Speak Up on Pax Rights

So you want to have your voice heard on passenger rights and the proposed passenger bill of rights - well now is your chance:

Passenger Rights Stakeholder Hearing: Examining a Market Failure?

Presented by AirPassengerSafety.org

September 22, 2009 - Washington, DC

On Tuesday morning, September 22, 2009 consumer groups and travel industry organizations will conduct a Stakeholder Hearing in the Hart Senate Office Building regarding airline passenger rights. The purpose of the hearing is to examine passenger safety-related problems such as extended ground delays. Desired outcomes from the hearing include a better understanding of passenger safety problems; best practices from the EU in the area of passenger protections; and the potential efficacy of proposed Congressional solutions. Experts representing all sides in this debate have been invited to participate in this hearing.

The meeting is free (provided you can get there) but you must register. I hope that this is broadcast as a webinar and streamed out on the web.

Go here to register:

http://stakeholderhearing.eventbrite.com/

Cheers

We're Not Going To Take It...

Never did and never will...

OK so call me an old WHO fan - but I find the news that Travellers are pissed off with Travel Booking Sites a revelation of stunning proportions (not).

I have great respect for Forrester's research and for a mere $499 you too can get a copy of the study.

http://www.forrester.com/Research/Document/Excerpt/0,7211,47562,00.html

For once common sense seems to prevail and the world can now rest easy that Websites are still very much a 1.0 product, and in need of a major uplift. I concur with Henry's findings that the GDS should evolve but the technology is too old and creaky to do so. Not to mention that the GDS vendors are not investing nearly enough in addressing this. Further there is a nasty underlying issue that is the (one of many) issue(s) on the table as an elephant in the room.

The captive GDS model ties the OTA players to the GDS based systems. Thus the ability of the online systems to provide a decent technology service is inhibited and will be until the commercial model is displaced that today incentivizes the OTA to continue to use these old legacy systems. The same is true for the Airline direct systems that in many cases are still based on GDSs.

Fortunately change is coming. However not quite fast enough, just don't hold your breath - this will not occur until the airline/GDS contracts start to come up for renewal - look for this in 2010.

In the mean time - the smart airlines are actually prepared to do something about this state of affairs and are moving away from GDS based systems. Solutions from Farelogix, and ITA etc are making sense and are now mature enough to be implemented in high transaction volume environments. The OTAs must step up and bite the bullet to wean themselves off the GDS based model first commercially then technically. The latter is very easy - it is the GDS incentive fee meth that they have the problem with. The OTAs however are seeing their transaction value proposition decline in favor of more ad based models. This puts them in direct conflict/competition with what used to be called Meta Search engines such as Bing and Skyscanner etc. Surprise, surprise the OTAs are not necessarily winning that particular battle, at the same time - the consumers are using more and more the supplier direct sites - thus the OTAs are fighting a multi-front war.

But, dear sisters and brothers, let us not forget the traveller who has become MUCH smarter and is decidedly not happy with the tools in place at the moment, nor is he happy with the way he is being treated by the suppliers, the intermediaries and their technology solutions. Fair notice, he/she will move to where he is treated better. Loyalty counts for now't (nothing) in today's economy.

You have been warned.

Cheers

Spamollowers Banned From Twitter, Maybe - Real Followers And Tweeters Rejoice

So Twitter has finally realized that Spam Followers (Spamollowers) actually exist.

Finally!!!!

Unfortunately they have yet to realize that the commercial cretins have now tried to take over from the individuals. All those nice people who want to create Tweets that are commercial cannot be differentiated good or bad.

This is where the whole idea of self regulating "wisdom of the crowd" falls apart.

Frankly this is why most kids are ignoring Twitter and staying with Facebook. And the numbers show this - Twitter gets zero repeat visitors by the vast amount of people.

So the real question is as follows:

Is Twitter really useful in a Facebook kind of way or is it just fun in a Second Life kind of way.

I am betting on the latter - so far no one seems to be able to prove otherwise. Spamollowers are just more perpetrators of Twitterhea.

One of the Yahoo honchos was bemoaning the other day that the company doesn't get its fare share of advertising. The caveat was that ABSENT SEARCH. Well DUH this is the place that people spend money. So he can get over it - just like Twitter is one of those things that is unnecessary and not useful.

Sorry but I really am finding Twitter very tedious. Perhaps we should start calling the messages not Tweets but Tireds. Many of them are really tiresome and totally unnecessary.

