Where Do You Get Your Social Media Information?

Most of us are pretty harried and very busy people. We are drinking from a large number of fire hoses. Just staying current in our dedicated fields is challenging enough. But what happens when we get lots of new stuff coming down these pipes?

Well we rely on friends and those we respect to help us out. We read - a LOT. Authoritative publications and websites are what we are used to. Humans are creatures of habit and we actually don't really like change all that much.

But something has happened. Our traditional sources of trust for knowledge are slowly eroding. They are disappearing from the landscape. Newspapers are a prime example. But also trade journals have moved away from standard paper to more on-line medium. Great for the forests but not so good for our brain cells I believe.

So who do we trust and where do we go to get our information about social media. Surprisingly most of us eschew actually gaining the experience from well Social Media itself. The very people who used to be the determinators of our adoption of all media seem to find Social Media "Challenging". So says a study by the Creative Group. But actually it gets worse. They dont even go to these tools to learn about them. Regular readers know I am not a huge fan of Twitter. I am also not a FBA (Facebook Addict). I recognize the value of these tools but I am also realistic in my consumption and usage.

Advertising and marketing executives were asked, "How challenging is it for you to stay current on social media trends?" Their responses:
Very challenging 9%
Somewhat challenging 56%
Not challenging 35%

The same group of executives also were asked, "What do you consider the single best resource for staying current on social media trends?" Their top responses included:

Conferences or seminars 23%
Networking events or industry association meetings 18%
Webinars or online training 17%
Trade publications 15%
Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn posts 14%
Blogs 7%

So by just reading the Professor's rantings - you become members of an elite group.

In my day job - I have been asking people I work with and interact with where they get their information on. One group of bloggers are - not - surprisingly ALL OVER Social Media. But in the main most people (barstool research) have really little direct interaction with Social Media.

This is dangerous. Everyone needs to know what is exactly going on. Even if a lot of the material being pumped our can be absolute drivel.

And then of course their are the addicts... How did they end up that way?

Same way all the usual suspects did

Cheers

Who Is Fooling Who?

This post is going to be a bit self serving - but I have been waiting for a long time for someone to ask this question. Since no one seems to be doing the honours - looks like I will have to ask it myself.

The question is directed specifically to the legacy GDSs. Each of them has a new product that promises to connect to the other GDSs.

Amadeus One
Sabre Red
Travelport Universal Desktop

(I am not showing favoritism - this is purely in alphabetical order by vendor and by product name).

The promise of multi access content by a GDS based tool complete with access to third party content INCLUDING other GDSs is quite interesting. Surely it is not a technical restriction. Even going back to the good old days of ALC this has been possible with ALC boards from companies like Lanyon, IBM, Emulex etc etc. So it's a commercial issue or is just bloody mindedness? Perhaps something even more sinister?

So far I have yet to see a single announcement of these new tools actually coming to a commercial agreement where the user is free to access third party content on these new agency desktop tools.

GDS contracts now (frequently) contain specific exclusion clauses that expressly forbid the use of a GDS provided tool from accessing third party content of any sort without the specific permission of said legacy GDS.

For those of us old enough to remember when GDSs used to provide agency automation. There was the ludicrous situation of the provider trying to prevent a user from not accessing the web via the terminal to access another GDSs content. Being the sort of person I am - I used to sneak onto stands at Tradeshows and call up a web screen and have a different GDS screens displayed. It would drive people nuts. A Sabre Screen on an Amadeus Stand, A Worldspan screen on a Galileo PC (before the shotgun marriage). I almost felt like a graffiti artist!

Many of my clients have been actually accessing multiple systems for years. it was to enable them to be commercially competitive. If you take Europe where the largest (by passenger) international airline is Ryanair - there is no possible way to prevent a good travel agency from accessing non-GDS content. But there are GDS specific contract clauses which either expressly forbid it or place punitive terms for engaging in that behavior. In the view of what my clients provide as solutions on the technical side - they provide open access tools that enable access to any content through common interfaces for B2C or B2B applications.

So let's cut the rhetoric shall we and call a spade a spade. GDS open access is a marketing ploy and a nonstarter in any form of reality.

