Journalist Jeff Jarvis has been mourning his “beloved Silverjet” along with many others who hope the airline isn’t grounded permanently. If perchance you missed the news, Silverjet had lined up $100 million in financing but the folks who were going to put up the money got cold feet, what with the high prices of fuel and all. While Jarvis didn’t have anything new to say about that, the blog did have a link to a December column of his that I missed, and it has some fascinating ideas. One of his ideas is for airlines to tap into the online social networking craze. The logistics aside, the idea behind it is that if business travelers could network more in flight–through lounges and the ability to choose seatmates etc.–brand loyalty could be increased. Interesting idea, that you would pick your airline by its networking potential. However, lounges etc. aren’t new to business class–think Virgin Atlantic–and it doesn’t deal with the issue of economy class, where more seats equals keeping prices down. Another deal I like is creating more of an auction marketplace. Let’s face it, it’s the airlines with the biggest route systems who are surviving; why not let prices float with demand from one flight and route to the next? If they don’t want to auction seats for dollars, they could auction some for miles — not once in a blue moon but on an ongoing basis. Who’s got an interesting idea for a fresh approach to air travel? Share them here! –Mary Hunt, editor, eFlyer