Weigh In On Passenger Rights Legislation

OK your chance to do this.

The BTC group is undertaking a survery.

Weigh in and make your voice heard.

http://surveymonkey.twi.bz/g

Cheers

Hotwire Says Deals Ending Soon. Hogwash!

Chris Elliot has an interview with Clem Bason who is the president of Hotwire.com. In this Bason says deals are ending and you have never had it so good.

I beg to differ. Judging from the publicly available data for forward projections - I don't think that the deals are ending soon. I think we have to get through a pretty bleak fall/winter/spring season before we start to see any shoots of any meaning.

OK so this is a blanket statement and does not apply to all markets but for bargain hunters - there is clearly an open season here on just about everything. You can still get a round the world ticket for under 600 Pounds which puts everything into perspective.

Just because Hotwire is suffering - doesn't mean that the market is actually hurting. Hotwire's business model is under threat - just like that of the rest of the Expedia group. Priceline is still eating their lunch.

Agree? Let's have that discussion in 8 months time.

Cheers

London Calling - Why BA is Hurting

Excellent piece from Anna.aero on BA and its markets.

http://www.anna.aero/2009/07/24/half-british-airways-capacity-on-transatlantic-routes/

I always thought there was a reason why the BA impact was so severe. Now we can see from those fine people at Anna.Aero the data to back up the gut feeling.

Having fought off the enlarged US-UK Open Skies onslaught last year BA- in the end had to look at its fortress home market and see that the carrier was more vulnerable to the GFC than just about any others.

That said - we can now see that certain other airlines are also impacted. KLM/AF are down 20.5% in GROSS revenue in Q1. That is astounding.

We are not at the bottom yet folks...

Cheers

Compared to Others, UK Travel Sites Suck!

For a long time I have thought that many of the leading sites in Travel really dont do a good job. Having worked with a number of teams where Usability is a religion - I have come to join that jihad.

Now comes some evidence that the TUE - Total User Experience - is less than satisfactory for travel sites. Not only this now - for the first time an independent study has actually tested travel against other categories.

A disclaimer - the study size is small and the level of the sites compared are small, and it covers the UK market only - however I think that this is a level of study that is demanded on a broader scale. The UK is clearly not the best proxy for the USA but there are similarities.

So to sign up and get a free copy of the study (its an 18 MB Powerpoint )- go here:

https://ecustomeropinions.com/survey/survey.php?sid=222643292

And BTW you need a UK phone number. If you dont have one just enter numbers in the UK format which can be found here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telephone_numbers_in_the_United_Kingdom

Best of luck.

Cheers

Timothy

United Refuses To Put In Seatback Videos

In the column of strange and possibly bizarre behaviour, United Airlines is defending its decision not to have Seat Back Video system on its Economy Classes.

OK - having just done the great experiment (RTW in Coach/Economy/Tourist Class) - I can tell you that on a 14 hour flight you had better have a seat back entertainment system or else your passengers will get unruly and PO'd.

Now I really like the people at United. Especially since today they managed to eke out a profit in Q2. I am pulling for them to be a survivor in the current mess.

However there is just no excuse for this lack of product service.

Their VP for Pacific - Jeff Mueller is quoted in the Australian trade magazine Travel Today as saying the following:

"I imagine it will be of
importance to some
people but you need to
look at all elements of
the product."

He then is quoted as highlighting the other "attributes" of the product:

Its network in the US, membership of Star Alliance and “generous” loyalty scheme all
attract business, Mueller stated in the article. “Our loads in economy have been strong,” he added. “We have also invested heavily in lie flat beds in first and business class and refurbished the economy cabin.” He continued: “We have very
strong relationships with industry partners and corporates and have a great deal of loyalty. We see that as a very strong asset.”

So if you happen to be sitting reading this on paper or downloaded on your laptop in Y class on a UA long haul flight - I am sorry. But I really don't think that these other "features" make up for the lack of seat back video.

Common United - give the poor passengers a break.

Cheers

Me Thinks He Doth Complain Too Much - MOL.

OK so MOL is taking his battle to the streets again. And we all know that the tax issue is a burning one - so far the acceptance level makes most airlines look like lambs.

That said however RyanAir has again threatened to reduce the fleet at STN from 40 aircraft to 24. (One down from last year's winter of 25).

So the winter slow down seems to have worked because apart from the fuel hedging FR did just fine thank you.

