KLM Must-See map: your airline gets your friends to help you plan your next trip

It has not even been two weeks since last time we spoke about KLM's social media activities and yet...here we are again, talking about another really cool campaign by the Dutch airline.



This time is about inviting your friends to provide tips about the next destination you are flying to (where to eat, what to see...). Basically see who of your friends has been there and then aggregate these recommendations on a "Must See Map" that KLM will ship to you...in paper format!

This is not the first time that someone tries to crowdsource a destination guide, but the paper format adds an interesting element, particularly because it appears to be shipped for free...is KLM going to be doing it undefinitely? would be interesting to see the ROI of this campaign if postal costs add to much.

But in any case, KLM has got people talking about it (we are not a exception!) and this matters too!

KLM wants you to run your own airline with its latest Facebook game

KLM continues to rock with its social media activities. Its latest Facebook initiative has aviation enthusiasts all around the World already salivating...5000 likes and over 150 comments on Facebook and the game hasn't launched yet!

As someone who grew up playing Railroad Tycoon, I could not resist the allure of running my own airline (at least that's what it appears to be promising!) and already signed up to get notified once the game is live.

Looking at these fantastic vintage aircraft my guess is that KLM's game is also going to leverage its historical heritage (KLM is actually the oldest airline still operating anywhere in the World!). Something I certainly don't mind...!

App in the Air, improving the global traveler experience, one app at a time

Flying is one of those experiences that can be at the same time exciting in a positive way, particularly if you are an aviation enthusiast, but at the same time exhausting and exasperating because of all the procedures involved (getting to and from the airport, waiting times, delays, etc.). The availability of connected mobile devices, and particularly tablets, has done done a lot to alleviate and improve the air traveler experience either on land or on board.

It is reviewing this type of apps and sites that from time to time I come across a true gem, this is the case of my latest discovery during my stay in Moscow:

App in the Air, an application (for now available on iPhone) that aims to make the most of your flight experience.

In short: App in the Air provides you a tool kit to manage your plane trips, you can  track your flight status (check-in, boarding, gate/terminal information, delays), get tips about the airports you are flying through (where to eat, how to connect to Wi-Fi, etc.) and chat with other passengers (to share taxi from airport or find out whether security line is long and you should arrive at the airport in advance) and, in line with the "quantified-self" trend lets you keep organized records of all your flying activity.

Of course you can get this type of information through other apps and sites, but what I think makes App in the Air stand out is the nice and functional way in which all these practical features have been combined. Plus in addition to an elegant interface it has some nice details, such as notifications when there is just a certain amount of time left before check in or boarding.

I played with the app for a little while and as I liked what I saw I took advantage of the fact that I was in Moscow to meet with Bayram Annakov, of the team that developed it. What follows is a short interview with him:

Q: How did App in the Air start? What's been your story so far?

Bayram: It all started with a geo-location chat Squeek which we developed in 2011. After we launched it we've found out that our primary user base are chatting in airport rooms, so we decided to focus on this particular segment and make an app for them. This is how App in the Air was born. We raised $150K investment from the Russian venture capital fund imi.vc in August 2011 and launched the app in June 2012. 

Q: Who is  behind App in the Air?

B: Currently, we have a team of four: Sergey Pronin, our genius programmer who is coding on different languages and platforms and is responsible for the whole development; Nikita Kosholkin, our business analyst, who spends most of his time analyzing user behaviour, measuring the effectiveness of product changes and proposing new ones, Kirill Zorenkov, our Designer who is all about making the user experience as smooth as possible, and me, Bayram Annakov, responsible for product management and business development, but sometimes coding together with Sergey.

Q: What are your main markets?

B: Business & leisure flight travelers in English-speaking countries who have iPhones are our primary markets, though we plan to expand to new geographies (Asia - 5 times growth for the last 10 years) and to new platforms (Windows Phone and Android).

Q: How's been the market and user reception so far?

B: We have launched the app in June, 2012 - since that time we have 60 000 downloads (January, 2013), we got featured by the media: we are among Business Insider's 100 Greatest Apps and also Gizmodo UK Essential Apps of June to name a few... 

