A sanctioned spoof of Alaska Airlines, SkyHigh Airlines pokes fun at the sometimes maddening experience of airline travel. With taglines such as “The Relentless Pursuit of Adequacy” and “Flying is Expensive. Let us Cheapen the Experience”, SkyHigh Airlines highlights its signature feature “Challenge Seating” whereby customers fight each other for first class seating. A very comical “Letter from the Chairman” is written the way any Chairman would write if they where actually able to speak the truth about their business.
Deep within the reservation section, Alaska Airlines is revealed with this disclaimer: “Some of you people out there don’t appreciate SkyHigh’s extra stopovers a long the way – a perk we like to call “talking the scenic route.” If you’re one of those types, head to alaskaair.com. They offer a lot of non-stops there. (Bo-ring.)”
The site also features a reservation section where seating choices are “Bench” or Cargo” and an Employee of the Month section honoring an employee “who really gives that requisite effort to keep our passengers happy. Or at least less mad.” There are vacation packages to Waco, Fargo and the “Chain Gang Fantasy Camp” and a Global Baggage Tracker that, upon entering your name, attempts to locate your luggage with returning this reassuring results page header, “Your luggage has been has been located in exotic Siple Island, Antarctica (Sorry, our mapping system does not include Antarctica. But trust us.). Check back tomorrow to see where those pesky bags of yours have run off to next.” And finally, a very humorous Suggestions section that forces positive comments into the suggestion box just as you are about to enter your own.
In this campaign, Alaska Airlines has the admirable honesty to acknowledge the frustration and madness that goes along with airline travel.
