I was lucky enough to attend an event organised by Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) at Stockholm airport featuring an appearance by Gerard Depardieu. It was a little early to be indulging in champagne, Rosé wine and cocktails but the event had Gerard’s Rosé wine, pure green vodka on show and I needed to try them out.
Gerard Depardieu’s Rosé Wine
Gerard Depardieu stood in front of the waiting guests and began to talk before looking somewhat awkward then sauntering briefly towards the nearest table. He pulled up a chair and began to chat informally. He ushered the rest of the group to gather round so that he didn’t have to raise his voice, Gerard seemed to prefer to converse in this much more informal and personal manner. It was a refreshing change from being talked at from a distance. Depardieu’s Rosé wine is being launched onboard SAS flights, it was surprisingly chosen by SAS in a competition between wine producers.
Gerard seemed to have a good sense of humour through his broken english and stressed that he was “a lover of life”. He clearly has a passion for his wine but also seems to act through instinct more than anything with his wine production. When asked what types of food goes well with his wine he dismissed the idea of matching types of wines with food. Gerard has 19 wineries dotted around the world as far away as Argentina.
Pure Green Vodka – Airmixology
We were also introduced to Pure Green vodka, an organic vodka that will be used on SAS flights. SAS have teamed up with Pure Green vodka in order to test out new cocktails that are better suited to taste on board flights. Apparently your taste changes whilst in the air due to pressure, humidity, noise amongst a range of other factors. This led to the development of “airmixology”, in short – developing cocktails specifically for tasting good on flights. I tried a few on the ground and they tasted pretty good, unfortunately I didn’t get the opportunity to try them at altitude but I’m sure they’d be equally as good. It was impressive to see SAS and Pure Green vodka going to these lengths to improve the customer experience even if it maybe confined to business class. The cocktails are due to be available on long haul flights from September. For more information visit the Pure Green vodka website.
Technology Initiates
I was most interested in hearing about SAS’s social media/technology initiatives and the event didn’t disappoint. SAS are launching WIFI on board by the end of the year, rolling the service out on ten aircraft for the first phase and eventually out to the whole fleet. Some travelers have debated whether we really need internet access in the air, but the demand is certainly there even if some of us would like to “get off the grid” while on our flight.
I was also introduced to SAS’s support for traveling with mobile phones and passports (although it has been available for sometime). Customers can use a 2D barcode that is electronically read at the airport for security and when boarding. SAS also offer a SmartPass service for Premium passagers using NFC (Near Field Communication), the service allows users to place a sticker on their mobile phone in order to communicate with devices at the airport for check in and security. This service should become more effective with the introduction of the NFC technology as standard on mobile phones. It’s good to see an airline developing and evolving with technology.
SAS Rising Stars
It was particularly interesting to hear about SAS’s social media campaigns, I was impressed with the SAS Rising Stars campaign. SAS have reached out to the 18-25 demographic by engaging with them via a social media competition using youtube to create buzz about their service and to highlight individuals own creativity. Users submit a video highlighting SAS’s product offering in the form of a music video, travel report, commercial or animation and the winner receives 1 million EuroBonus (a lot of flights). If you are indeed younger than myself and between 18-25 you can check out the details of their competition on their facebook page or on their Rising Stars site.
SAS Crew guides launched
SAS are also launching their Crew Guides apps for Scandinavia on Monday the 20th June. The Crew Guides are written by crew members to give an insight it to the recommended places to eat, drink, shop, sleep and things to see. The Crew Guide to New York is already available, we’ll be reviewing the guides very soon on TravMonkey.com. The guides were original in print versions that have been ported over to apps for the Iphone and Andriod, they are also free. It’s an interesting concept and on first impressions seem to be pretty useful yet simple, having just come back from a trip to New York it’ll be interesting to see what recommendations they have.
For more information visit there Crew Guides app page.
Overall it was an interesting day and good to see an airline evolving and looking to numerous new initiatives. Technology changes rapidly and it was good to see SAS trying new things and evolving with the times especially within social media.