Q: Any anecdotes you might wish to share?

B: Do you know the most popular tip for Chicago Airport? "Don't forget your son Kevin at home. He'll most likely have to fend off burglars on his own." (a reference to the Home Alone movie!). 

Another one is that we had a user who made 90 flights in last four months (almost 1 flight a day!) and helped us find a bug that we hadn't even thought about. We decided to release a special "Limited Edition" version for him with a special badge on app icon to show our gratitude for all his help! :) 

Q: What is your long term vision for your project?

B: We want to be #1 source of official & unofficial information for every traveler to make his/her experience less stressful. We want to achieve it by flight alerts, tips & chat (users can actualy send questions via live chat to the App in the Air team) and by crowd-sourcing flight information from our users in addition to using official sources of flight information. 

We want to be the ultimate App in the Air.. and before the air! :)

Spinning-off

And indeed, the future looks promising, riding the wave of success the App in the Air team is preparing to branch out and develop some of their most popular features into stand-alone apps for all those travelers that don't need a comprehensive travel management tool but are looking to sort out only specific parts of their travel experience...stay tuned because we'll revisit App in the Air in the near future for sure...!

Starbrook Airlines: spotted at a Moscow supermarket!

A while ago I wrote a post about my discovery of Starbrook Airlines...don't worry if you haven't heard of it or never seen one of its planes at an airport, because Starbrook Airlines only exists in chocolate!

Well, the news are...I finally managed to locate it in a real bricks-and-mortar shop...in Moscow!

So, if you happen to be in the Russian capital, you can get Starbrook Airline chocolate with its nice vintage aviation-themed packaging for the equivalent of 3.8 euro at Перекресток supermarket...

The comeback of the airline hotel?

I hope there's some more legroom than in their aircraft!

I have read that Barcelona-based airline Vueling has set up a joint-venture with Hoteles Catalonia in order to launch Vueling-themed hotels for its travelers. These hotels will be marketed under the "Vueling by HC" brand. The first hotel and test-bed for this concept will be launched in central Barcelona shortly and its design is going to be inspired in the fresh casual-looking style sported by the airline.

It is an interesting move, because, setting aside Easyhotel, which is part of the much broader Easygroup brand portfolio, airline hotels seemed to have fallen out of fashion in the last two decades...

It was not always like this, there was a time when every self-respecting flag carrier used to run its own hotel chain. In fact some of today's international hotel chains have been historically linked to airlines, this is the case of Swissotel (originally a joint-venture between Swissair and Nestlé), of Golden Tulip (linked to KLM), of Radisson (SAS), although most of these airlines withdrew from the hotel business at some point in the last decade, either forced by their financial situation or for strategic reasons.

Picture: Warren Long (cc license)

Sabena was one of the airlines with the largest hotel networks, often providing the top accommodation options in the African capitals covered by its network. In this picture, the Memling Hotel, originally a Sabena hotel, in 1970s Kinshasa, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (called Zaire at the time)

By the way, Sabena's Kigali hotel became famous after becoming a refugee shelter during the Rwandan genocide, in the events that were later depicted in the film Hotel Rwanda.

If we look back a few decades, to the early days of commercial aviation, when international hotel brands where not as widespread as they are now it possibly made lots of sense to offer a complete package to your regular customers (mostly businessmen and affluent people in those times) that might wish to avoid being exposed to variable service standards depending on the destination.

As air travel becomes more commoditized it might make sense to go back the provision of comprehensive travel experiences though, and who best positioned that the airline, that is often the first gateway to travel bookings...I just hope that the size of rooms and beds is not proportional to the seat pitch on their aircraft!

Qatar Airways to sponsor FC Barcelona, advertise on team's shirt

 Today we get into the fascinating World of football sponsorship, because it has been announced that Qatar Airways is going to become an sponsor of one of the World's top football ("soccer" for American readers!) sides: FC Barcelona. So we are going to see Qatar Airways on the FC Barcelona's shirt next season!

