O Pillow Fight actividade en todo o mundo
Here’s how a viral video starts: Primeira, 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.
Click here to view the embedded 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.)
Almorzo con Doug Parker
“Realmente non sei que dicir para ti,” Doug Parker comezou. “A parte que eu non sei como describir é porque está facendo o que fas.” A 150+ FlyerTalkers sentido do mesmo xeito que se esforzaron para entender a filosofía darwinista Parker sobre o futuro da industria aérea estadounidense — un oligopólio con tarifas máis elevadas e permanente da capacidade contida, en que as taxas de equipaxe e de prezos á carta entregar anualmente $400-$500 millóns en beneficio puro. “Se non telo, estariamos de volta onde estaban antes,” el dixo, “mal romper mesmo ou peor.”
Parker non é o CEO da compañía aérea máis popular no cânon FlyerTalk, pero EUA. Airways calor os fazedores Mega ao Xardín Botánico do Deserto, onde se comían un spread almorzo e cappuccinos bebeu (para contrarrestar o champaña) antes Parker dirixiu a eles. Durante a baixada final en PHX, estabamos repreendidos na PA “ser respectuoso dos nosos anfitrións — o seu nome é Doug, non ‘Dougie.” Pero o público estaba tranquilo e educado — ou que só deprimido despois de escoitar a visión do mundo de Parker.
Como amable como podería ser, Parker expuxo a súa visión sombría do sector aéreo no que seis transporte — United, Participar, Americana, EUA. Airways, Southwest ea JetBlue — coexisten nun equilibrio rendibles, aquel en que a capacidade de lugares é rixidamente controlada para restaurar unha medida de prezos, e consolidación segue a tira de máis asentos do ceo. As catro cousas que poderían “romper” este equilibrio é “perda da capacidade de disciplina, e eu non creo que vai pasar;” relacións de traballo (“Non podemos dar todo de volta”); novos operadores como Virgin America (“todo o que nós facemos é gastar moito diñeiro loitando contra elas”) e presión do goberno para reducir as emisións de carbono, levando a novos impostos sobre a aviación. Os prezos altos do petróleo son un problema menor que simplemente un feito da vida, cos custos sendo repassados ao cliente.
Tan cínica en canto á súa fórmula é, parece estar funcionando. Por primeira vez desde a desregulación do sector na 1978, a industria da aviación é anticíclica, mensaxe beneficios marcas en canto a economía está deprimida. “Os nosos resultados do terceiro trimestre foron os mellores na historia da nosa empresa,” el dixo. “O que era necesario por mor da crise é o que nos levou a gañar cartos.”
Previsiblemente, Os fazedores Mega non eran exactamente axitado por ese chamamento ás armas. Q longa&Un período seguido, preguntas sobre o que caracteriza cando a compañía aérea vai finalmente resolver os problemas do seu traballo, rematando o “Leste / oeste” división (estaba sen compromiso), expansión internacional (non espera moi pronto) eo seu papel na alianza. Un participante contou a historia dun voo en outubro pasado en que foi dito para “sentir e calar a boca” por un atendente de loita durante unha emerxencia médica, e foi voando Continental desde (da CLT para PHX, non menos). Parker pediulle que reconsiderar — “Probablemente está esperando tres horas en Houston,” el dixo. “Unha hora e dez minutos,” ela respondeu: — antes de, finalmente, recorrer a “en termos de execución a compañía, estamos facendo mellor que eles.”
