If your phone is ringing and you don’t recognize the 203-750-2000 CallerID, go ahead and answer your phone. It’s just about the coolest marketing trick I’ve seen yet. I’ll write more about it next week, but for now, I’m not going to give away the surprise. This is just one more extra step that you almost come to expect of Virgin Atlantic, and that you couldn’t imagine any other airline even attempting without sounding like cheesy telemarketers. But with Virgin Atlantic, it works, and it’s pretty cool. Marketing done right. And if you’re going to bother to have a "brand" in this new age of "conversations," you better deliver like these folks do.

Oh, and while I’m on the topic of Virgin Atlantic’s extra steps, let me also say a very big Thank You to the excellent Virgin Atlantic staff in LA and in London, from the LAX staff that went above and beyond when my sister had to reschedule her flight, to the woman at the gate at Heathrow who mailed my last handful of postcards so I wouldn’t have to leave the gate area. All those little extras add up quickly. Bet you can guess which airline I’m flying next time I’m off to London.

PS: If you’re impatient or want to make sure they call you (and you don’t mind putting your phone number in their database), you can sign up here. You can also have them call your friends; my sister just called me laughing non-stop after I had them call her.   Happy holidays everyone!

Still catching up here, and working with the Quintivity web services team on some new BransonBlog features… cleaner categories, trackback support, member logins, story submissions, a cool new del.icio.us reader contribution system, and hopefully even video clip support for our Richard Branson tv appearance stash. We’ll see how far we get before I fly off to London next month (why, yes, on Virgin Atlantic), and of course, if you have other ideas of things you’d like to see here, drop us a note at editors @ this site. In the meantime, here’s some nostalgia to tide you over until we sort through all the newslinks… a Branson letter to Qantas CEO Geoff Dixon two years ago— still really amusing.   Click to read… [Read more]

We previously mentioned that Virgin Atlantic was seeking permits for more UK-India flights, and it looks like they’ve gotten some.

Richard Branson’s Virgin Atlantic Airways has won the largest share of sought-after new rights to fly direct from Britain to India, allowing it to compete with British Airways on key routes.

Virgin Atlantic on Friday received the rights to operate 10 new weekly return flights between the two nations, while BA got seven and bmi four. [Read more]

We recently discussed a possible Virgin-BMI merger and I’d noted how this might help Virgin eliminate a major prospective competitor. Well, this article from the FT sheds more light on the situation, as British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, and British Midlands now compete for lucrative new travel rights between the UK and India, where British Airways currently holds all the cards. (Update: Virgin’s eyeing domestic Indian carriers as well.) Those who thought Branson already had international rights — "Doesn’t Virgin Atlantic already fly to India?" you ask — should note how Branson made that happen… [Read more]

In the interest of thoroughness, I’m including a post here about the ITWF writing to Branson about Nigeria Airways.

The International Transport Workers Federation (ITWF) has written President Olu-segun Obasanjo and Chair-man of Virgin Atlantic Airways, Sir Richard Branson over the plight of workers and pensioners of the liquidated national carrier, Nigeria Airways Limited (NAL).

The ITWF seems to be talking about problems with Nigeria Airways and writing to Branson because the new Virgin Nigeria consists of old NAL assets. I’m not entirely sure this even affects Branson at all unless the concerns raised continue under the new Virgin Nigeria management. Given Branson’s long-time commitment to treating employees well, it may be a really good thing for former NAL employees (and in very sharp contrast to their former conditions) if they now benefit from such core Virgin values.

The Sunday Times reports that:

Virgin Atlantic has become the first airline to introduce double beds on board its planes, giving rise to claims that it is tacitly encouraging couples to join the "mile-high club."

The move is the realisation of a five-year dream for Sir Richard Branson, the airline’s chairman, who has been keen to give passengers a chance to get "closer together" on long-haul trips.

It’s obviously not the first time (nor will it be the last) that Branson was accused of indecency. Of course, what other airlines, pray tell, make newspaper headlines when they change beds on their flights? Exactly. You get the sense, watching incidents like this, that Branson has figured out how to brilliantly play the stodgy old media that inevitably takes the bait every time. Well done, Sir Richard.

The Scotsman reports that VAA might be interested in merging with British Midland. "A merger between Virgin Atlantic Airways, founded by UK billionaire Richard Branson, and British Midland Airways would ’make a lot of sense’, according to Virgin chief executive Steve Ridgeway." If I understand this correctly, a merger now would take out a potential competitor, as British Midland is bidding on long-haul routes out of Heathrow (which Virgin Atlantic already operates, of course).

Sir Richard and Virgin Group have announced a new airline:

Virgin Group boss Richard Branson has signed an agreement with Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo to launch a new airline out of the west African nation that will be majority owned by Nigerian investors.

Branson’s Virgin Atlantic Airways will hold a 49 percent stake in Virgin Nigeria, which is expected to create thousands of jobs in the west African nation, Branson said Tuesday.

Nigeria, especially with its oil exports in the current international political climate, is becoming an increasingly important player in Africa, so as long as Virgin Nigeria can insulate itself adequately from violence there, this seems like good expansion into a growing market.