AirTran misses an opportunity

From a marketing perspective, I think my current most-admired airline is Airtran. Maybe that’s because JetBlue doesn’t visit my little enclave, but whatever. It’s not like it’s a big award.

They seem to do a lot of things right (again, from a marketing standpoint). But on a recent flight, I noticed a missed opportunity.

Sitting at a window seat on a flight home from Orlando, I look out and see the fin thingy on the end of the wing (how do you like my keen knowledge of airplane components?) and it has Airtran’s URL. Pretty standard. But I’m willing to guess most people who could see that URL pretty much knew what Airtran’s URL was.

What if they put a different URL on the wing? Something that would engage passengers in a unique community experience.

The possibilities are endless, but just off the top of my head…

• A site that allows people to share photos taken from their window seats, possibly with monthly prizes for the best ones.
• A site that offers ever-changing fare deals to the “window seat” community.
• The CEO’s blog.

As the flying experience continues to deteriorate, I would think something like this would be a refreshing change.

I offer these ideas free of charge to Airtran, or any other airline, for that matter, to use as they please. Should they decide to send me a check for, let’s say $15,000, I promise to fly their airline whenever possible.