But let's see if anyone tries to do it. I have actually seen demos of all 3 tools with access to other GDS content. Too bad the commercial nature of the legacy GDSs which is to restrict the access to having them be the gatekeepers (complete with ever rising toll charges).

But let me make a prediction.

This is going to be swept away. The control of the access to content by anyone - will make that player go the way of - well let's say AOL.

Predicting when it will happen is somewhat hard - but happen it will.

Just as the Fool on the Hill.

Cheers

How Stupid Are You?

Yes YOU!

The Frequent Flyer Geek.

Actually probably all of at some time have succumbed to a proposition we know is really bad but it just sounds good enough.

Sadly there seems to be a lot of suckers out there who are willing to buy Frequent Flyer Miles.

Scott McCartney this week has done an excellent piece on FF miles and how valuable they really are.

Check it out - and then if this really is you - enjoy your guilt - I am not telling anyone, well almost no one other than the lot of you who read this blog.

Cheers

Can An Airline Do This?

I consulted one of my learned colleagues who is also a Professor and asked him whether the following statement is legally allowed, desirable or even lawful:

QUOTE:
"This email is intended solely for the addressee(s) and the information it contains is confidential. If you are not the intended recipient, (a) please delete this email and inform the sender as soon as possible, and (b) any copying distribution or other action taken or omitted to be taken in reliance upon it is prohibited and may be unlawful."
UNQUOTE:

She described the statement as useless gobbledygook. In particular the last phrase is incomprehensible.

For obvious reasons I am not going to embarrass the airline concerned with naming them - but they know who they are.
And by the way the email arrived as part of a solicitation for me to fill out a customer survey.

This is how the email started:

Dear Professor

Thank you for being a loyal XXXX Club member. Because your opinion matters to us, we would like to invite you to take this short five-minute survey that will help us enhance our future marketing programs.

etc etc

This is not girls gone wild - its Lawyers gone off their trolleys.

Another candidate for the Queen of Hearts favourite epithet....

Cheers

Hipmunk - Too Hip Can't Go...Yet

A bit of buzz around Hipmunk today because of a post in Techcrunch. I personally refuse to be drawn into TC's drive to become the arbiter of cool in web stuff. So I don't read it everyday. I try only to read things that are pertinent to me... we are of course all drowning in way too much information.

However - this is travel and so I spent a little time with the new site. I did however like the idea that there are other forms of interface - and particularly the simplicity angle. I think many of the Professor's regular readers know that I believe there is an evolution to natural search coming - and coming quickly. It happened before Google and ITA started dancing. But a pretty interface is not natural search. There are some nice features and its a work in progress so I will defer holding judgement on this part of it.

This is a worthy attempt. From what I can see they are using ITA's usual service and just representing the data. I don't think the information can be manipulated once its presented in this form so the information is - just static and therefore of little upgrade value. Some of the filters are weird. Why would I want to sort on agony value - at least not as the first choice. (Perhaps I am being too critical since I read right to left).

I don't like the way they handle code shares. Its plain dumb.
One feature I REALLY like is the Live Help - this is something that is exceptional value to a user - too bad they just ignored my request for help.

And for the name? I still have somewhere a SIGNED copy of a Chipmunks red vinyl signed. David Saville is spinning in his grave.

Cheers

And Another One Down - KISS

After a lot of hullabaloo around KISS - the airline in a box - it went belly up today.

Sadly this has again grounded thousands of passengers around Europe. Kiss started as a business to replace the seat only flights of the collapsed XL Airways and Fly Globespan. It was founded by Michael Smith and Paul Moss, who had previously worked at failed tour operator XL Airways which also went into administration in September 2008

Through an intermediary they had their aircraft provided by Viking Airways who put a note on their website today to show they are healthy - despite having a portion of their fleet devoted to Flight Options (the actual company that was KISS).

So this marks yet another major collapse in the UK travel market this year.

It doesn't seem to be so clear why the regulatory bodies are not doing more to protect the consumers.

The ATOL bond pool is going to be pretty empty by the end of the year.

Delta Air lines Makes Upgrades Even Nicer - Not Necessarily Easier

Fresh off their new website upgrade - Delta is upping the value of the Medallion Program.

There are two major enhancements on the books and in effect immediately.

