Top 10 Travel Distribution initiatives by Airlines

Great examples of airlines using social media to reinvent the booking cycle, thereby building their brands and driving customer engagement.
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Helping airlines & airports engage travelers profitably
http://www.SimpliFlying.com

Case-study 1
Virgin America: “Chrome app & Groupon”

Route launches using Groupon
After announcing the new Chicago-O'Hare and LAX, SFO routes, VA tasted huge success with a Groupondeal in a matter of a couple hours.
The bargain was to pay $7 and get $77 in airfare towards a round-trip purchase on Virgin America’s new routes, and the deal was good on Groupon's Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco sites.
Quite obviously the deal was a huge hit. Later, this was repeated successfully, with slight modifications to the price, for the Dallas-Fort Worth routes.

Google Chrome app helps you fly!
To use VA’s app, users input their gender as well as where, when and the kind of trip in order to get suggestions for what to pack and where to go.
Users can also select specific traveling preferences to build Trip Inspiration boards based on criteria like Trip Vibe and Must Do activities.

Discover a social travel experience!
They can also pick from a selection of images or add their own images from Picasa to their boards. The app then recommends destinations that correspond to the “mood” of your Inspiration Board.
Goals driven
Revenue
Engagement

Case-study 2
Lufthansa: “iPad app”

Looking for travel inspiration?
The Lufthansa for iPad app is available in English or German and it caters to people looking for a little travel inspiration and also to the practically minded traveler.

An interactive booking guide!
The crux of this app is an interactive world map, enabling you to trace your way from origin to destination airports and helping book flights.
It also allows check-ins and uses an interactive feature to select seats. You can also access a booking summary and view your Miles & More account balance.

Discover more and experience Lufthansa!
Not only are there detailed guides to cities, the Experience Lufthansa section offers a 3-D rendition of the airline’s new European cabin, and there are 360-degree views of the A380 cockpit, along with a selection of videos.
Goals driven
Revenue
Engagement

Case-study 3
Malaysia Airlines: “MHBuddy & MHQuick”

Book tickets directly from Facebook!
The second prong in Malaysia Airlines’ e-commerce suite, MHbuddy is Malaysia Airlines’ ticket office on Facebook. With MHbuddy, socially active travelers can now have a seamless travel experience on Malaysia Airlines without even leaving Facebook, and can spread the words of their travel experience easily.
SimpliFlying.com has earlier featured MHBuddy in detail. Read that article here.

A truly social booking experience!
Socially savvy travelers can book their flights without having to access the Malaysia Airlines website, check-in for their flights, select their seats on the plane and see where their friends are sitting if they are flying on the same flight.
In addition, being on the Facebook platform, users of MHbuddy can announce their travel plans to their friends on their Facebook wall, or even find friends who are at their destination.

Chrome app gives more options to the social user!
With the launch of the MHbuddy app on Facebook, Malaysia Airlines not only has another commerce channel, but also it serves as a bridge, together with other Malaysia Airlines M-commerce solutions such as MHmobile & MHquick Google Chrome app, for users who are social media savvy.
Goals driven
Revenue
Engagement

Case-study 4
Delta Air Lines: “Facebook booking”

Delta customers can book directly from Facebook!
Delta integrates a full-fledged booking system within Facebook so customers can now book without having to leave their favourite social network.
Customers can plan, book and instantly share their itinerary.

Forget the hassles of going to other websites
For Delta, this is a great opportunity to provide value to 100k + fans and attract new members from a potential pool of 500m+ users.
Goals Driven
Revenue
Engagement

Case-study 5
Alaska Airlines’ FlyingSocial

Using the Facebook social graph to sell tickets
Alaska Airlines’ FlyingSocialFacebook application allows you to see on a map where your Facebook friends live.
Then it super-imposes fares to those destinations on the airline, and you can either buy or share with a friend.
Goals driven
Revenue

Click here to download.

Case-study 6
Estonian Air: “Group-buying on Cherry.ee”

Estonian Air drives a group-buying rush!
EA had to cease selling discounted tickets through Cherry.ee,a local Groupon-type group-buying website, when sales exploded. The airline planned to sell 2,500 vouchers for EEK600 (EUR38) which would provide a discount of EEK1000 (EUR64), but within 24 hours 6,500 vouchers were sold!
Goals driven
Revenue
Source: AirlineTrends.com

Case-study 7
British Airways: “iPhone app”

All you needed to know in your pocket!
BA customers can directly track their flight status, arrivals, departures and even download their boarding pass.
Executive Club members can also check their mileage status directly from their app as well as even buy upgrades from within the app.

Board by flashing your iPhone!
Mobile boarding passes are here and you can directly check-in by using the QR code in the ticket info on your phone (only for Executive Club members).
This app has been downloaded a humongous
Goals driven
Engagement
Revenue

Case-study 8
JetBlue: “Cheeps”

Cheap tickets sold every Tuesday morning on Twitter
JetBlue sells last minute, limited-availability, cheap flights every Tuesday.
Almost 240,000 people follow this account!

Fills up capacity, drives revenue!
Not only does it help fill up capacity, it drives more user traffic to JetBlue.
Goals driven
Revenue

Case-study 9
Melbourne Airport: “Cheap Twitter deals”

Melbourne Airport provides cheap deals on Twitter!
Melbourne Airport helps travellers plan their journeys better by providing the latest deals on flights from Melbourne on their Twitter stream.
Goals driven
Revenue

Case-study 10
PLUNA and Flip.to

Sharing in the booking path
The Flip.to app allows passengers of Pluna Airlines of Uruguay to share their travel plans with their friends, right in the booking path after they have made a payment.
For this, they get rewarded with 10 FlyDollars!
Goals Driven
Revenue
Loyalty

Bonus case-study
LAN Airlines: “Fall Fare Sale”

Driving the sales of discounted tickets via Facebook
LAN USA offers a time-limited (2 weeks) sale of tickets to some of South America’s most popular destinations this fall.
To drive awareness and buzz, they’ve created a special section on their Facebook page to gain interest from customers and sell tickets.
Goals Driven
Revenue

For more case-studies:
www.SimpliFlying.com
Helping airlines & airports engage travelers profitably
http://www.SimpliFlying.com

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Top 10 Travel Distribution initiatives by Airlines

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