Polštář pohledu Boj "kolem světa
Here’s how a viral video starts: First, a few FlyerTalkers upload footage to YouTube of the pillow fight that broke out on our PHX-PAE leg last week. In order to protect the dignity of the FAs and keep the whole incident our private joke, the video is rendered invisible to the general public. Then I go ahead and post it to Facebook anyway (along with many others), where the editor of BroBible sees it. He reposts it, and then it immediately starts trending on Digg. (His plan all along, he later confesses.) At first, a few U.K. newspapers notice it, then the Phoenix ABC affiliate, and then the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. And before you know it, it’s on the Today Show. Amazing. And speaking on behalf of my fellow journalists, it’s not that we don’t know this was a privately chartered flight; it’s that we just don’t care. Next stop: NBC Nightly News.
Klikněte zde pro zobrazení vložené video.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/40090995#40090995
(The first version of the video was removed from YouTube; this is another copy from another participant on the flight. -Ed.)
Snídaně s Doug Parker
“I really don’t know what to say to you,” Doug Parker began. “The part I don’t know how to describe is why you’re doing what you’re doing.” The 150+ FlyerTalkers felt the same way as they struggled to understand Parker’s Darwinian philosophy about the future of the American airline industry — an oligopoly featuring permanently higher fares and restrained capacity, in which baggage fees and a la carte pricing annually deliver $400-$500 million in pure profit. “If we didn’t have it, we’d be right back where we were before,” he said, “barely breaking even or worse.”
Parker isn’t the most popular airline CEO in the FlyerTalk canon, but U.S. Airways warmly welcomed the Mega DOers to the Desert Botanical Garden, where they nibbled at a breakfast spread and drank cappuccinos (to counteract the champagne) before Parker addressed them. During final descent into PHX, we’d been scolded on the PA to “be respectful of our hosts — his name is Doug, not ‘Dougie.’” But the audience was quiet and polite — or maybe just depressed after listening to Parker’s worldview.
As amiably as could be, Parker laid out his bleak vision of the airline industry in which six carriers — Sjednocený, Delta, American, U.S. Airways, Southwest and JetBlue — co-exist in a profitable equilibrium, one in which seat capacity is rigidly controlled to restore a measure of pricing, and consolidation continues to strip more seats out of the sky. The four things that could “screw up” this equilibrium are “loss of capacity discipline, and I don’t think that’s going to happen;” labor relations (“We can’t give it all back”); new entrants such Virgin America (“all we’d do is spend a lot of money fighting them off”) and government pressure to curb carbon emissions, leading to new taxes on aviation. Higher oil prices are less an issue than simply a fact of life, with costs being passed along to the customer.
As cynical as his formula is, it appears to be working. For the first time since industry deregulation in 1978, the airline industry is countercyclical, posting record profits while the broader economy is depressed. “Our third quarter results were the best in our company’s history,” he said. “What was required because of crisis is what’s got us making money.”
Predictably, the Mega DOers weren’t exactly stirred by this call to arms. A lengthy Q&A period followed, featuring questions about when the airline will finally solve its labor issues, ending the “East/West” split (he was non-committal), international expansion (don’t expect much anytime soon) and its role in the alliance. One attendee told the story of a flight last October in which she was told to “sit down and shut up” by a fight attendant during a medical emergency, and has been flying Continental ever since (from CLT to PHX, no less). Parker pleaded with her to reconsider — “You’re probably waiting three hours at Houston,” he said. “An hour and ten minutes,” she replied — before finally resorting to “in terms of running the airline, we’re doing better than they are.”
But the most anticipated question came from Art Pushkin, the former U.S. Airways elite who founded what was effectively a resistance group (FFOCUS, a.k.a the “Cockroaches”) before defecting to Continental and taking a hundred elites with him. By his own calculations, he has cost U.S. Airways at least $1 million since. His question: why are you alienating Chairmen by charging them for premium coach seats. Parker’s answer, in a nutshell: we’re selling some of them, but not all of them — and you have to get there first. “The goal is not to take them away from Chairmen and sell them to someone else — or to Chairmen. The room began to stir when Park insisted other airlines are doing the same thing — they’re not — and then countered with “I know they’re going to do the same thing we are.” Maybe, maybe not. But no one present wanted to imagine a race to the bottom.
Then he left, and we had an hour to kill chasing butterflies.
Cockpit? So yesterday!
Remember the day when getting your picture in the cockpit was the “must have”? FlyerTalkers have moved on .. the new “must have” is your picture with an open engine. This is clearly the most popular moment of this early day–as witnessed here.
FlyerTalkers: Uvedení "sociální" v sociálních médií
Vidět, jak jsme právě přistál v Houstonu, je to jen montáž připomenout, že první leteckou společností, podporovaný DO konala před pěti lety, když Dean Burri (a.k.a cigarman) se vsadil s pak-CEO Larry Kellner Continental, že FlyerTalkers chtěl více času s tváří leteckých vedení a vyhrál hravě, když 300 FTers přistál na prahu Kellnera. Od té doby, Rostoucí počet leteckých společností dostali v na jednání — včetně druhého SMD a velký Delta Dělat druhý víkend — následuje hotelových řetězců, jako Hyatt (který hostil na svém DO Andaz West Hollywood majetku) a Starwood — jeden z SMD2′s sponzoři.
