United - Coffee University

United - Coffee University

Like lost luggage and overly chatty seat mates, lousy inflight coffee has been a given among many frequent fliers. And though a handful of carriers have tried to perk up their caffeinated offerings by partnering with high-end, gourmet coffee brands over the years, for the most part the industry’s approach to inflight coffee seemed to echo the sentiments if worldrenowned coffee addict David Lynch who once said: “Even bad coffee is better than no coffee.”

So when United’s merger with Continental heralded the end of United’s hugelysuccessful partnership with premium coffee purveyor Starbucks, coffee aficionados the world over were understandably concerned.

And though the coffee United offered in the interim was rumored to be almost worse than no coffee at all, the good news for so-called “java junkies” is that United took action in the form of a clever “Coffee University” promotion with Italian coffee roasting powerhouse Illy.

As part of this campaign, United sent key management staff to Illy’s Coffee University at the legendary Culinary Institute of America in St. Helena, California to learn better tasting cup of coffee inflight. They also flew dozens of journalists to Illy headquarters in Trieste, Italy in May for a chance to witness Illy coffee-making magic for themselves.

This hands-on activation has certainly succeeded in brewing up some great PR. A number of popular aviation sites, like Harriet Baskas’s popular Stuck at the Airport blog and the award-winning Runway Girl Network , published stories about United’s deep-roasted partnership with Illy .