Airline CIO Blog

Virgin America ups its social game

Airline IT Guru — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 14:21:17 +0000

Virgin America ups its social game by adding a hashtag to its newest aircraft #nerdbird. This is a smart move by Virgin America aimed squarely at their target market of customers ensuring that their name get trending in the social media world. As you can see below the term is well used for a number of years but Virgin have just claimed the hashtag space for their own.

American Airlines will put a third 'Nerd Bird' in the air on Nov. 3, providing another link between Austin and Silicon Valley. —R. Michelle Breyer, "American plans 3rd 'Nerd Bird'," Austin American-Statesman, September 16, 1995

"And with more business travelers turning to the red-eye, airlines have bulked up their overnight schedules to meet demand. The San Francisco Bay area, home of Silicon Valley, launches 28 so-called late-night 'nerd birds' every night: 20 out of San Francisco, seven from San Jose and one from Oakland, an increase of roughly 40 percent from just five years ago." —Amanda Lang, "Red Eye Flights," CNNfn, February 13, 2001

Two Social Media Infographics on Airlines and Twitter

Airline IT Guru — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 21:43:36 +0000

I have always said be the Social Media evangelist in your company below are two Infographics. One from Eezeer and the other from Simpliflying which show 'how' Airlines are using and 'what' they are using social media for.

Eezeer Airline Twitter Report also found that 88% of tweets to all airlines around customer service issues, with 5% commenting on punctuality, 2% on food and 1% on comfort and security of passengers.

AA takes on the GDS - commercial "A Whole World is Missing"

Airline IT Guru — Tue, 31 May 2011 23:00:09 +0000

Moving from a facebook profile to a page - Facebook Page Migration Tool

Airline IT Guru — Mon, 30 May 2011 13:42:11 +0000

I have just completed my move from a 'Facebook profile' to a 'page' it was fairly easy to do but many people don't know how to do it. Many businesses have their pages on Facebook and now it’s becoming much more important for the companies to build their social network on Facebook and make it strong. Previously many of the companies made their profiles under Facebook pages like users where they can add up to 5000 people only. It becomes hectic for them because they made another profile to keep their customers and fans engaged with them.

Facebook has recently launched a feature with the help of you can migrate from Facebook page to Facebook fan page and millions of fans can like your page and it will be easy for you to manage it as managing 5 Facebook pages at a time and daily acceptance of friend request made you annoyed well.

Below is step by step Guide to convert your Facebook Page into Facebook Fan page

Instructions

Start the browser you like visit the Facebook website and login to your account
Then you have to visit the Facebook Page Migration Tool
Now you can see 6 types of buttons there
- Local Business or place
- Artist Band or Public Figure
- Company Organisation or Institution
- Entertainment
- Brand or Product
- Cause or Community

Choose according to the type of the page you want and if you want to change it later on you can also do this by editing its info.

Enter all the basic information which they ask and then enter the Get Started button.
After that you have to reenter your Facebook Password to confirm your presence.
Now a security check will also appear and you have to enter those words in the box
After writing click on submit and your Facebook profile page is converted to Facebook Fan Page.

Google moves into the flight search space

Airline IT Guru — Mon, 30 May 2011 12:31:29 +0000

Since the acquisition of ITA Google have started to look at more ways of sorting out travel search. They have quietly introduced the following displays on flight searches. The whole Meta Search space is still a mess but this is a clever move by Google, it also detects key locations and will sort flights from there ie"flights from manchester to manhattan". What will be next is I predict will contextuisation ie. "flights from home to jumeirah beach resort" giving you all the travel options needed. ie. Cab to Airport (local cab contacts), parking options if needed, flight options, transport from airport to hotel, list of hotels at Jumeirah beach, etc. Watch this space its going to change the way we search for travel.

So what's the effect of Empire Avenue on your brand

Airline IT Guru — Sat, 28 May 2011 15:35:38 +0000

I have just tried a little experiment looking at the effect that Social has on brands. Joining Empire Avenue has opened my eyes to the effects that could happen in the future when people invest in individuals and Brands.

Once joined (e)AIRLINE http://www.empireavenue.com/airline we were immediately active on trading with 13 people buying shares in the AirlineCIO brand, a few even took profit after a few minutes. What are the effects to brands in the travel space? WestJet http://www.empireavenue.com/WJA where the only Airline active, Lan.com was also on but didn't look like they were so active http://www.empireavenue.com/LANCOM . British Airways has two shareholders on the twitter index http://www.empireavenue.com/ipo/twitter/british_airways but BA are not on Empire Avenue. Yes, you read that correct indviduals are investing in the brand without them even knowing about.

Obviously the tech companies and high profile individuals, are very active the likes of Robert Scoble http://www.empireavenue.com/SCOBLE as an example.

So what does this all mean for your brand we will have to wait and see but its worth playing around with just to see the effect. Imagine an employer in the future taking in to consideration you personal share price and making a decision on the current value you are trading at. Got you thinking now haven't I...until next time.

More in the AA vs. GDS battle this time farelogix

Airline IT Guru — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 08:18:14 +0000

Boeing Sky Interior

Airline IT Guru — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 08:34:40 +0000

It's not a slight upgrade, but a major makeover, with new stowage bins; new sidewalls; a new lighting system; new ceiling panels; new air vents; new passenger service units; and a new flight attendant panel.

With over 60 airlines Boeing are onto a winner with there new interior on over 1,600 aircraft.

Including: TUI Travel, GOL Airlines, Southwest Airlines, Tokyo's Skymark Airlines, Continental Airlines, American Airlines, FlyDubai (the first to order), Norwegian Air Shuttle, Malaysia Airlines, Lion Air, Air Berlin, COPA Airlines, Turkish Airlines, Luxair Luxembourg Airlines, Russian Technologies, and Alaska Airlines.

Delta leads the way with Technology

Airline IT Guru — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 07:30:03 +0000

Delta's has updated iPhone application to include rebooking it works similar to existing rebooking functionality on delta.com. It enables you to adjust a impacted flight schedule right from the iPhone when they issue an advisory or cancel a flight in advance. The newest features include the ability to:

See if you’ve been automatically rebooked
Pick another flight from a list of suggested itineraries
Search for alternates, including flights into nearby airports
Share your new flight details

What is going on with the airlines and online travel sites

Airline IT Guru — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 07:06:59 +0000