Co se změnilo v prozatímní? Co vás vedlo k poklesu letecké společnosti názor, že byly FTers “jen banda horkovzdušných whiners,” jako Randy říká Petersen, a skutečně některé své nejlepší zákazníky? Proč exploze v sponzorované DOS na poslední 12-18 měsíců? (Jak Jihozápadní objevil se zákazníkem AirTran vede poplatek zachránit obchodní třídě na palubě tohoto dopravce). Samozřejmě, existuje mnoho důvodů, ale jedna z nich musí být opožděné poznání, že oni potřebovali “sociální mediální strategie,” a že FlyerTalk sám byl jejich sociální mediální strategie.
Lufthansa šéf sociální média marketing, Torsten Wingenter, Zdálo se, že ověřit tuto teorii v průběhu jednoho ze seminářů o sociálních médií v sídle společnosti Lufthansa úterý večer. Při popisu vývoje Miles & Další program z nabízejí základní ceny v roce 1990 k vytvoření stavu výhody a výlučnost HON Circle, nastínil “Miles & Více 2.0″postavený na sociálních médií. “Náš zákazník změnit,” řekl skupině, “a je otázkou,: ‘bychom měli změnit jako společnost?"” Později, popsal letecké společnosti’ neochota stručně: “Letecké společnosti jsou o kontrolu, protože je to nezbytné pro let. A sociální média je do jisté míry mimo kontrolu ... Zákazník chce mluvit s námi úrovni očí, ne prostřednictvím našich tradičních kanálů.”
Zadejte Mega jednejte, který v loňském roce roztrhl první iteraci několika mil & Více-splňuje-Foursquare aplikace na kusy. Letošní workshopy byly klidnější, protože mluvil obecněji o úspěších a zmešká jiných leteckých společností on-line. (Zlatý standard v Americe: JetBlue, jehož “Všechny You Can Jet” Podpora původně začínal jako pípání. To vedlo k odhalení Lufthansa zvažuje nějakou formu GroupOn stylu skupinového nákupu, s implementací jak-ještě neznámý.
Lufthansa dílny ho zařadil na jednu věnovanou nové aplikace pozemní služby umožňující cestujícím řešení trasy s jedním dotykem a řešení problémů ve vzduchu. Další zaměřena na “zvláštní okamžiky,” i.e. jednorázové dary či palubní zkušenosti, jejichž účelem je znovu zavést opatření překvapení a luxusu k příjemnému jednotvárnosti prémiových kabin. Některé z 70 nebo tak nápady roznášeno součástí reklamních předmětů luxusní dobré (la La Prairie produktů v okrasných souprav švýcarského), zvláštní země-themed jídla, “filmové večery” s novinkami a popcorn, a tak dále.
Na večeři afterward, Lufthansa a hvězda vedoucí opět zavolal na Mega jednejte jako dozvědět se více o svém produktu, než je tomu, a v případě, že ne Lufthansa Group jiné letecké společnosti — Švýcarský, Rakouský, Brusel, a bmi — stál nabízejí sýr, čokoláda a dobroty hostům. To bylo nejvíce sociální média všech.
Mega DOers Finish First
When I wrapped up last year’s Star Mega DO by (quite legally) crashing the Lufthansa First Class Terminal along with a small gaggle of FlyerTalkers, I figured it was literally a once-in-a-lifetime experience. But here we are a year later, and I’ve been back not once, but twice in a span of less than 12 hours. As mentioned in a previous post, Lufthansa took the unprecedented step of busing the entire roster of this year’s Mega DO to the FCT for a nightcap after dinner — the first and only time in its history that non-HONs and non-ticketed first class passengers have ever been allowed inside. This was especially impressive considering the terminal is technically airside, which meant stationing personnel at every exit to keep the entire terminal in lockdown.
So what did you miss? First, the basics: the FCT is a standalone building, built at a cost of $43 million. The best-known feature is the fleet of Porches, BMWs and Mercedes downstairs waiting to whisk you to your flight. (This morning, I settled for a Mercedes van; Randy hitched a ride in a Porsche. “I can cross that off my frequent traveler bucket list,” he said.) Equally famous in FT circles are the rubber duckies in the bathtub, which had been removed for the evening to keep people like me (and Will Steele) from making off with them.
I’ll leave it to others to debate which airline has the best lounges, or which is the single best lounge in the world, but the FCT has to be in the uppermost tier with the Virgin Clubhouse at LHR and the Wing and the Pier at HKG. (If anyone would like to argue why their favorite is better, I’d love to see it in the comments.) One myth that was shattered for me was the fact that the pastries — which years ago on a quick press tour I’d been told were flown in fresh on the first flight from Vienna each morning — were more or less baked locally, with only a handful of delicacies being flown in from Austria. (Why shouldn’t the FCT be hand-stocked with air-freighted delicacies?)
