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JAL ‘Welcome! New Sky Cafe’ | Brands often offer consumers a taste of their products. In a recent airline example, Japan Airlines collaborated with the Royal Garden Cafe, a restaurant in the Aoyama ward of Tokyo, to bring its new 777 seats to restaurant patrons. Inside the restaurant, JAL placed a First and a Business Class seat, as well as two Premium Economy seats and a row of three Economy Class seats, for guests to try out.
Between November 22 and 25, the Royal Garden Cafe also featured dishes prepared by Chikara Yamada, JAL’s International Business Class chef, served in JAL’s Original paper tray, which added to the verisimilitude of the JAL experience. A large promotional banner on the balcony of the restaurant indicated the cooperation with JAL
collaboration with the Cafe and its experiential initiative comes as part of its Welcome! New Sky upgrade program, which will see the airline implement new JAL’s
seats in all four cabins of its long-haul aircraft, starting with its new B777-300ER’s. The airline’s new inflight product will be inaugurated on a January 9, 2013 flight to London Heathrow. On a similar note, Singapore Airlines recently installed a fully operational Business Class seat at Harrod's in London to woo new premium customers. In Hong Kong, Turkish Airlines collaborated with local venue caffe HABITU to let visitors sample traditional Turkish dishes created by the airline's flying chef Denizhan Dağdelen.
United Airlines x Chase VIP Mall Lounges | With the holiday season being the US's busiest for retail, brands are attracting customers with new initiatives. For the second year in a row, United and Chase, the financial partner of the airline’s MileagePlus Card, are promoting their partnership by offering a co-branded experience for shoppers in key US cities. Between November 23 and December 24, the Chase x United VIP Lounge experience is being offered in major malls such as Houston's Galleria, The Mall at Short Hills (New Jersey) and a new space at Westfield San Francisco Centre . Open to Chase United MileagePlus card-members and their guests, the lounges feature wi-fi, coat checks, cafe seating, snacks and flat-screen TV's among other amenities. Additionally, the lounges are supporting the charitable organization Toys for Tots on Tuesdays whereby non-Chase United members who bring in two unwrapped toys for charity will receive two United Club passes for access to the lounge. On Sundays, the lounges hold Football Sundays, where members and visitors can watch live American football games from the lounge. The Chase x United lounges are an example of taking airline brand loyalty – a key business objective - outside the realm of aviation. Through the lounges at shopping malls, United and Chase have the opportunity to showcase their brand values as well as generate interest from other shoppers. Chase participated in a similar co-branded space exercise at the London Olympics with Visa, offering a lounge with food, wi-fi and Olympic athlete appearances for customers.
4 | Airline Marketing Benchmark Report | December 2012
