Is Air France/ KLM the only airline that has developed Social Networks?

[Ron Callari]

All major airlines use frequent flyer programs to stimulate customer loyalty and generate additional revenues through third-party offerings. However, Air France /KLM is the only airline worldwide to create a customer-centric online community. Based on their success, what other airines are considering social networks for their loyalty programs?

[Shashank Nigam]

Ron,

Good discussion topic. Other than Air France-KLM, Lufthansa has created GenFlyLounge - a social network for student travelers. Virgin America has created its own community. Virgin Atlantic has a very active Facebook page. JetBlue and Southwest have huge Twitter and blog following. You can read more about all of these here: http://simpliflying.com/tag/technology-branding/

Regarding the success of Bluenity, I'm not sure by what measure it's been a success. Certainly it's not a revenue generating community for AF/KLM, since they're not trying to sell tickets. They probably have other ROI metrics, like buzz created on other websites, or number of community members, and no. of members who actually fly AF/KLM. Similarly, I bet other airlines have other appropriate ROI metrics that they judge their success upon.

What're your thoughts? Is this something other airlines should be doing more pro-actively, or should they "wait and watch"?