On Tuesday night, the restaurant was closed and the bar (which prides itself on its single malt selection, delighting Tommy) was limited to a small selection of scotches, cognac and grappa, but a small expedition the next morning (thanks to our HON chaperones) sampled breakfast, toasted with Tattinger, and did the things “air warriors” do in these situations: enjoyed our good fortune.
Star Alliance Crowdsources Itself
This week’s joyride is billed as the “Mega Star Alliance DO,” but as in real life, we’re spending a lot of time with Star’s member airlines and very little with Star Alliance itself. That changed a bit for the FlyerTalkers selected to participate in a workshop Tuesday afternoon at Star Alliance’s headquarters, a, members willing, may be about to change for the average flyer.
As USA Today’s Ben Mutzbaugh covered yesterday, Star executives asked Mega DOers for feedback on a conceptual iPhone app and an alliance-wide service kiosk with which a stranded traveler might pick up a phone, swap a credit card, and instantly be connected to a reservation agent with the full itinerary already in front of them. It sounded useful, but the story behind the kiosk is more interesting than the results.
At the Lufthansa dinner, I spoke with Jeremy Drury, Star’s director of alliance innovation services, who sat in on the sessions Tuesday. He explained Star was “used to working with our members’ boards; as of this year, we’re working with our members’ employees.” In a nutshell, Star is seeking to crowdsource ideas across the 400,000-strong combined workforce of its members. “We want to connect a United idea to a Japanese customer service rep,” as Drury put it.
Out of 190 ideas in the original harvest, eight or nine so far have made the cut. The kiosk is the outcome of a suggestion that began life unpromisingly as increasing the “cross-fertilization of reservation agents.” It ended up a kiosk connecting travelers to whichever Star reservation agents happen to be awake and under-utilized at that hour. “We wanted to take the kiosk out of the kiosk and put a person inside instead,” Drury said.
But more intriguing is seeing Star Alliance executives scheming to unlock the creativity of its members, and to put their ideas to work across all 27 airlines, presumably with a Star Alliance logo on the kiosk or app instead of an airline’s. Industry pundits — especially the analyst Mike Boyd — have predicted that the big three alliances may one day supersede airline brands just as the name carriers superseded the regional affiliates that comprise a good percentage of their lift.
That day may yet come, but for now “I’d like 10,000-20,000 employees talking to each other, and we’re not there yet,” Drury said. When I asked how quickly Star will move to implement these suggestions once they’ve been vetted by customers, he just shook his head. There are no timetables for anything, because “there are 27 carriers, and they all need to be convinced. And if you’d like my job, you can have it,” he joked. Still, it’s interesting to see Star Alliance taking the lead when it comes to innovation.
Rest for the weary
As we exit dinner and head for the evening surprise, many FlyerTalkers grab a moments rest—don’t laugh, we were all jealous violist found this spot.
FlyerTalkers can see for miles and miles …
Always looking for the best views, these FlyerTalkers sought out the best place to look nose-to-nose with the A-380 that we so luckily toured.
Checking In With The Westin Times Square
One of the most frightening things about FlyerTalkers from a journalist’s perspective is that you make us more or less redundant: I know I can’t possible grill travel industry executives better than a roomful of platinum elites from FT. Their inquisitiveness was once again on display this morning in the Atrium Lounge on the 8th Floor (the Club floor) of the Westin Times Square, where GM Terry Lewis, sales & marketing director Mary Beth O’Connor, and the hotel’s executive chef (I confess I missed his name) soothed the assembled Mega Doers with “superfoods” (not including the caviar) and talked a bit about the hotel — the first of four Starwood properties on this trip (along with Sheratons at FRA, IAH and in Seattle). Some highlights:
• Starwood Platinums are typically offered high floor and corner rooms when suites aren’t available;
• Club rooms are typically priced at just $60 more per night than standard rooms;
• The Times Square location is the only Westin to offer 17″ Apple iMacs in every rooms;
• ”Occupancy is back,” as Lewis put it, although European traffic is still a little off. But the percentage of international customers is rising again, as are prices — although they’re still softer than occupancy levels.
• There’s less cannibalization between Starwood brands in New York than you might think; geography matters to customers, and they stick to their brands.
Destination: Německo
With 70 some FlyerTalkers heading to Germany on this first leg of the Mega Do2, here’s 5 tips on how not to embarrass ourselves when there (courtesy of More Than Manners and the German Foreign Office):
1) never jaywalk even if there’s no traffic anywhere to be seen.
2) crossing your utensils means you’re still eating. Laying them parallel means you’re finished.
3) ordering tapwater at restaurants is considered impolite.
4) keep your hands on the table when eating. To do otherwise is considered rude.
5) never light a cigarette off a candle. A common superstition says doing so kills a sailor.
Hej, I’m just saying …