This deal consolidates the relationship between FC Barcelona and the emirate of Qatar (whose Qatar Foundation already sponsors the team) and mirrors similar sponsorship deals that top European football teams have sealed with the emerging airlines of the Gulf (the so called "MEB3"): Emirates is currently sponsoring English team Arsenal, Italy's AC Milan and is also adding FC Barcelona's arch-rival Real Madrid in the coming season, while Etihad Airways, of Abu Dhabi, and Qatar Airways are sponsoring Manchester City and Paris St.Germain, both owned by investors of their respective emirates.

The official accouncement, that can be found on FC Barcelona's website, does not disclose financial details, although sports daily El Mundo Deportivo reports that Qatar Sports Investments would pay €170 million for a six year sponsorship. Qatar Airways logo will then replace Qatar Foundation's one on the FC Barcelona shirts and merchandising. Apparently the possibility of replacing the sponsor's name was included in a clause of the original contract between FC Barcelona and Qatar Foundation.

Another point this announcement does not disclose is what is going to happen with FC Barcelona's current sponsorhip deal with Turkish Airlines. The Turkish flag carrier has invested heavily in sports sponsorship in its quest to position itself as a global super-connector and a competitor with the Gulf carriers and was, until now, the "official airline" of FC Barcelona. This relationship might be now "in the air" (if you allow me the bad joke).

By the way, all these airlines sponsoring several teams at the same time are starting to produce some slightly embarrassing situations: for example, a specially-painted Turkish Airlines aircraft flew FC Barcelona to the 2011 Champions League final, that the Catalan side played against non other than...Manchester United, a team that happens to have a similar sponsorhip agreement with the Turkish airline!

However, in this occasion, the final was conveniently played at Wembley stadium, in London, which made it unnecessary for Manchester United to fly...and, made a bit less blatant Turkish Airlines' alleged support for both teams!

IAG's Spanish problem, Iberia Express and Vueling

The future does not look bright for Iberia. IAG latest financial results showed that the Spanish flag carrier has become a drag on the the group's financial performance. IAG's CEO, Willie Walsh has already warned that tough measures must be taken...

And what now seems inevitable is that Iberia's short and medium haul network will be progressively taken over by Iberia Express, the vehicle that IAG has chosen to get rid of the existing labour relations framework at Iberia. For Iberia's customers the change to Iberia Express should not be a big change...for now...because, Iberia Express might have been helpful in taming some structural cost issues within the company (Iberia Express is already profitable), however, it can do little against the huge exogenous pressures currently affecting the Spanish air travel market, like the deep economic crisis and the strong competition from other low cost carriers (among the major European markets, is possibly the one where LCCs enjoy a larger marjet share).

So it is not unlikely that, while keeping some network carrier features, most important of all, feeding Iberia's long-haul network, or what's left of it, Iberia Express, and the rest of the airline, might have to undergo a process of "low-costization".

Curiosly enough Iberia is the major shareholder of another Spanish low cost, and one that is profitable: Vueling. The Barcelona-based carrier is actually on an opposite path: whereas Iberia might end up trading-down, Vueling is trading-up and offering more and more extras to its passengers, in a drive to attract business customers.

Will Vueling and Iberia (Express) end up occupying the same market space?

If this happens, will the two brands be kept? In theory, there is no need to, despite its shareholding Vueling is an independent company and it has its hub at Barcelona, whereas Iberia Express is based at Madrid. However, it is not unthinkable that Vueling becomes more operationally entangled with Oneworld's operations in Spain as it starts to codeshare more and more, take on feeding operations, etc. Will there be a temptation to consolidate Vueling and what's left of Iberia in a big low cost operation? Who would then have the strongest brand? and right structure and "mind-set" to operate as a low cost?  an strengthened Vueling or a "downgraded" Iberia?

Of course, the most likely outcome is that nothing of this might actually end up happening, but "what if" scenarios are always entertaining...

Emirates two newest destinations...in London!