Does he protest too loudly?

You be the judge

Cheers

The Spending Down Turn Impacts Across The Board

By now everyone knows that while the passenger numbers have been falling the revenue numbers are even worse.

So three key indicators have recently confirmed this. If we look at the USA market as a proxy for the whole world (I will come back to this), it shows that all aspects of travel are down.

1. Passengers are down
2. Fares are down
3. Amounts that people spend are down.

This is now across the board with average spend down reported by the US - TIA at 22%. With regard to airfares - they have been falling since September of 2008. For passenger spend, May 2009 marks the seventh straight month in which U.S. travel and tourism-related exports were lower when compared to the same period of the previous year, having declined in November 2008 (-4%)for the first time. This shows that the fall off of bookings that started with effect from September 2008 didn't work themselves into the tourism spend till November of that year.

This should give us some clue as to if - or hopefully when - we can see an uptick. So far those indicators are not there. As an aside - there is a common held belief that freight precedes passengers with regard to economic cycles. I have not actually been able to find (mostly because I have never looked) to see if this was true historically. But I do know that freight traffic is STILL falling. Both Air and Sea/Land.

In economic terms there is still too little demand for the available supply. However the economic cost of cutting more supply works to the point of actually increasing the costs.

It is at this point that tourism stimulation is required by all concerned. I read an intro by Trailfinders' Mike Gooley CBE. He clearly states that travel is at its lowest ever. I agree. But its not enough.

I don't want to dampen people's spirits nor be the naysayer - but so far I cannot find any evidence of an uptick. I have previously predicted that we will see some stabilization come September. I do believe by that time that the worst of the cuts will have worked their way through the system. One indicator however may give us cause for concern. A recent survey by WWF as part of their one in five campaign has attracted a growing number of people to reduce corporate/business travel.

http://www.wwf.org.uk/what_we_do/press_centre/?3189/Big-Businesses-commit-to-cutting-flights

So there you have it. Save the Planet or Economic Poverty.... It may get as stark as this.

And what do you think?

Today's Cigarette is a Mobile Phone?

If any of you have had a chance to see the excellent series Mad Money - you see that most folks look very cool holding a cigarette. And a lot of them do it throughout the show. I love this stuff. Back when neckties were really thin, and women wore their hair up in tight buns, long before PC became a watch word... ah those were the days.

I have been considering the issue of frequency of usage of our respective devices. With the diminution of TV viewership and increasing time slicing by recording devices - I asked myself a question - what is the "non-physical sustenance" product that we touch more than any other?

Up till the early 1990s - there was no other product that was touched or consumed more than the Cigarette. My father was in the tobacco business all his life and he was a master marketeer of the product. He lived and breathed his company and his product creation. Today - it remains one of the top world brands. But its use has been superseded by what product?

Why the answer has to be the mobile phone of course. We touch it, we play with it, we use it, countless surveys have shown that if you were to be left with only one thing - it would be your mobile. (OK for Americans Cell Phone).

Here is some great research on how people use their phones and what they would like to use it for. I do suggest that before everyone rushes to create expensive and (in many cases completely useless) mobile applications - consider what people really want and then consider the reality of the medium.

Here is a link to the research: http://www.lightspeedresearch.com/pdf/lsr_pr_meandmymobile.pdf

While the research was primarily from a UK perspective - the study is in fact multi-country.

Worth the read.

Cheers

Teenage Angst And Flying

OK - Hands up those who have been to See Harry Potter VI?

I wont spoil it for those of you who haven't but many of the reviews have focused on the issue of Teenage Angst which is a theme through the movie. Also many of the actors... well they look like they could be in their 20s!!!!

It seems that the topic of Flying and the angst part was a driving force of a UK Teenager who managed to fool a whole number of people into thinking he was starting an airline and had just enough with false websites and even a real receptionist - to convince some quite respectable commercial adults into supporting his fraud.

http://www.newstin.com/rel/us/en-010-016382727

(The Times link doesn't seem to work and I don't feel like supporting the Fox News hijacking of the URL.)

Amusing... but it does raise the issue of how much or how little we now need to have to create an impression of size.

And yes there really is a Professor slaving away in a basement somewhere. I just like not to reveal my identity in open forum. But a lot of you know who I am anyway!

Cheers

Out With A Whimper - Videotext To End

So the announcement was made previously that the Teletext service would end in 2012 along with the completion of UKs switch to Digital TV. However service provider Teletext has accelerated the end of the analogue service in the UK to January 2010.

