Tips to keep you from looking like a schmoe.
It’s here! No, not the new phone books.
I’m talking about AirTran Airways, the first major (well, major-ish) national airline to offer Wi-Fi on all of its aircraft — 136 planes in all. This is the first fleet-wide availability of the Internet in the air, although other carriers, including Southwest, American and Delta are not far behind.
Now, I’m not going to get into a discussion about road-warrior productivity, what this means to AirTran to be THE FIRST or whether in-flight cell phone usage is next (please God no).
All I’d like to do is highlight a great PR and marketing idea that has helped make AirTran’s roll out more memorable and effective. This idea has made me pay extra attention to AirTran’s announcement, and may actually result in me buying an AirTran ticket some day. (I don’t know when, but some day. Maybe. Where do they fly anyway?)
This great idea is “Internetiquette – A Guide to Keeping Everyone in Line, While They’re Online.” It’s a series of tips, found in brochures on each AirTran plane and in videos on the airline’s Web site. They humorously help passengers navigate the brave new world of in-flight Internet access without offending everyone around them. Sample tips include “The lavatory is not your personal conference room,” and “Flight attendants are not tech support.”
I find this hilarious, and I’ll hazard a guess that I’m not the only one. I’ll also guess that the inclusion of Internetiquette in AirTran’s launch has generated more interest and media coverage for the company than a more traditional approach might have. I mean, I’m writing about it for heaven’s sake.