If you are flying to London for the Olympics, Emirates can take you via its Dubai hub to either Heathrow (now a four-daily A380 service!) or Gatwick...and now also across the Thames.

Dubai's carrier is launching London's first cable car that runs over the river Thames from the conveniently renamed Emirates Greenwich Peninsula, next to the O2 arena to the Emirates Royal Docks, on the North bank.

Not sure how many Skywards miles you get though...!

More on Vueling...and a couple of cool aircraft paint-shop videos

And yet another Vueling-related story...placing this blog at risk of becoming too Vueling-centric, but, shortly after publishing the latest story about the in-flight concert that took place on one of their aircraft,  I got a note from Vueling letting me know about the following video. It shows the aftermath of one of their other recent marketing campaigns, the Vueling Air Gallery, celebrating Vueling's 50 millionth passenger.

In the video you will see how an airbus A320 is painted with the Instagram photos submitted by people that participated in this contest.



For those of you with an interest in the topic, there are quite a few good time-lapse videos of aircraft paint-jobs on youtube, for example this one of a Northwest Boeing 747 becoming a Delta aircraft. Enjoy!

More innovation in the executive jet sector: Victor Aviation

It might still be a far cry out for the majority of air travellers (including myself!) but in the past few months I have learned of a number of initiatives that have the potential to make executive jet travel more "democratic"...well, at least, for the upper segment of those that now fly commercial (Ryanair and Easyjet no need to worry for now!).

When it comes to marketing innovation in the executive aviation industry, in this blog we have already documented Blink's approach to executive aviation and Surf Air's flat fees.

The latest I learned about is Victor Aviation. I won't go in much detail here, since there is already this very comprehensive article by Dom Perry, at Flightglobal, that explains everything you need to know about this new way to fly executive.

Basically it aggregates demand to offer competitive prices to fly on executive jets. The novelty is in the transparency it brings to the whole booking process, that it is not unlike that of a normal airline.

I played around with Victor's website and it looked pretty cool too, and it allows you to do things like get alerts when seats become available on a certain route. It also provides plenty of details about the aircraft available.

Victor Aviation is, in a way, a marketplace, for executive jet seats. Although I am not a user of executive jets, this is a project I can somehow relate to, since it is not too different from what we have been doing at GourmetOrigins.com, an online marketplace for high quality foods that I co-founded, where small independent food producers can connect with foodies that look for special treats. So I take this opportunity to wish Victor Aviation's founder, Clive Jackson, the best of successes and hopefully one day will be able to experience the service!

Barcelona airport to open a beach club

Customers are expected to benefit from increased market competition, this is evident when it comes to airlines (despite some missing the "golden age" of aviation where hardly anyone could afford to fly), but what about airports?

Airports do compete too and one of the ways to do so is trying to provide the best passenger experience. In this blog I have already expressed my preference for Amsterdam Schiphol (and I have not even tried the amphibious vehicle tour or the virtual butterfly garden), but now another airport I know well is entering the fray: Barcelona airport has just unveiled plans to build a golf course and...a beach club!

The story caught my attention, maybe because  I have just come back from a trip to Bergen, Norway, where, taking advantage of the airport location (see picture below) and of the amazing spell of warm weather (yes, it can be warm and sunny in Norway too!)

 My favourite bathing spot on the far side of the runway!

I managed to have a bath in the sea while awaiting my flight. I must say it was not an easy task to find a spot with open access to the sea since most of the seafront is taken up by private houses with gardens, but, hey!...here is where I got...(and yes, it feels great to swim a bit before your flight!)

I am sure being able to spend some time on the beach before boarding your flight home at BCN, could prove popular with the millions of tourists that use the airport every year (although the Catalan capital is not a "pure" beach and sand destination, it is not unusual to find people wearing little more than sandals and shorts on flights to BCN during the summer season!)

Sources at the airport confirmed that the idea is to have a private company run both facilities, the golf and beach club, that will be located on airport-owned land next to the terminals, although not physically connected to it (so some sort of shuttle service would need to be set up too) and, both the beach club and the golf club are also going to be open to the general public, not only airport users.

