• by Steve McClellan  @mp_mcclellan, October 5, 2011

Over the past couple of weeks I've heard two anecdotes basically related to how closely Virgin Airlines listens to social media comments about itself--and how quickly they respond.

The latest tale was told by New York Times columnist David Carr at an Advertising Week event he moderated Tuesday afternoon.

He recalled a recent Virgin flight he was on where a young couple sat next to him and the guy half of the couple smelled like he had used an entire can of Axe Body Spray just before boarding. A little overwhelming to say the least.

So Carr tweets about this experience in flight, or maybe it was shortly before take-off. Anyway, within minutes a flight attendant approaches him and offers him another seat. So thoughtful.

A couple of weeks back, during another industry event, a panelist recounted the story of a Virgin passenger tweeting in-flight about the poor quality of the meal just served. Again within minutes, the passenger is approached and offered a different meal. Wow, Virgin seems so sensitive to the needs and wants of its consumers.

Is it me, or are these lightning-quick responses just a little creepy? And maybe Carr and the other passenger use their real names as handles on Twitter, which no doubt helped Virgin move with CIA-like efficiency to identify them and the flights they happened to be on.

But frankly, if the passengers wanted redress, there's an even quicker solution--the flight attendant alarm button above every seat in the plane. Carr didn't even want, and didn't take, the new seat that was offered.

And doesn't Virgin open itself up to some potentially ugly hoaxes? What about the anonymous tweeter who feigns a mad-as-hell-not-going--to--take-it-anymore moment--while in-flight on Virgin? And maybe the tweeter, or hacker (who assumes the identity of someone actually on a flight) claims to have a gun. Or worse.

What do you do with that real-time data, Virgin?