Pure Yoga / Well Travelled Lai See by Cathay Pacific

Pure Yoga / Well Travelled Lai See by Cathay Pacific

As every long haul traveller will know, having stiff limbs and feeling uncomfortable is a standard hazard of long flights, especially in economy. Cathay Pacific’s solution has been to team up with yoga company, “Pure Yoga” and develop instructions to help travellers keep their muscles loose both during and after the flight.

These instructions and exercises appear on Cathay’s in-flight entertainment system under the heading ‘Travel well with yoga.’

Split into six easy-to-follow videos featuring founding teacher Patrick Creelman and senior instructor & co-founder Almen Wong, the series demonstrates yoga and meditation routines that can be done before, during or after a flight.

Passengers who watch the videos can learn to perform these exercises from their seats as well as a handful that they can do once they arrive to their hotel rooms.

According to Cathay Pacific and Pure Yoga, the exercises featured in the series should assist a passenger in improving their circulation, enhancing their joint mobility and soothing their mind for a more comfortable trip.

Cathay Pacific is not the first airline to launch an in-flight exercise programme. Three years ago, London Gatwick Airport worked with Air China to launch its new Beijing route.

As part of that, Gatwick enlisted the Tai Chi society of Great Britain to develop a Tai Chi routine specifically for long haul travel. In addition to filming a video, which was broadcast on Gatwick’s social media channels, the Tai Chi Society turned up for the flight launch and performed the routine in front of passengers.

Separately, to mark Chinese New Year, Cathay Pacific is selling ‘Lai See’ envelopes made out of recycled Cathay Pacific uniforms. Lai See are lucky money envelopes which are exchanged as gifts during Chinese New Year. The “Well Travelled Lai See” packets are available to buy via the airline’s online store.

According to Cathay Pacific, 320 million Lai See packets are given out each year in Hong Kong alone and under 2% of them are reused. The design was created by Angus Tsui, an “award-winning Hong Kong eco-designer”, and the proceeds of the packet sales are going to charity.

It’s a nice idea but trade magazine Campaign Asia took Cathay Pacific and it’s creative agency McCann to task for over-hyping its impact.

The magazine cast doubt on an assertion made by McCann’s ECD, Martin Lever, who stated in a release that “there’s no better way to create genuine brand love” than a project like this.

According to Campaign Asia: “Come on, man. Setting aside that it’s questionable whether ‘brand love’ even exists, a project such as this is a symbolic gesture at best. No one—at least no one who isn’t writing a press release—could seriously expect it to create any meaningful impact on the airline’s overall fortunes.”

Key Take-Away

Campaign Asia is being overly cynical in dismissing the impact of Cathay Pacific’s ‘Lai See’ packets. No, in isolation the promotion won’t reverse the airline’s fortunes, but nevertheless it is an innovative (and also worthy) project that links directly into a key part of local culture - Chinese New Year. You can quickly see these packets becoming collectors’ items.

The Pure Yoga collaboration is interesting, and Cathay Pacific managed to get a certain amount of PR mileage out of it in terms of press coverage, but it remains to be seen what the actual uptake will be. Passengers of course have plenty of other existing options when it comes to things to see or do on the airline’s inflight entertainment system.