 Making the best out of location!

The beach club might be ready for next year's summer season, while the golf course is expected to be completed by 2014. In a way, it is a sort of "come-back" since there was already a golf club years ago (it was actually the oldest in Catalonia) in the space where now the sea-side airport runway is located.

This is also a perfect example of an airport embracing the idea of treating passengers, not only airlines, as "clients" and making of the airport not just a transit point but an enjoyable part of the whole travel experience.

I can think of some other airports next to the sea...who will be next?

More on social seating for airlines: Satisfly takes off with airBaltic

Not long ago I wrote about the phenomenon of social seating. Several airlines and start-ups are exploring different ways to develop and implement this type of service.

While it is not clear yet what model is going to prevail, one of the pioneers in this field, Satisfly, led by Sergio Mello, has reached a significant milestone and announced its first airline partnership, with airBaltic.

The Riga, Latvia-based carrier is usually quite keen to implement innovative marketing initiatives, it is a regular on Airlinetrends' rankings of most innovative airlines, so it is not totally unexpected that it has jumped on the social seating band-wagon, with its airBaltic SeatBuddy service.

What I find interesting about Satisfly's system is that it is not airline-specific, like similar airline social seating schemes developed by KLM and Malaysia Airlines, and also that, by partnering with the airlines, it can be put in front of the travelers every time they interact with the airline, during booking or online check-in. The concept might still take some time to take-off, and might not be for everyone, but as social networks become more entangled with everyone's daily activities I think social seating might end up being one more feature (a segment of) passengers will come to expect when they book a flight.

Latest on airline social media marketing: Vueling leveraging the Instagram craze

Your Instagram pictures could soon be on a Vueling A320 like this one

It is hardly news that airlines, as most consumer-oriented companies, are embracing social media to connect with the public, sell tickets or sort out crisis. Some go the extra-mile and even develop their own innovative applications exploring the social travel space (whether successfully or not is another matter, the jury is still out)...But the key element here is that the hyperconnected world we live in provides also a platform to test new marketing and leverage user-generated content...I mentioned in a previous blog post that "visual" is the word of the day and the recent billion-dollar sale of Instagram to Facebook proves the point...

So what best than try riding the Instagram wave? This is what Vueling is doing with its latest campaign, the Vueling Air Gallery (running on Facebook, of course!)...take an Instagram picture from one of Vueling's destinations, tag it #vuelingairgallery and get the public to vote for it (obviosuly the goal is to make it viral by asking your friends to vote for your picture). One of Vueling's Airbus A320s is going to be painted with the 200 best pictures and the best 50 Vueling instagrammers (chosen by some judges) are going to get free flights too..

To be fair, this is not the first time that an airliners has been decorated this way, KLM already painted one of its aircraft with its fan's Facebook pictures styled as blue Delft porcelain tiles...but it is a nice and engaging initiative nonetheless...I am actually wondering why we do not see more campaigns along these lines.

More ways to follow Allplane

This is kind of a service announcement, but I would like to share with you the new platforms where I am posting airline and aviation-related content.

You will see that the web is getting visual and that it is seems that it is all about social curation now...the great advantage of these platforms is that they are all interconnected, so they are great complements of this blog and allow me to share my content in new ways as well as uncover some great aviation-related content produced by other aviation enthusiasts out there.

If you like what I post on this blog, then I suggest you follow me also on:

Pinterest
A great enjoyable way to share all sort of aviation pictures

Tumblr
A new way to share content, very visual and with a point of randomness

Scoop.it
This platform allows you to share stories and content in a similar way to what Pinterest allows you to do with images

And, of course, Allplane is on Twitter, Facebook and Google+  too!

Starbrook Airlines, the airline that only exists in chocolate, and more...

There are many interesting stories in the aviation industry these days, so interesting that, actually, haven't got the time yet to sit down and write the proper article they deserve. So I thought about sharing a couple of, somewhat lighter, aviation-related stories that might also be of your interest...

