12
Mar
American Airlines 2012 SXSW event
Corazon at Castle Hill in Austin, TX
Twenty thousand people have landed in Austin for five days of workshops, panel discussions, and parties at the SXSW Interactive festival. This annual event is a big showcase of new products, apps, and services from small startups you haven’t heard of (yet) and large companies you know very well, like Highlight, Google, Facebook, Pintrest, Twitter, HootSuite, GM, Pepsi, Samsung.
American Airlines is here too, and they hosted an event Sunday evening to talk about their expanding social media presence, and some of the things they’re doing with mobile technology. They were kind enough to extend me an invite, so I stopped by to visit.
For me, it was a great opportunity to meet the American Airlines social team, and to be able to put a face with an avatar, email address, or Twitter handle. I was also able to meet Phil Easter, the Director of Mobile Apps and get a sneak preview of some of the software that his group has been busy developing.
One of the highlights of the evening was getting to meet two of AA’s most active Facebook fans: Will F. and Duane. C. Will is in town for the conference and Duane flew in from Chicago just to attend the American event, I was really glad to have met them.
Anyway, I got the impression that both the Mobile App team and the Social Media team function like small startups: they’ve had to create roles and functions where previously none existed, they’re passionate about what they’re doing, and they’re doing some cool stuff.
Mobile Apps
Phil Easter leads American’s mobile strategy and development. He was on hand to demonstrate a new version of the American Airlines iPad App. It’s been completely redone to take advantage of of the iPad’s larger screen. The main menu is now more of a dashboard. You’ll be able to view important info without having to move through several menus, most of your information will be available just by scrolling. The graphic elements of the user interface have also been completely redesigned. It has a more polished, data driven interface, and looks less like the website and more like an iPad App.
Another improvement…I promised not to say much about it, but Sudoku fans will be really happy with version 2.0. They’re doing something really clever with gameplay. The new app will be out later this year.
Some other AA mobile app news: American will be coming out with a new game app later this year. I promised not to say more until they open it up for beta testing, but it has a social gaming element and you’ll be able to earn badges and AAdvantage Miles.
It’s not like anything I’ve seen before. It’s not just a “private label” version of an existing mobile game, it’s completely original, and I’m not sure another app development company could pull if off without having their own airline and frequent flyer program.
Raffle to give away a Samsung Galaxy TAB
Social Media Strategy
American has been busy the last year and half building a team around some of the new social media communication services. Three years ago they we just blasting marketing messages on Facebook and Twitter and they weren’t having a lot of success with that strategy. Then two years ago they decided to do things differently.
Since then, they’ve crafted a strategy that uses these channels to talk to customers, resolve customer service issues, trace lost luggage, provide information about weather related delays, and still keep their customers up to date on mileage offers and fare sales. They started out with three people and now they’re up to eleven and still expanding.
Something that I thought was really interesting: they spend a lot of time reading and following milepoint and FlyerTalk. I know that they post in both forums from time to time. but I wasn’t sure how closely they monitored the discussions.
It turns out that they were familiar with all the threads and topics, they knew the forum usernames of the most active participants, and they were impressed with the quantity and quality of information available in the forums.
Reader Giveaway
Congratulations to Jay, the winner of Friday’s Reader Giveaway! Friday I asked readers to look at the Q2 Citi reduced mileage award chart and name the city they would most like to visit.
Three readers suggested my favorite destination, Montreal. Jay had a great suggestion too, with Lexington, KY, home of Valhalla Golf Club, site of the 2008 Ryder Cup.
Win an American Airlines USB Card and Free Code for Gogo Wifi
The AA social media team was nice enough to give me five USB cards with free codes for Gogo Inflight Wifi, so each day this week I’ll be giving one away.
To celebrate SXSW, all you have to do to enter is share the name of your favorite mobile travel app in the comments section. If you don’t have a favorite, you can share that fact instead.
Tomorrow morning, I’ll have a random drawing to pick a winner, and will announce the results Tuesday’s post. One entry per person. The deadline to enter is tonight, March 12, at 11:59PM Pacific.
Good luck!
Ralph L said,
Kayak App…
John777 said,
AA travel app
Naif said,
Priceline app
Haonan Zhang said,
Tripit app. It has saved my butt a few times.
David said,
Tripit. Indispensable.
Timothy said,
AA app
Suzi said,
TripIt app – LOVE!
Scorpio said,
AA App – - – so much better than the other airlines’ apps (especially considering the limited reach of Windows Phone devices!)
John said,
4square app. thanks.
Simon said,
FlightTrack
Eric said,
Tripit!
Ran Z said,
SPG Hotel App
Joel S said,
I unfortunately don’t have a favorite travel app, but should probably look into a few more!
Everett said,
TripDeck
James P said,
Hotel Tonight app.
Thanks for the contests.
Duc said,
Weather app on Iphone
Tim A. said,
TripIt… don’t leave home without it.
Sam said,
AA travel App looks better than UA app
Lisa said,
I have to agree with Suzi. Tripit & Truphone are apps that I’ve grown to depend on while traveling.
