29 March 2012 – “Technology can be offered as a perk, for example providing passengers in Business with free tablets,” Raymond Kollau says. 
22 March 2012 – “Passengers can look forward to a far more personalized experience in the future,” says airlinetrends.com’s Raymond Kollau. 
3 Feb. 2012 – “The concept makes perfect sense as people like to surround themselves with like-minded persons,” said Raymond Kollau. 
24 July 2011 – No major U.S. carrier offers free food on domestic flights anymore, says Raymond Kollau. 
4 May 2011 – “This is an example of experiential marketing,” Raymond Kollau said. 
10 March 2011 – “This is a novel way to pass some of the risk in fuel cost to customers,” Raymond Kollau said. 
Lufthansa rewards Foursquare users for virtual check-ins at Munich’s Oktoberfest
23 September 2010 | We recently covered the first airlines in Asia-Pacific (Air New Zealand) and the U.S. (Virgin America) that are using the fast growing location-based social networks Foursquare (3 million users) and Loopt (4 million) to connect with consumers. In Europe, Lufthansa has just become the first airline to partner with Foursquare for a geo-social marketing campaign based around the annual Oktoberfest in Munich, which takes place from September 19 to October 4, 2010.
An important status element of Foursquare are ‘badges’, which are awarded to Foursquare members that ‘check in’ frequently with their cellphone at the same location. For example, the ‘Jetsetter’ badge can be earned by visiting an airport 5 times, and the ‘Airport’ badge can be earned by visiting 5 different airports.
Foursquare users who check in to three Lufthansa-approved venues at Oktoberfest will receive the special Oktoberfest badge. Unlocking the badge entitles them to a EUR20 flight voucher good for a future Lufthansa flight. A redemption code will be emailed after unlocking the badge. A micro-site details how to download Foursquare’s app and how to earn the flight voucher. It also includes tips on how to visit beer tents around Munich’s annual festival.
Lufthansa says it is the first major German brand to run a campaign on Foursquare and the Oktoberfest badge is the first badge that’s exclusive to Germany, and one of only three available only outside the US and Canada. Besides its Facebook, Twitter and YouTube presence, the airline is very active in the social ‘mediasphere’, and earlier launched its MySkyStatus notification service and Miles & More MemberScout social app for the iPhone.
Update 30 November 2010. Travel tech website tnooz reports that over 2,350 Lufthansa badges were unlocked over the duration of the Oktober festival. Furthermore, around 150,000 unique users visited the microsite specifically created for the project.
Related articles:
Virgin America uses location-based social network Loopt to promote new routes
Lufthansa MySkyStatus lets passengers auto-tweet their flight position
Etihad and Lufthansa launch loyalty apps for the iPhone
About Raymond KollauFounder of airlinetrends.com. Spends his day monitoring the global aviation industry for commercial innovations in response to changing consumer behaviour. Besides working with clients in the airline industry, Raymond also has a part-time position as consumer trends analyst at leading consumer trends agency trendwatching.com.
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