Long time readers of the BrandHook blog will appreciate that I have a history of sharing travelling experiences, so it should come as no surprise that after being awake on a plane for a very long time recently, that this blog is once again about the travel industry.

It was somewhere in the 13.5 hours between Abu Dhabi and Sydney that I had an epiphany in cattle class – airlines are terrible at innovation – and I know the reason why. Before giving the golden answer, here’s some of the thinking that led to my eureka moment.

On the way to London, I flew business class for the first time. I used points to upgrade and was able to work in comfort and privacy, eat with ample room to use the fancy cutlery and sleep in a proper-ish bed, with a proper pillow and proper duvet/doona. The experience was amazing, and while I was happy enough to return to economy for the second 6 hour flight, the adage that once you go business, you never go back, was ringing true. So what has my airline done about it? Nothing. The return leg I was back being the low life pleb in cattle class, the points may have appeared in my statement but there’s been no follow up on my experience, communications to keep me flying business or any temptation to lock me in again. This is a CRM opportunity that has simply gone missing.

So as I lamented on a missed opportunity, I started thinking what innovations the airline sector had implemented in the last 20 years, and I struggled to think of many. The fact that they had run out of meals when they got to me, the air con being broken and the 4 year old’s tantrum that lasted close to an hour probably didn’t help my frame of mind, but I struggled to identify anything lasting or what I thought was meaningful.

Premium Economy has been introduced, which address the need that sits between economy and business class, but with the exception of some airport lounges and WiFi on the plane, what else new and exciting has been introduced? To me, it seems the sector has gone backwards – even a Melbourne to Sydney flight years ago seemed to be an hour – now it’s 1.5 hours.

Further investigation found a couple of ideas that have been launched recently – Thomson Airways is considering introducing new seating arrangements that at the back of the plane, would have kids and parents facing each other – in a booth type arrangement. The Guardian is reporting developments of the windowless plane. These may appear to be innovative in their design but are they good innovations? Thinking of the seating arrangements – who’s need is it addressing – the families or the non-families? How does it get executed – are all families in the same part of the plane? What happens with families of 3, 4 or 5?

The BrandHook approach to innovation is anchored around unmet needs. Ideas and innovations that aren’t built around addressing the unmet need, are just ideas. So our questions for the latest ideas would be – what is the need they are addressing and are you catering for the right audience with the innovations? Identifying unmet needs isn’t as easy as asking the question – someone isn’t going to be able to tell you what is not being met. You only uncover these by flying with people, spending time on their journey and understanding what’s important and needed within their travel experiences. So if any airlines would like to fly with me in the next couple of months, I’m more than happy – but as a pre-warning, at the moment, it’s not going to be a pleasant experience.

So what should airlines be doing to improve the customer experience? Let us know your thoughts on Twitter