Why Firefly Airline Should Get a Better Domain Name
Firefly, another Malaysia budget airline, is starting 2,000 free seats giveaway today. I never take any budget airline yet, I do not comment about the airline. But, as a Internet geek, I must comment about Firefly’s bad domain name.
Image: Extra ‘Z’ in FireFly domain name
You might have already noticed that the website address of Firefly airline is not www.firefly.com.my but www.fireflyZ.com.my, an extra “Z” in the domain name. It is a no-no in Internet marketing.
The common knowledge is that you should use the same domain name as your company name or brand, especially when your website is your business. An online company should check for domain name availability before they decide the name for their business.
Who took Firefly domain name?
The Firefly.com is registered by Microsoft since 1996. Not sure what Microsoft wants to do about it.
The Firefly.com.my is a domain parking page, it is registered by Nikabina IT MSC Sdn Bhd at 31st January 2007. Meaning, Firefly launched their services in March 2007 but did not register the domain name in January 2007. Firefly was a rush project made in 3 months?
Compare to AirAsia airline, the Firefly’s competitor. AirAsia registered both AirAsia.com and AirAsia.com.my, which is good.
Firefly domain name suggestions
I would suggest Firefly do everything to take back the Firefly.com.my domain name. Also, prepare a domain name for International visitors. Try FireflyAirline.com, a domain parking page which might be waiting for domain buyer. FireflyAirline.com.my is available at the time I am writing. ;)
hmm.. so.. the first person who buys that domain gonna untung la.. haha.. but with teh .my tld, sure there’s lots of procedures to do, documents and such. messy. :)
FireflyAirlines.com.my (With an ‘s’ at the end) would have been my choice, but having said that the fact that it was registered in Jan 07 by another company shows how little thought was put into this by the management.
If I were them I would try to pay off the guy and let them untung a bit…
with the ‘z’ it sound so much like some local underground band name
I agree more with LcF.
Remove the Z, and let alone firefly.com.
Who’s the consultant of the initial setup?
Don’t even overlook this kind of this.
I bet they can’t beat AirAsia.
Somemore use Fokker ma….
hongkiat,
not only underground name, just like a WAREZ name.
hehe..
With the added ‘Z’, it sounds weird and tells people that they have no choice but to settle with the current name. But to look at the positive site, added ‘z’ tells people that the airlines is really a budget one. But it will certain not good for the company image.
Funny how no one actually thought about it in the earlier stage. They must have thought of a cool company name, made all the paper works to create a company, did recruitment drive and setting up all the hardware and software for a reservations system then one fella said to the management…”hey, what about our domain name?”… then everyone looked at each other and goes..”oops”
The ‘z’ at the end of the domain name cheapens the company.
but i have check on http://www.firefly.com , no such domain name exist. so,what is the reason they dun wan to use ler
Bern: Of course got la Microsoft owns it!
http://whois.domaintools.com/firefly.com
@Bernard: the domain name exists and is registered, only not configured to show anything.
I think the airline should have come up with a different name entirely. Obviously, they never did any domain search. Also, the name Fire and Fly don’t go together very well especially when you’re 30,000ft in the air.
if firefly.com is taken what about firefly.net or firefly.org? anyway fireflyairline.com is a good suggestion.
methink those at firefly never ever thought of a website when they planned for this firefly airline. it’s only after they thought of the name and got everything under wrap that they concentrate on the website.
I think as long as they develop and advertise their brand image correctly it doesn’t matter(to some extend) what kind of domain name you have.
Best examples would be Yahoo!, Google. These words are not really serious or have you ever thought of a multi-billion company to name like this?
So if they don’t screw up with branding the domain name is ok,(lah!)
Liew, you should buy FireflyAirline.com.my and sell it to them for a profit! LOL!
how about TerbangApi.com.my..:P
the name firefly itself doesn’t show luck.
Fly and crash with fire.
OMG!
:0
thanks friedbeef & uncleJim.
i agree wif tk2 as well…..not good fengshui name.haha
y not? u guys started talking. had it been s instead of z, u guys will be promoting it through word of mouth, saying that it is fireflys.com.my with an S. Get it? With an S?
But why z? that bear dun understand. s would hv been cuter.
Bear
beware typo-squatters….heh
That’s a real boo boo. I am not sure whether Microsoft would want to give it back to them. I think the best option would be to rebrand their name to go with their domain. No! That doesn’t sound right too. They are in a right mess.
