This morning as I was checking my email, I came across a tweet that talks about a hand-written note from an 8 year old girl talking about how much she enjoys flying Virgin America over United. Here is that tweet:
An 8 yr old lets @united know why she enjoys the flying experience better on @VirginAmerica pic.twitter.com/5su85b28UR
— Laura Evans (@lauraevansfox5) April 16, 2014
Now the note is a little hard to read, but here is the premise:
The girl loves to travel! She usually flies on United, but they flew on Virgin Airlines and fell in love! The lighting, the fact that they ALWAYS have a TV where you can play games, watch movies, listen to music and order food. You can even see where the plane is flying over the country.
She also loves the flight safety music video and thinks that the plane is cool and groovy. Much more modern than United. The flight crew was really nice, funny, and the pilot even let her sit in his seat.
It sounds like this girl had an incredible experience on Virgin America and it will influence her for years to come.
I had a similar experience as a kid where the family flew on a Northwest Airlines flight to Arizona and the nice flight attendants gave me peanuts, ginger ale, a deck of cards and a set of wings that I could pin onto my shirt. It was pretty much the coolest thing to ever happen to me at that point in my life. Those little gestures helped me become fiercely loyal to Northwest airlines for years to come, and that has even survived their transition to Delta to this point (although I talk about leaving Delta all of the time).
From my personal history, I know that this experience will do a long way toward creating loyalty for this girl that could last a lifetime.
Investing in future loyal flyers?
In today’s world of airlines doing anything they can to squeeze out profit, very little thought is given to developing loyal customers of the future. This girl is only 8 years old now, but soon she will be 18. Maybe she will become the next Lucky, or maybe she will become the next million miler. It seems as if innovative and fun airlines like Virgin America have the opportunity to influence the next generation of loyal flyers, but will they be around in 15 years?
The problem doesn’t seem to be airlines creating a memorable experience for flyers, the problem is staying consistent and actually being there when the new generation of brand loyalists enter their golden years of flying. I don’t see very much evidence that any of the incumbent legacy carriers creating that type of loyalty. This creates a great opportunity for Virgin America, Southwest and others to create that type of loyalty for the next generation of flyers.