For a start the story of this amazing chocolate box I came across the other day....Starbrook Airlines does not exist today...but a Belgian chocolatier has developed a whole range of airline-themed chocolates taking inspiration from the "belle-epoque" of aviation. According to the story in their website, there was actually a "Starbrook Airlines", started by a Belgian in California in the first half of the 20th Century, although I could not find further references to it...

And more vintage (and not so vintage) stuff today, as the great Spanish-language blog "Fronteras" has devoted two very detailed post to those airlines that, for whatever the reason, are no longer flying...you name them: TWA, Varig, Malev, Mexicana, Spanair...even if you do not read Spanish, these two articles (1 & 2) are worth a look, since there are some amazing pictures I am sure any aviation enthusiast will enjoy!

Have a great start of the week!

Could history become a new source of ancillary revenue for airlines?

A few days ago a friend of mine mentioned that, after several years, he had flown again on an aircraft that he knew well from a previous stint in the airline industry. I checked the registration details of the aircraft in question and found out that I had also flown on that plane in the past, only that when it belonged to another airline and had a different name.

So the following idea came to my mind, given the rush to get more and more ancillary revenue, why don’t airlines create a list of famous or important people that have flown on a given aircraft, even on a particular seat, and “market” this experience to the public?

Time to add some plates to aircraft seats too?

The same way that some old houses have historical plates that recall the people that have lived in them, why not airplanes?... well, to be fair, I see a major obstacle with this: whereas age might be perceived as a positive attribute in a house (because a long history might give it its character), it might have quite negative connotations when applied to what is, after all, a flying machine (old equipment!).

Nevertheless, you do not need to go back that many years, there are plenty of contemporary icons that could serve this purpose well (football players, artists, celebrities). Airlines would just need to take care not to highlight these "celebrity seats" past a certain amount of time, and keep renovating them...Anyone willing to pay extra to seat on the same seat that your favourite sportsman sat on when flying to that important match? Judging by the video below, maybe Turkish Airlines is well positioned to do it...

Who is London Heathrow advertising to?

I already expressed, a while ago, my surprise (and a point of skepticism) about finding advertisements for London Heathrow airport in the London underground...and here is another example. Just that this time, a lot bigger! (I know, the ad is a bit dated since it was from before last Christmas)

But what purpose do these ads really serve? has anyone measured what is the ROI on these ads? as a frequent traveler it is usually the airline that I check first when I need to travel somewhere, only when the choice is between two very similar airlines or fares that I factor in the airport...and I doubt an ad in the underground would have much influence in this latter decision...besides that: wasn't LHR's problem that it was, actually, too crowded?

Airline social seating is here...to stay

If the previous post was featuring three great airline blogs, today is the turn of four new services that bring the principles of social shopping to one of the most important aspects of the airline passenger experience: seat allocation.

Once upon a time airline passengers were always asked whether they prefered window or aisle (not many people seem to like the middle seat!), the not so young might even remember when they had the choice of smokers/non-smokers...well, to be fair, many passengers still get the choice, but then came the low cost carriers and the era of unassigned seating, and the pay-to-choose-your-seat model...

And now a bunch of tech startups and a few airlines are starting to bring some zest back to seat selection...how? by applying the principles of social shopping and leveraging the power of social networks: when on a flight, wouldn't it be better to seat next to those you are more likely to have an affinity with you and have a more enjoyable flight?

Here are four initiatives in this field that have popped up recently, two are driven by specific airlines that seem to have developed it in-house, whether the other two are solutions provided by independent technology startups, and, therefore, not tied to any specific carrier.

1) Planely integrates with other platforms and applications, such as Tripit, Facebook and Linkedin, you disclose where are you flying to and Planely tells you who are you going to be travelling with, you can then connect and try to seat next to those you would like to speak with during the flight.

