Travelfli Meetings: AirTran
Our third and final meeting in Atlanta was with AirTran, the low cost coast-to-coast carrier. We met with Tad Hutcheson, Vice President of Sales & Marketing, who has been with the airline since 1997. He oversees marketing, sales, partnerships, the A+ loyalty program, AirtTran.com, community and government Relations, public relations, and charitable giving. The overriding point I’m trying to make is that…Tad clearly needs more to do. 
Prior to the meeting, Dan and I were talking about Air Tran’s current operations, and he brought up a good point that Air Tran doesn’t get enough credit for their proven ability to run an efficient company that provides a superior product in an industry that is challenging…to say the least.
For instance, Air Tran is ranked #1 in the 2008 Airline Quality Rating Study! They had the best baggage handling rate (at 4.06 mishandled bags per 1,000 passengers,) and landed alongside Jet Blue - but far ahead the other airlines in avoiding bumping passengers from flights (Air Tran ranked 0.15 per 10,000 customers, while Jet Blue came in at 0.02 per 10,000.)
Air Tran’s commitment to quality is paying off, as they reported all-time record traffic for the month of August. Traffic grew by 12.7%, which represented 1.9 billion revenue passenger miles (RPMs) and an 8.8% increase in capacity. This is pretty compelling news for an airline these days because most of them are just trying not to declare Chapter 11.
Tad was an absolute pleasure to meet with and went out of his way to make a ton of introductions to different branches of their business, including advertising, the website team, distribution, and my personal favorite “The General.” We learned that Tad and his team have a very simple policy when it comes to A+ Rewards seating availability: keep customers happy. Woo hoo! A litlle bit of KISS! (Keep it simple stupid).
To our delight, Tad really liked the Travelfli concept and remarked that it could be very useful for them. We discussed a plethora of ways for Travelfli to help AirTran customers make better use of their credits before they expire. That being said, AirTran has already gone to considerable effort to allow flyers to purchase credits toward redeeming seats, extend the expiration date of credits, or transfer them to a friend or family member. These luxuries come at a small price but they give a lot more options for members to utilize when needed. Travelfli can help communicate these options to our users.
Furthermore, Tad and his gang just released additional great news regarding their loyalty program — as part of their mission to provide more choices and benefits to their most loyal flyers. (Yes, you heard me. Good news regarding an airline loyalty program. Take a moment if you must…it’s ok.)
The new changes make it easy for elite travelers to upgrade at the gate regardless of fare class purchased, create an exclusive phone number for elite members to make reservations or ask questions, and make it easier for customers to earn and redeem their credits.
“At AirTran Airways, we value our frequent fliers and take great pleasure in rewarding their loyalty to our airline,” said Tad Hutcheson. “We have heard two primary complaints about other loyalty programs: ‘Free*’ tickets are loaded with fees and complex requirements, and more and more benefits are being taken away. At AirTran Airways, we have addressed these issues so that our free* tickets truly are free, while adding benefits and perks to our best customers instead of removing them.”
Tad & Krista
Thank you Tad and the rest of the gang at AirTran!
