The Calculated Faux Marketing of Premium Air Travel
Photo Credit: Marketers sometimes use over-the-top unrealistic imagery to tout their products. Pictured is a utopian image of the Delta One Suite. Delta Air Lines
Skift Take
The lenses through which we view the travel ecosystem are often heavily distorted. The first step toward countering it is acknowledgement.
It can be fascinating — and frustrating — to see how premium airline products get marketed, how the media covers launches, and the ever-increasing role of influencers in propagating brand messages through perfectly stylized Instagram posts.
But, as media and platforms grow more complex, it is also worth dissecting the lenses that we use to view the travel industry, and this dynamic, in particular. Sometimes they can be incredibly distorted without us really paying too much thought.
Ben Schlappig, who writes the blog One Mile at a Time, travels around the world reviewing some of the best products in the sky. It is a clever mousetrap he has created from a blog replete with affiliate links to mileage bonus credit cards; the ability to game ever-tightening points and loyalty systems, and generally operate at a level that others can't.
Schlappig is one of the most objective reviewers of these products around. He knows his subject matter, and is above the "freebie fray." He is