Firefly is an insect name. This is a good name but with z behind, it becomes uncool. I think they decide the name before checking for the availability of the domain name. They should be creative enough to create an original cool name instead of choosing dictionary word as domain name, for example Google (Now it becomes dictionary word found in OED.)
Arh…domain name is one thing..the most important thing is their air fare must be affordable to everyone….otherwise a good domain name serves no purpose. IMHO. :)
i dun like the name firefly…
Sigh…this is not the first case oledi… see what happen to our eyeonmalaysia.com
maybe online marketing is not important to some people…
just
Fireflyz.com doesn’t sound good but it did got LiewCF’s attention and make him wrote a post about the domain name. Thanks for LiewCF, now fireflyz.com is in the 1st page of all the search engine site bcoz of liewcf.com had commented it.
thanks for the update, k-director.com. I think that’s a good news.
Hohoho.. let see here what has been happened to the airlines. As what i heard the name of firelyZ is a combination between their company name and
airlines code. fly firefly sdn bhd + subang code (SZB) = fireflyz, :p. Opppsss i dont know whether its true or not. But i only know the truth that they are offering 50 sen ticket fares for each of their destination for merdeka deals. Let check it out at http://www.fireflyz.com.my.
I’m a student of OUM, Pahang. I’ve to submit an assingment regarding visi and msi of firefly sdn.bhd. Agak susah nak dapatkan maklumat tentang visi dan misi firefly kerana tidak dinyatakan atau ditunjukkan dalam website.
Harap pihak tuan dapat terangkan lebih detail untuk kebaikan dan rujukan para pelajar.
Need to do online booking Penang/KUL/Penang but unable to get into online booking format. Pls adv.
@Rosy Ng: you can do online booking at http://www.fireflyz.com.my/
Heres my comments after experiencing Firefly
I had my first Firefly flight from Penang to Subang 2 days ago. The plane was hot,stuffy and smelly when I got into it. The air conditional is not on and they only allowed outside air to blow in. All of us are sweating while waiting for the plane to depart. The hand luggage compartment is small, the seats are narrow and windows are dirty. They are trying to mimic Airasia but its just not good enough. The food they sell is just general tit bits (no hot food) and the menu was poorly designed (like the menu from typical mamak store). I just can’t believe a five star MAS would allowed this kind of airline to run its business. If it wasn’t for the location (subang airport is near my house), AirAsia will beat Firefly hands down.
AirAsia started of stuffy & smelly but look at it now. So gv FireFly a chance. U wan comfort & good food don buy a RM1 flite la. cokkia!
website name just a part of the business.. selling tickets is NO 1. I’m sure Firefly management is trying to get firefly.com.my or flyfirefly.com.my
I will NEVER fly Firefly EVER AGAIN.
I am due to fly to Kuala Terengganu on Sunday and fly back on Wednesday. My flight back on Wednesday is initially scheduled at 4:00pm. I checked 3 days before my flight and found out that they changed the 4:40pm flight to 8:15am! And they DID NOT INFORM me! If I have not checked, I would happily arrive at the airport at 2:30pm on Wednesday only to find out there is no more flight out for that day. I would be stranded in Kuala Terengganu alone!
When I called Firefly and demanded to know when they are planning to inform me of the changes in flight, the customer service representative could not even give a straight answer. I wonder why they asked for my phone number and email when they are not even planning to use it!
NO..NO..No…
I’m having some difficulty during booking online ticket for family package few hours ago. so, i rang the customer service since i cant do the booking during that hours. For the first time I called, the operator told me the promotion start on 1 Dec. So, she just hang up without confirm which package that I interest on and I’ll again check on the net to make sure what she told me just now. But, obviously she gave the wrong information. because the promotion already start and end till 7 Nov. But I still cant do the booking so I called again But I’m very disappointed when they can’t even guide me or even answer politely. She also blames me cause I didn’t asked the operator name before.
But when I asked for her name she tries not to answer my question by ‘bebel’ about something else. At the end she just told her name “Liaâ€Â.
This is not the first time it happen when my mom also ‘kena’ a few days ago.
I know they still new or whatever there are rit now. But please lah….wit that way they serve their customer…I don’t think they will be my choice anymore. The might change their motto to “u get FIRE 1st then u FLYâ€Â
Certainly a strange domain name. the "z" in Fireflyz.com appears like the company failed to find a good alternative name and so decided to settle with adding a "z" behind. Definitely a bad branding decision and does not reflect well on the team that manages the airline. Quality of service becomes doubtful.