Business Travel iQ
"Even Kate Moss is using easyJet".
That's a line that could help get your travel policy across. The British supermodel is used to the high-life yet chooses to travel with a low-cost carrier, making headlines this week for being escorted off a flight. Fares do not include a meal, but we can't imagine that would be too much of a problem for her.
The flight from Bodrum, which she has taken more than once, doesn't even fly into Heathrow but instead the not-as-well-connected (or so we thought) Luton Airport. Perhaps she's used to the journey and familiarity after all those private jet flights in the past; many operate out of the Bedfordshire site.
Last week in our blog we discussed how naming a product could help build trust, but association does too. Several of our Experts have discussed the need to engage stakeholders in travel programmes and when it comes to risk strategy too. Moss using easyJet might simply be public relations at work, but raises the profile and viewed customer clientele of the airline, which prefers to be compared to British Airways than Ryanair. We've seen photos of several UK politicians using the low-cost carrier too and it's a tactic that Eurostar also uses to drum up publicity and association. If a travel buyer has some top or influential people backing a programme and using it correctly, the word will spread.
This isn't the first time Moss has made the headlines for travelling with the carrier but there has been more focus on her choice this time. Last year Moss allegedly got on the same Bodrum-Luton service without even having her boarding pass. She used her celebrity status to 'remind' staff that they knew who she was. That probably will not work with your travellers and you might not want to share that particular story, but there's potentially a lesson there when you are speaking to suppliers and partners…
Association with big names is common for publicity. ©EdStock/iStock