me begin by clarifying that this article is not about whether Lufthansa’s MySkyStatus will take off or not. It has already taken off. Because the amount of discussion I’ve had about it with my friends from around the world, online and offline, is phenomenal. Just today, my status updates on Facebook by this app generated over 30 comments by friends from Dubai to Chicago (check out the screenshot below for a sample set). It’s thanks to these friends that I’ve been inspired to write this article.
MySkyStatus – what’s the fuss about?
For the unaware, MySkyStatus is a tool that posts your flight info (altitude, location and arrival updates) automatically to Facebook and/or Twitter while you fly. And you guessed it, it’s the real-time nature of this app that’s making it go viral. And as you can see below, the updates can generate quite a discussion.

At first glance,  MySkyStatus is true value add for the customer. But the application is not perfect – and it need not be perfect in its first release anyway. However, there are some small tweaks that can be made, as …