American Airlines' New 'Black Atlas' Network Targets Minority Travelers

October 12, 2009 at 11:18 AM | by JetSetCD | Comments (0)

Does the world really need another traveler social network? A whimpered "yes?" comes from the direction of American Airlines, who this week will be launching BlackAtlas.com, a part-facebook, part-travel guide serving as "your passport to the black experience." Indeed they are targeting African-American air travelers, who want to read articles titled "5 1/2 Things About Brooklyn" and watch videos about places like "Sonia's Hair Salon" in Madrid.

The Site doesn't officially launch until Thursday the 15th, but from sneak peek screenshots and more, we're thinking it looks like an expensive new toy for an airline which maybe shouldn't be spending that money right now.

As a member of BlackAtlas, you will be constantly advertised to with American Airlines airfares and the AAdvantage card, but in exchange you get to watch professionally-produced videos on locations around the world, focusing on black culture at each destination. From a traveler's perspective, it sounds great if you're into constantly discovering bits of your own culture around the world, but American might be walking too thin a line.

Of course anyone can join since there's no way for them to verify your ethnicity, so we suppose we'll see how successful BlackAtlas becomes after its launch on Thursday.

Related Stories:
· Black Atlas [Official Site]
· American Airlines� New �Black Atlas� Social Media Site�Why? [Flying With Fish]
· Travel Websites coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: BlackAtlas]

Jaunted

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