Jeff talked on Beat of Hawaii today about a major development coming to the airlines’ Facebook fan pages.
Carriers are about to begin using fan pages not only promote deals but also to offer consumers the ability to purchase tickets.
The move towards selling tickets directly on Facebook has been evolving slowly.
So far, airlines have continued to use their websites instead of building applications to shop directly on Facebook. That will be changing quickly. Before we start buying our airline tickets on Facebook, however, here’s a glimpse at what some of the carriers have accomplished on their fan pages thus far.
Southwest Airlines: 782,000 fans
SWA is far and away the top US airline on Facebook, both in terms of the number of fans, and in the quality of their Facebook technology and participation. Their customized fan page offers special deals, virtual gifts, polls and more. SWA reps Lindsey, Laurel and Christy regularly interact with fans and answer questions and comments. The page helps promotes the airline’s virtues including free checked bags.
JetBlue Airways: 133,000 fans
Their fan page pales in comparison with SWA in all regards. It’s a standard fan page offering and unlike SWA has no custom applications. It does offer promotions and news and has occasional participation by the airline.
Virgin America: 54,000 fans
Active website with good fan participation. Virgin engages in the dialogue but not consistently. There are some promotions and other news. No custom application and their fan page redirects users to the corporate website.
American Airlines: 52,000 fans
AA has a basic fan page with a Wi-Fi flight finder, wall activity, plus Twitter and YouTube tabs. They have a related but separate Travel Bag fare finding application, which features an interactive map and helps find flights and deals, but ultimately redirects to the AA website for the actual purchase.
Alaska Air. 11,000 fans. Standard fan page with links back to the Alaska Air website. Misses the point of Facebook and fans desires to interact with brands within Facebook.
Continental Airlines. Continental has virtually no Facebook presence. In fact, the “Continental Airlines Sucks” fan page has more fans than Continental does.
Delta Airlines. 17,000 fans. No posts. Some photos. Little else.
Hawaiian Air. 12,000 fans. Standard fan page with wall activity and little else to engage fans.
United Airlines. 16,000 fans. No posts from the company. No apparent understanding of Facebook.
Who’s going to be first to sell tickets on Facebook?
1. EasyJet. The airline, which has one of the best Facebook integrations, and 25,000 fans, has just launched a new on-line holiday planner Facebook application (and tab). Once you become a fan, you create and name a trip, pick from budget, destinations, and dates, then invite your Facebook and email friends. The ability to purchase on their fan page has been announced and is soon to be added.
2. Southwest Airlines. Based on their extensive fan page and level of involvement, they are the US carrier I find most likely to go first in Facebook ticketing.
Concerns: Airlines remain worried about loss of control in the social media space.
Wall posts, both complementary and not can go viral quickly. Airlines are no doubt setting up teams to help monitor social media, develop content and applications, and evolve strategies to be competitive in this quickly changing marketing arena. Airlines also need to have viable financial arrangements in place with Facebook to make sure selling there makes sense.
Implications for airlines, consumers and Facebook:
For consumers, it’s a simple solution to remain on Facebook without the need for multiple log-ins to navigate between booking sites.
For the airlines, it could well create a situation placing greater importance on their Facebook applications and less importance on their own websites.
For Facebook and the airlines, it will be interesting to see how Facebook will charge carriers for transactions taking place via fan pages. Facebook certainly stands to make a lot of money.
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