While the announcement affects really only the public Teletext service - it means that support for the closed Videotext service really cannot occur past this date.

So the once almighty and omnipresent Viewdata (aka Videotext, Prestel, CEPT 3 etc etc) has finally been killed by the web. It will likely also hasten the end of many of the smaller UK agents who relied on the service.

for those of us who tried very hard to kill it and then even more to actually get it to work on top of GDS systems - this will come as a moment of nostalgia. Send me your reflections and at some point I will compile a collection of them.

So onto the web. I wonder if we will ever have a time when we watch the end of closed user functionality based systems - such as a GDS for example?

Now that's an interesting thought.

Cheers

Psst Interested in a Special Deal on Volaris

Volaris the Mexican LCC is starting up service from the USA to Mexico.

For a small number of people there are some special discounts available on their inaugural routes. Volaris is part of the new breed of LCCs that offers more than the bare bones service.

They are profitable.

So if you want to sample the service and get a special discount - just ping me directly and (if you qualify) I will send you the special link valid on any Volaris flight out of LAX or Oakland/San Francisco that offers a 20% discount above the rate Volaris posts on its website. The code is good for any flight between September 1st, 2009 and November 30th, 2009.

Cheers

Cronkite and The Moon

40 years ago this weekend - I like so many people (who are now mostly in their middle age!!!) were glued to our Television sets watching the events unfold on Man's first visit to the Moon. I watched the live broadcasts that came from the US complete in many cases with a voice over from the great Walter Cronkite. That wonderful voice of his narrated and added context to the historic events that were unfolding in Black and White in front of my eyes.

Yesterday as he passed - I got the email while I was returning home after completing a circumnavigation of this globe. I was able to reflect on so many things. Mostly why we don't have heroes and the voices of history that made it so real.

Thanks to Professor Mims for this link:

http://www.wechoosethemoon.org/#

So let's celebrate the events and remember the guts and grit, luck and focus that got this momentous enterprise done. We should all be able to be so challenged and have that opportunity to succeed.

If then, why not now?

Cheers

Warning: Greenmail on Travel Web Search?

I am catching up on a lot of things that have arrived in my "Interesting Stuff" files. About 3 weeks ago I received an email from an Intellectual Property Attorney Group offering for sale U.S. Patent No. 6,381,597 – “Electronic Shopping agent which is capable of operating with vendor sites which have disparate formats” For a view of the offer go here: http://catalog.oceantomoauctions.com/auction/lot/view/1/A2

I waited till I got home to see about this. The owning company is Omni Travel Search Inc. That rang a bell but not quite sure (I am of course getting a bit older so not enough grey matter to go round). So I persisted in my search. The only registered user of the product was a website called SweetFare.com. A US based company focused on US and Asia business. However it seems only to search on the big boys of Orbitz, Expedia and CheapTickets.

I'll bite even more...

The registrant of Sweetfare.com will be revealed in a minute but doing a search of Sweetfare showed a lot of posts and articles linked to Travel Mole. All of them pretty positive.

It seems that the owner of Omni Search is Omnitourism who just also happens to own Travel Mole.

Disclaimer here - A joint venture between this group and T2 created a 2007/8 study on LCCs via a service called www.inthekno.com.

What worries me is that the patent could clearly affect quite a few people. Will the new (or old one if it doesn't sell) owner go after the likes of Bing, Skyscanner, Mobissimo and Yatra?

Well this should be interesting. If you wish to buy this patent - then the reserve price is $200,000. Please contact Mr Paul Greco his email is: pgreco@oceantomo.com

And for the record - I don't support this form of behavior in any shape or form.

Best of Luck.

UAL CC Fees To Cost Consumers $2 billion?

The now big political spat over credit card fees that UAL want the agents to shoulder has everyone weighing in.

As Richard Eastman noted many weeks ago this has significant potential implications. However as I have noted - this is not something for everyone to get their noses bent out of shape on. We do have many other issues that are perhaps more important.

But let's play along with ASTA's Paul Rudin and use his $2 Billion number. If we accept the US represents about 1/3rd of total global traffic then this number would triple worldwide.

Thus we can say that now credit card fees comprise approx 3 times the cost impact to the airlines than GDS fees.

Etc Etc - Lots of big numbers to worry about.

