Airplane Geeks makes a weekly podcast with all sorts of great information.
Do you like airlines? Do you like podcasts? Well then Airline Geeks is a great podcast for you to check out. I have enjoyed their previous shows, but one of the most recents, episode 125, is probably my favorite. Of course I am a bit biased, since Dan Webb, who writes his blog Things in the Sky, interviewed me for his bits and pieces segment.
We got to talk about bit about social media and what it is like to communicate with airlines when starting a new airline blog. You can listen to the full podcast on the Airplane Geeks website and be sure to follow their future broadcasts and check out some of their older ones.
AirTran Boeing 717 taking off while Midwest sits in the background
Dan Webb over at Things in the Sky take a look at AirTran and Frontier deciding to end their mutual relationship. Yesterday Webb looked at AirTran announcing they would give you 32 A+ credits (that will get you two round trip tickets) if you donated 50,000 Midwest miles (also good for two round trip tickets) to charity.
This creates a problem. Last year Republic Airlines bought Midwest and Frontier. Recently they announced they would change the name to “Frontier Airlines.” AirTran and Frontier had an agreement to share customers (not a codeshare however) since 2006. AirTran is playing hardball (I think it is pretty genius) to get Midwest customers, yet were still trying to play nice with Frontier.
Webb guessed this probably couldn’t last for long and he was right. Today he posted that AirTran and Frontier have announced the ending to their partnership. Both airlines are competing in Milwaukee and AirTran is trying to steal customers from Midwest during Frontier’s brand transition just didn’t sit well with Frontier (surprise, surprise right?).
It seems AirTran is making a pretty smart move here. Loyal Midwest customers are now looking where they want to place their loyalties. If you remove your miles from the equation, now you have a new Frontier which will be taking a while to create brand consistency (ie: will your flight have DirecTV? Internet? On an Airbus or Regional Jet?), where AirTran has the consistency of having Wi-Fi and XFM radio on all flights.
Either way, the people of Milwaukee should reap the benefit of two airlines competing for their business. Game on!
Image: md11forver
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