2) Satisfly is based on the concept of "intelligent seating", when you sign up you are asked a number of details about yourself, part of this can be filed automatically through integration with your existing social networks, additionally Satisfly also asks you for your flight mood (business talk, easy chat, work, relax) and neighbour profile (a number of questions about your preferences about potential seat neighbours, such as age or language spoken), Satisfly also collects information such as meal preferences or frequent flier programmes. The key element here is that Satisfly works alongside airlines, so once all these information is processed through its own patent-pending technology, the airline is going to be able to assign you a seat neighbour based on your preferences.

3) Malaysia airlines made the headlines a few months ago when it released the first airline Facebook app that allows booking directly on Facebook, without leaving the app. One of the interesting aspects of this app is the ability to see whether  your Facebook friends are on the same flight and select seats accordingly (the system is opt-in only, so no risk of unsolicited encounters if you do not wish to be found)

4) KLM, once more a pioneer in the use of social media, is planning to release a service that looks for similarities and potential compatibilities in the passenger's social media profiles and activity and then allocates seating accordingly. Whereas not many details are available about this new initiative it sounds like an interesting idea, although, obviosuly not for everbody (it will need to be opt-in only), a project worth keeping an eye on!

Three airline blogs that stand out

Every social media manual will tell you that having a corporate blog is a must. Opening a blog is actually not that difficult (this blog is proof of this :-)) but doing it in a nice and engaging way is another story, particularly when we are talking about "corporate" blogs...this is why I would like to highlight a few examples I came across of airline blogs that, in my opinion, are really outstanding:

1) KLM

The Dutch carrier has been a pioneer in the use of social media tools and its corporate blog could not be less. KLM's blog has a nice personal touch, presenting stories from all corners of KLM's network, and their Facebook page is also a must for any aviation history enthusiast, capitalizing on the airline's long history as the Dutch flag carrier and a real commercial aviation pioneer (KLM was founded in 1919, which makes it the oldest airline in the World still operating!). You can find some great pictures that will help you imagine how the passenger experience was in those early days of aviation!

2) Air New Zealand

Air NZ has been delighting observers of airline marketing for quite some time, with simple product innovations that have, nevertheless, the potential to improve considerably the passenger experience, funny aircraft safety videos and cute furry mascots...and Air New Zealands blog is up to what you would expect of such as creative airline...The Flying Social Network does not look like one more corporate blog, it's got a clean design, interesting articles and nice visuals...I do not tend to follow corporate accounts, but I made an exception with this one!

3) Finnair

Well, this is a classical one, and the Quality Hunters initiative got already its space in this blog, so I will point you towards my post of 2010: "Finnair, rethinking quality"

Iberia wants you to Fly Around the World with its new Facebook game

Gamification is the word of the moment in social media and airlines are starting to experiment with it. Spanish flag-carrier Iberia, now part of the IAG Group, is the latest airline to experiment with this channel in order to generate buzz and follower engagement.

Iberia has just launched "Flying Around the World", a Facebook game here users can accumulate "hours of flight" by answering questions related to the airline and its products and services, the goal is to accumulate these hours of flight, you start as a co-pilot on short haul flights and become "Long-haul Pilot" (Comandante de largo radio), you can answer up to five questions per day and each correct answer gives you "flying hours".

Each question is labeled as a "flight", for example to complete a Madrid-Milan flight I had to answer how Iberia's last minute discounted online booking service is called (answer "Los que Corren, Vuelan" ("those that run, get to fly"). Iberia will be progressively adding new flight sectors over time,as the goal is to keep users engaged. As any good social media "trap", you get extra points for liking Iberia's Facebook page and leaving them your email (not that they hadn't it already!).

The more "zones (Europe, Latin America, etc.) you complete, the more chances you have to win in the draw that takes place at the end of the contest (15th December). Iberia will throw in "special" sectors to cover from time to time, as a chance to accumulate more "flight hours".

The prize? You guessed it!
4 free flights for the select few to any of the 24 long-haul destinations on Iberia's network (or "Avios" Iberia's, and IAG's, frequent flier "currency")

I was playing around with it a little bit, an, although the mechanics of the game are not particularly revolutionary, it is a nicely executed project that makes for some good light entertainment while you recall the extent of Iberia's network...I'll let you know in case I win!