Pero a cuestión máis esperado chegou de Arte Pushkin, EEUU ex-. elite Airways que fundou o que foi efectivamente un grupo de resistencia (FFOCUS, tamén coñecido como o “Cockroaches”) antes de desertar para a Continental e tendo un centenar de elites con el. Polos seus propios cálculos, que ten custo EUA. Airways, polo menos, $1 millóns desde. A súa pregunta: Por que está alienado Presidentes cargando-os para lugares adestrador Premium. comentarios Parker, en poucas palabras: estamos a ver algúns deles, pero non todos eles — e ten que chegar en primeiro lugar. “O obxectivo non é levalos lonxe de Presidentes e vendelos a alguén — ou a presidentes. A sala comezou a se mover cando Park insistiu outras compañías aéreas están facendo a mesma cousa — eles non son — e, a continuación, respondeu con “Sei que van facer o mesmo que nós somos.” Quizais, quizais non. Pero ningún dos presentes quixen imaxinar unha carreira para o fondo.
Entón, deixou, e tivemos unha hora para matar bolboretas perseguindo.
Cockpit? Entón onte!
Teña en conta que do día en que comezar a súa foto no cockpit foi o “must have”? FlyerTalkers movéronse sobre .. o novo ̶debeve” é a súa imaxe cun motor aberto. Este é claramente o momento máis popular deste día máis cedo–como testemuñas aquí.
FlyerTalkers: Poñendo o "Social" en medios de comunicación social
Seeing as we’ve just touched down in Houston, it’s only fitting to recall that the first airline-sponsored DO was held just five years ago, when Dean Burri (a.k.a cigarman) made a bet with then-Continental CEO Larry Kellner that FlyerTalkers wanted more face time with airline executives and won handily when 300 FTers landed on Kellner’s doorstep. Since then, a growing number of airlines have gotten in on the act — including the second SMD and a large Delta DO the other weekend — followed by hotel chains like Hyatt (which hosted a DO at its Andaz West Hollywood property) and Starwood — one of SMD2′s sponsors.
What changed in the interim? What led airlines to drop their view that FTers were “just a bunch of hot-air whiners,” as Randy Petersen puts it, and actually some of their best customers? Why the explosion in sponsored DOs over the last 12-18 months? (As Southwest has discovered with the AirTran customer leading the charge to save business class aboard that carrier). Obviously, there are many reasons, but one of them has to be the belated realization that they needed a “social media strategy,” and that FlyerTalk itself was their social media strategy.
Lufthansa’s head of social media marketing, Torsten Wingenter, seemed to validate this theory during one of the workshops on social media at Lufthansa’s headquarters Tuesday night. In describing the evolution of the Miles & More program from offering basic awards in the 1990s to creating status benefits and then the exclusivity of HON Circle, he outlined a “Miles & More 2.0″ built around social media. “Our customer changed,” he told the group, “and the question is: ‘should we change as a company?’” Later, he described the airlines’ reluctance succinctly: “Airlines are all about control, because it’s necessary for flight. And social media is to some extent out of control… The customer wants to talk to us at eye-level, not through our traditional channels.”
Enter the Mega DOers, who last year ripped the first iteration of a Miles & More-meets-Foursquare app to shreds. This year’s workshops were calmer, as they talked more broadly about the successes and misses of other airlines online. (The gold standard in America: JetBlue, whose “All You Can Jet” promotion originally started as a tweet. That led to the revelation Lufthansa was considering some form of GroupOn-style group-buying, with implementation as-yet unknown.
The Lufthansa workshops included one devoted to a new ground services app enabling passengers to troubleshoot itineraries with one touch and deal with problems in the air. Another focused on “special moments,” i.e. one-off gifts or onboard experiences designed to reintroduce a measure of surprise and luxury to the comfortable monotony of premium cabins. A few of the 70 or so ideas bandied about included luxury good giveaways (a la the La Prairie products in the amenity kits of Swiss), special country-themed meals, “movie nights” with new releases and popcorn, and so on.
At dinner afterward, Lufthansa and Star executives once again hailed the Mega DOers as knowing more about their product than they do, and in case they didn’t the Lufthansa Group’s other airlines — Swiss, Austrian, Brussels, and bmi — stood by offering cheese, chocolate and goodies to guests. It was the most social media of all.
Fazedores Mega 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? Primeira, 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, e, 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: Germany
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.
Hey, I’m just saying …
