Who is the world's most sociable airline?

That's sociable not social and we're not talking online but offline.

An airline's social media strategy is becoming increasingly important and all eyes are watching. There are no hiding places when a tweet of complaint goes unanswered or a comment on Facebook goes unliked, but there's no doubt that the majority of airlines are getting better. There's an emerging return on investment when it comes to the difference between an unhappy and happy customer that can easily be amplified if the customer in question has influence.

It's generally agreed that an airline customer's experience is influenced by many factors, including:

  • The check in and pre-departure experience
  • The quality of food and drinks on board 
  • The general cabin ambience throughout the trip- an aspect that is 'felt' and often commented on in retrospect
  • The legroom, seat comfort and in-flight entertainment- which has undoubtedly improved over the years on the majority of airlines

However, we at Planely, believe there's one really important aspect of a journey that has been overlooked- until now!

Most would agree that one of the things that can make a flight really enjoyable and memorable is a chance encounter with a fellow traveler who turns out to be an interesting or useful traveling companion. The relief that when the person who sits next to you isn't a Sumo wrestler or new age traveler who hasn't washed since the last solstice- turn to delight as you discover shared interests or a mutually beneficial business opportunity over your welcome drink and hot towel. Up until now, seating arrangements on planes have been a lottery. A seating neighbor that enhances the journey left to random chance.

Well...what if that special encounter WASN'T left to chance???? What if you could PLAN it before hand, and spend valuable time with a potential business partner, someone with shared experiences, someone that you could share a cab with the other end or maybe even have a few drinks and a bite to eat with later at the destination? We call it 'Social Flying', and are confident it's the next big 'why didn't I think of that' concept.

Planely is perfectly positioned to measure the demand for 'social flying' on behalf of you, the airline. Our website allows people to register their flights and get an instant 'Matches' report back on who else is going to be not only traveling with them on their plane but also in their departure and arrival airports. We then provide a simple way for people to reach out to each other and arrange a meet up- and potentially sit together- days in advance of the trip. What comes out of that encounter, well, the sky IS the limit!

So who is the most sociable airline?

To find the answer to this Planely are going to run a competition. It's meant to be fun but it's also a great chance for airlines to test the water in what, we believe, could dramatically change the way we view our air travel experience.

To be eligible to enter you need to fulfill these two simple criteria:

  1. You need to be an airline
  2. You need to be open-minded, competitive, adventurous and curious

The way it will work is simple. All airline flights that are added to Planely by airline customers (simply done at the Planely website (http://www.planely.com) between April 13th and April 20th will be counted and analyzed.

The airline with the most flights entered at the end of this period will be deemed the world's most sociable airline.

We'll also award a prize for the most sociable flight (most customers booked on one single leg) and one for the most number of reach-outs (emails sent out from within the system between two passengers attributed to an airline).

For the winners we'll prepare a perfectly shaped press release and distribute it widely to the media- so your airline could be heralded The Most Sociable Airline 2011. It's good publicity- and it's free. And it will give you an invaluable insight in to this fascinating new world of opportunity. All you have to do is engage your existing customers and their response will prove to you the enthusiasm we believe is out there for the harnessing.

We can help with a suitable email shot or paragraph and hot-link for your website if required. Just email the Planely team at groundcontrol@planely.com.

We hope you will take part- Good luck and may the most sociable airline win!