Virgin America Flys to Pleasanton
by John Harper
I was over at one of my favorite hangouts in Pleasanton, CA on Friday - Tullys. Tullys is a great place to hang out and get some work done. Especially, if you get a soft ice cream and pour a couple of shots of espresso over it. Tully's has FREE WiFi access, though I think the FREE WiFi zone is now operational in downtown Pleasanton.
I was at Tullys to meet up with Rhonda Fee and Karen Bartholomew, a couple of blogging converts that needed a pointer or two on blogging. The biggest table with a power outlet near was being occupied by this gent - Brian Clark. Turns out that Brian is the VP Planning & Sales for Virgin Amercia Airlines.
Well, given that I retired from Delta AirLines last August, we started talking airlines and then blogging as Brian informed me that Virgin America had a blog on their site. After taking a look, I informed Brian that you really couldn't call what Virgin America has on their site a blog. We kicked blogging around a bit, the airlines a bit more and then Brian had to make some calls and Rhonda, Karen and I needed to have our chat.
One of the points of interest in the conversation with Brian was his mention of the resistance VA is getting from unions. I found that interesting as Delta is mostly non-union and most of the low-cost startups are non-union.
I'll be keeping an eye on the VA site to see if they get the okay to fly and if they figure out blogging and what it can do to help them connect with their customers.
February 19th, 2007 at 9:52 pm
John,
Great to see Tully’s in Pleasanton. It is very interesting that so many business do not understand the value of an internal blog for employee feedback as well as a public blog for customer feedback. Both can provide vital information on a company’s progress. . .
Maybe if JetBlue had an internal blog set up and listened to their employees, who would have likely complained about workload and other infrastructure shortcomings, they could have avoided the nightmare disaster that they find themselves in today. According to today’s NY Times, JetBlue have had 1,000 cancelations ! They are in trouble and it might have been avoided if the safeguard of an internal blog had been set up. . .
Off subject, kudos to your brother’s article on golf! Excellent info thanks!
May 19th, 2007 at 6:36 am
Virgin America cleared to fly
After almost a year and a half of regulatory battles, the startup airline backed by British billionaire Richard Branson got its operating license Friday from the U.S. Department of Transportation. The Burlingame-based airline plans to start carrying passengers by mid-summer.
The approval comes with a caveat: The airline must jettison CEO Fred Reid and pick a replacement without ties to Branson or other foreigners. An airline industry veteran, Reid was selected by Branson two years ago to lead Virgin America. Federal regulators questioned whether Reid, an American citizen, would be beholden to British citizen Branson, a situation they said would run afoul of federal laws prohibiting foreigners to have influence over the operations of U.S.-based airlines.
This has to be a real setback for Reid who left Delta because he was not chosen to succeed Ron Allen or was it Leo Mullin. Anyway, he left because he wanted to run an airline - be numero uno. Oh well, things change