Credit card fees are in the cross hairs of the airlines. Rightly so. As I noted in a recent post - with the near banks withdrawing from the credit card market we are seeing a pretty significant and steep increase in the imposition and collection of fees by the bank based credit card companies. Just like the airlines - CC companies have learned the unbundling trick. Although I am not sure who trained who in this bad set of practices.

There can be no doubt that the cost of using a credit card has risen and is rising for both Merchants and Consumers. In Europe and Asia/Pacific, having credit card fees covered by the consumer rather than a merchant is much more common behavior. Here are some examples from the UK:
Ryanair charges £5 per flight whether flights are booked online, via a call centre or at an airport. EasyJet levies a £2.95 booking fee, Flybe's charge is £2 per one-way journey, but rather confusingly lists a minimum fee of £3.50. Aer Lingus charges a £4 handling fee and British Airways charges a hefty £4.50 per ticket.

Ryanair recently lost a significant court fight that may have long time reverberations. The Superior Court of Justice in Berlin cited a European Union directive, which states that the charge is "inadmissible" unless Ryanair offers a charge-free method of payment too. They ruled that while FR offers free charges via Visa Electron the low penetration and usage of these cards made it largely irrelevant. This ruling could then reverberate around Europe.

Frankly we have to consider that if the US airline industry was to lose $3+billion this year, passing off more than 50% of that to the consumer is too large a number to avoid. So you can be sure United must be weighing its options - it may now be too late for people to back down.

What do you think?

Cheers

Airline Seat Safety

A new rule has come into force that requires airlines to ensure that seats can withstand the impact of 16 Gs. Interestingly that is of course more than the poor old human body can withstand.

The rule has been on the FAA books for years but is nor required retroactively. Another reason to question why you would actually want to fly on a Boeing 737-200 anyway.

Airline seats are wondrous things. They may or may not be required (depending on whether you think RyanAir and a Chinese airline should be allowed to have passenger's standing up on flights). Business class and first class seats are already pretty elaborate things. In some cases just too elaborate (like the Emirates old Biz Class seats were plain awful). 3 separate sets of controls were just too confusing (particularly after several sets of drinks and a 16 hour flight!).

One idea I am particularly drawn to is the idea of seat airbags. With the auto industry having adopted air bags of all types into the passenger cabin - there should be no reason why an airline cabin should not be just as protected.

The AP put out an interesting article about airline pax air bags incorporated into the seat belt. Have a look here: http://www.mercurynews.com/travel/ci_12843291?nclick_check=1

I have to comment that the lap only belts on aircraft do worry me when I know that a shoulder/lap belt is the standard on a car and that indeed lap only belts are banned on cars.

And the cost... Well given the current price of an airliner today - we are talking about very low - probably sub 1% cost to add to the cost of an aircraft. This seems to be a very low price to pay for significantly increasing survivability in a crash.

Cheers

Why Do People Go Online?

I get a lot of stuff in my inbox. As a voracious reader I love to see what is happening and more importantly what makes people tick. So for me the "why" question is always fascinating.

I have seen in the past some of the work thar Rudder Finn have done. While it is sometimes a little too slick for my personal taste their work adds a dimension to the why we do what we do.

Spending large amounts of time in front of my "machines" has recently been a topic of noodling in my head and discussions with my friends and colleagues. So I am going to be doing some occasional blogs on the subject of the right brain functions. These may not appear to be connected (probably because they wont be) but I do hope that they provide food for thought in our constant quest for understanding and ultimately knowledge and power over our environment - both professional and personal.

So click on over to the following URL:

http://www.ruderfinn.com/about/news/rf-s-new-study-of.html

Have a read and see what you think. eMarketer did an analysis of the numbers and determined that actually 100% of the users listed went on line to (drum roll please) Pass the Time!

For the eMarketer article go here:

http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007184

So if that's the case then we are all a very sad lot. So this does indicate however that many of the assumptions about how airline and travel companies are marketing to their audiences may be fundamentally wrong. As with most things this has to be seen in context. However I do believe that the continuation of traditional marketing techniques and processes do not hold true for today's web based time passing consumers.

Food for thought?

Cheers

Love That Bigger Seat?

Premium seats are now under threat. And probably it's a good thing to examine whether or not Premium seats are a good thing or a bad thing.

Listen to the IAG Podcast from today when Addison and I look at the decision by BA to reconfigure its fleet from a premium focus to - well a more proletarian world.


Cheers