Free tickets on Song for being nice

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Airline to give free tickets for being nice

ATLANTA, Georgia (AP) -- Airlines have offered more legroom,
televisions and even martinis on flights to draw customers in a highly
competitive market. In the latest unusual effort, Delta's low-fare
carrier, Song, will give free tickets to passengers who are nice to
one another.

Help another passenger carry a bag, stay upbeat during a difficult
situation or assist a flight attendant and you could earn one of 5,000
roundtrip tickets Song will give away in June for redemption between
September and November.

Song hopes the program will build customer loyalty and generate more
revenue for Delta Air Lines, which has lost more than $3 billion in
three years and recently warned about the possibility of bankruptcy.

"We always give away products when people have a problem," Song chief
executive John Selvaggio said in an interview. "I'd love to see what
happens when you give away a ticket for somebody doing something
good."

With profits hard to come by for the major airlines since the 2001
terrorist attacks and several having to raise ticket prices recently
because of high fuel costs, some have been trying a few tricks to
attract customers.

AMR Corp., the parent of American Airlines, said recently that it
would keep its expanded legroom instead of adding more seats in many
of its jets and will provide more passengers power ports to plug in
their entertainment devices.

In January, New York-based JetBlue Airways, which has TVs in every
seatback, said it would enhance its in-flight entertainment with about
100 channels of free digital satellite radio and two pay-per-view
movie channels. Song has martini bars on its flights and Atlanta-based
Delta has experimented with premium food for sale and is having
fashion designer Richard Tyler update employee uniforms.

In the latest Song promotion, each flight attendant will get four
tickets to give away to passengers at his or her discretion. The
tickets will be good for travel between September 7 and November 10 in
any of the 12 cities Song flies.

Song would not say how much the initiative will cost, though it noted
that the seats being given away are only a small fraction of the 1
million a month it has available and the fall period is usually a slow
time in the airline industry. A marketing tour to promote the program
begins Thursday in Boston.

As he got off a Song flight Wednesday in Fort Lauderdale, Florida,
John Murphy, a 34-year-old financial consultant from New York, said he
was intrigued by the promotion. "Perhaps it will put people in a
better mood on airplanes," said Murphy, who was traveling Song for the
first time.

Some analysts, however, are skeptical of Song's plan.

Ray Neidl, an airline analyst with Blaylock & Partners in New York,
said he doesn't believe the promotion will generate much new business
for Song or Delta.

"Next thing you know, they'll be paying you to fly," Neidl said. "I
just hope there are not that many people that are nice. Yields are bad
enough already."

BL.
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Brad Littlejohn | Email:
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The problem with this, is that people will be ueber-nice. They will grovel
over offering to share their ununsed peanut (or is it pretzel?) package with
their neighbor--but only when an attendant is looking. A dozen people will
be cluttering the aisle trying to help others re-position their bags in the
most geometrically optimal alignment, while smiling through their teeth and
asking, "Whose hat is this?; I want to make sure this hat does not get
crumpled! Is this someone's hat?!?"

Whole sections of aircraft will smilingly scream that they are not leaning
their seats back because of concern about others' comfort. Dozens of people
will be grappling for others' drinks to help pass them 12 inches
further--and drinks will be spilled in the frenetically helpful process,
but this will still only increase opportunities for people to be
sycophanticaally nice about offering napkins or offering to slurp the
spilled bloody mary from the afflicted passenger's pants with one's
mouth--until the kind, kind passengers realize that this might be considered
a perverse affront, and then they will apologize profusely in the presence
of airline personnel for the offer.

What a fun, fun airline this will be to fly.