Ken said,
AA.com and FlightTrack Pro!
sonya said,
I don’t have one either … I use opentable and yelp when I travel. Google maps is indispensible. Is American Airlines still at SXSW? I’m here … would love to meet them. On my way to hitting plat exec this year-and this is the first year I’ve ever flown on AA…. Thanks!
TheBeerHunter said,
My favorite “in general” app (which I use for travel as well) is Evernote. It’s just such a simple, easy way to collect disparate content (right now it’s getting lots of clippings/URLs/articles about an upcoming trip to Africa)
Michael W said,
What do you think of SXSW? I’d love to go someday. Favorite travel app-tough one but probably ITA On The Fly. I’d love one of the codes for my flights coming up in April!
Krish said,
Tripit App
Vivek said,
hotels.com add. comes in very handy on road trips
Cameron said,
It would be GateGuru if the info was accurate. Instead I’d have to say the Starwood app.
Luis said,
Tweetbot, keeps me entertained
Clive said,
GateGuru
Alex Martinez said,
The AA app is a terrific one but also the Amex travel app, and flight track are good too!!!
Dante Ferman said,
Tripit
Sergio said,
booking app
Jamison said,
i was there last night too!
Jamison said,
stephanie gave you 5 usb codes, i saw that! didnt know it was you lol
mike l. said,
Hipmunk
Erndog said,
pageonce’s TripTracker
Jeff D said,
Awardwallet!
Stuart Falk said,
Tripit
Abhishek Duggal said,
Tripit
Bob said,
Kayak
Nishanth said,
Trip Tracker
David G. said,
SPG Hotel App
Adrian said,
Hipmunk!
Ada L. said,
ITA software app
John P. said,
Tripit
Patrick said,
Redbox. I travel a lot for work, and when I’m coming home I love to see if there is a Redbox in close proximity. I pick up the video the morning of my flight, watch it on my laptop, and drop it off at my local Redbox on the way home. Makes flying without AVOD on AA a lot easier.
Dennybob said,
Award Wallet app
Pointasaurus said,
tripit
Rasamee said,
AA IPAD APP
Eddy said,
AA — so much easier to pull up the mobile boarding pass vs going to a mobile browser
Lewis said,
Hopstop
mangoMan said,
Delta app.
Peter said,
Not an original answer – Tripit hands down
Bill Ovalles said,
Favorite “travel” app is Pageonce… Although not technically a travel app it keeps me up to date with all my credit cards, bank accounts and rewards account… Very easy to check everything with the push of a button… Excellent for those long trips!
Jeff said,
ITA matrix software
Idin said,
Tripit
Diana said,
I probably use Yelp more than anything while travelling but yeah to be more specific with flights/hotels and car rentals I love trip tracker.
Dave W said,
AA mobile app and Hipmunk for iPad
Kevincm said,
MyFlights for iOS. An Excellent Amadeus Trip management tool.
Kashyap said,
Kayak iphone app
Nhu-An Thai said,
Tripit! In my opinion there is nothing better.
DC Terr said,
AA app of course!
flamingo said,
hipmunk
Irving said,
jetBlue
Phil said,
AA app for Windows Phone
wis said,
british airways
Bob said,
AA app is always first
Wing said,
HopStop App
HockeyCoachBen said,
Much unoriginal answer… Google… While not so much a travel app, I use it non-stop while traveling to find anything that I need…and I get answers much faster than my lame TomTom!
Alan V said,
TripIt and GateGuru
Chip said,
TripAdvisor
Rebecca said,
Award Wallet!
Dave said,
Trip Advisor
David said,
Tripit!
Art said,
AA app. I look at it every day.
ae said,
Award Wallet!
ari said,
TravelTracker Pro
Dave said,
Tripit!
Admirals Club News: Website update and discount code - AAdvantageGeek said,
[...] had planned to give away an American Airlines USB card and a free Gogo Wifi code each day this week. We had two winners this week before the website issues started, so I still have three more cards [...]
American Airlines Sweepstakes and Giveaways: Win Trips, Miles, and AA USB Card with Free Gogo Wifi Code - AAdvantageGeek said,
[...] AA social media team was nice enough to give me five USB cards with free codes for Gogo Inflight Wif…. I’ve gave away two last week, so this week I’m giving away the remaining [...]
Paolo said,
AA travel app
Kasim said,
Hotel Tonight
JD said,
AA app… but I clearly need to try some others
NEW: Buy on Board Food Choices WIN: @AmericanAir USB Card with Free Gogo Wifi Code - AAdvantageGeek said,
[...] AA social media team was nice enough to give me five USB cards with free codes for Gogo Inflight Wif…. I’ve given away three so far, and now I’m giving away the remaining two – [...]
camila said,
can’t live without it
My seating dilemma: Win an @AmericanAir USB Card with Free Gogo Wifi Code - AAdvantageGeek said,
[...] AA social media team was nice enough to give me five USB cards with free codes for Gogo Inflight Wif…. I’ve given away four so far, so this is the final [...]
David Lindmeyer said,
Great info
aadvantagegeek said,
@ David – Thanks for the complement and for reading!
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