Southwest Airlines has just released yet another YouTube video, and this one's all about summer travel tips. You probably aren't gonna see anything here that you don't already know, but the clip does remind us that the LCC doesn't charge for checked bags.
Southwest worked with the Fort Worth comedy troupe Curtis Needs a Ride to make this video, which we'll admit is mildly entertaining. Our favorite part? When Southwest's very own Christi Day announces that she carries both a work phone and a "pleasure phone." Also: She flies with a Wii!
The idea is to give people flying between the two cities ideas of what to do once they arrive:
Ultimately we want everything on the site to have a "twin," whether it be a place, a neighborhood or a person. So if you like this restaurant in New York, you'll like this one in London. That just feels potentially really useful and different.
So far it looks pretty similar to the user recommendations you get in Dopplr--but limited to only two cities. Will Paris be next now that BA has snatched up L'Avion?
We're now declaring it officially dead, after two full months of dormancy. (Save one minor update to fix a typo.) Not exactly what we'd call an impressive move into web-centric public relations.
The real question now is why the blog is still online. Does American want to remind people how it canceled more than 1,000 flights in one week this April? Does the airline aspire to look like a bumbling relic from the 20th century? Our free advice to AA: Delete this Blogger account immediately!
Spanish LCC Vueling has co-branded two of its A320s with MTV, covering the exteriors with street-inspired art. Inside, the in-flight entertainment systems have been stocked with MTV shows--including "True Life" and "Super Sweet 16"--and some new audio playlists.
The project obviously has a complementary microsite, where there's talk of on-board DJs and parties in Athens, Barcelona, Ibiza and Rome. There's also a newsletter advertised, but you can't seem to sign up for it just yet. Maybe things don't start till later this summer?
While we wait for the extras, the two planes are already flying. One was decked out by Pepa Prieto; the other was done by 3ttMan.
Maybe the updates have stopped because the airline is at work on something a little more substantive? Let's hope so--for AA's sake. There's some serious airline blog competition out there.
Southwest Airlines has revamped its corporate blog, Nuts About Southwest, and the airline is burning up the social media sites to promote it. We heard about it via Twitter, which is fast becoming our go-to spot for up-to-the-second travel news.
The new site also prominently features Flickr photos, podcasts and a "video blog" space. At the bottom, you'll find links to SWA's pages on Facebook and Linkedin, proving once again that the PR types at the airline know what the kids like.
News about Southwest still makes up a bulk of the blog content, in the form of both press releases and conversational posts. There's no getting around the fact that this is a marketing effort for the airline, but it's by far the best airline blog around.
Last week's New Yorker wrote about the possible return of Baltimore as a popular city, or at least a destination, thanks to the commercial success of John Waters, who has sent his movie Hairspray to the Great White Way and then back into movie theaters.
Now Waters is doing the same thing for his cult movie Cry-Baby, which originally starred Johnny Depp and is about a local Baltimore gang, The Drapes.*
And naturally, the Cry-Baby Broadway musical has the Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Bureau super excited about a boom in people wanting to take a trip to B'more. But will it happen?
Was Continental in the minority, thinking the new American Airlines blog was any sort of decent? Must have, cause the carrier has fired up its own stand-alone mouthpiece to spout opinions about airline mergers. You'll find it at co-industryconsolidation.com.
Thing is--and this is right outta the AA playbook--the new site doesn't actually tell us anything worth hearing. Here's a snippet of the "helpful" info Continental shares:
As we've said repeatedly for more than a year and a half, our preference has been to remain independent as long as the competitive landscape remained the same. However, the landscape is changing. We will review our strategic alternatives and make sure we remain a strong long-term competitor.
Southwest should be selling these legacy carriers PR classes.
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by pbb