1. Upgrades on award tickets. I guess this makes higher value award ticket prices theoretically redundant.
2. Upgrades on companion tickets even down to the lowest U,L and T classes.

Delta has done a pretty good job in making its medallion program better and better particularly for the Silver and Gold levels. At the same time they have made the differences for the Platinum and Diamond members a little less special.

Of course the proof of the pudding is in the eating. And here is where the rubber and the road meet.

In the case of the Senior classes - Platinum and Diamond - this will mean that flying Delta will be less special. The changes mean that every domestic flight will be full in the front no matter what.

If I can make one suggestion to Delta - make the international upgrades JUST a little bit easier for the higher grades. The change for the 2010 year resulted in a loss of value for the Platinum members - 4 upgrades down from 6. The system wide upgrades are now of little value except in the case when a full fare passenger can use it for International travel. Its highly convoluted and almost impossible to use.

All in all the Skymiles program is one of the best in the business. What will the other guys do?

We shall see

Cheers

LATAM 2 - Keep Updated

The new airline LATAM has launched a dedicated website:

http://www.latamairlines.com/index.php

Check it out!

Cheers

Real Flying

They call us Kerosene junkies. We love flying and airplanes. Most of us are frustrated pilots - absent the mentality and skills to be come one. Other lesser forms exist like Anoraks - you can't miss them they hang around at the end of a runway.

When I was in college I tried really hard to become a pilot. I took all the right courses and then failed consecutively in the following places:

The RAF
The Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm
The Army Aviation
BOAC/BEA intake at Hamble in Southampton.

At least in the latter one they agreed to interview me. Must have been a slow week. So I traveled along with other potential cadets. As we took the bus to the dorm room for the night my heart sank.

"Yeah I have my IR (Instrument rating) last year - had my PPL for 2 years already." said one clean faced chap who looked like he was 12. "It's such a bore - I love flying but Balliol and rowing are such a rush..." said a Sean Connery look alike with slick back hair. Most of the others had already done things like being in the Air Cadets. My claim to fame was a piece I had written largely modeled on a PR package from Boeing in Paris.

I managed to hold my own during the day - the old Link Trainer was cool. The written tests were very straight forward. I think I did the interview OK. So the last test of the day as the sun had already gone down was the hand eye coordination test.

In this you have two maps of circles connected by lines. You have a pen in each hand (Biro!) and you have to listen as clicks and snaps are in your ear and a sound that indicates to change direction on the paper. Well that didn't last long before I lost it. So too did almost everyone else. Except some of the guys were extremely calm and just started again. After less than a minute I ripped off the headphones and gave up in disgust.

I still had one more attempt, I tried to join as a Steward (that's flight attendant to you and me - a la Chute Slater). I think I failed because I told the interview lady - a rather stern spinster with graying hair but immaculately turned out like she had just come off the set of Mad Money - that I wanted to get into management and how this was just a stepping stone for me. Two of my friends who went with me got the job and actually flew as Stews for a number of years.

And the point of this story? Well this week's New Yorker has two great pieces on it. One by David Sedaris - who is a VERY funny guy is not visible online. If you ever get a chance to hear him on NPR or in person - go - he is just funny. The other is a story about a New York based photographer who likes to literally fly free form. I tried this once. What a rush... jumping off into the air - in my case onto a bed of snow - was one of the coolest things I ever did as a 20 something. For some reason never did it again but I have a strange poloroid of me literally flying.

And you know... Flying is cool. Really Cool.

Cheers

MakeMyTrip Pops a Big One - Travel Is Hot Again

Ah yeah baby...

Travel is HOT HOT HOT.

The 89% first day pop on Indian OTA Make My Trip should give a lot of people confidence that travel is back and back big time. In what the Motley Fool called one of the hottest in years... there is a lot for the industry to smile about.

So let's see - is this just the consumer market or is there good stuff that can occur elsewhere in Travel Technology?

In my view this should give the Gnomes of Langley and Atlanta some comfort as they struggle to find ways to put a little lipstick on the porcine Travelport. For Sabre this will undoubtedly revive the debate as to whether they go wholly out as an entity or if they go down the Blackstone path and push Travelocity out separately. While Travelocity is a great property - it has lost its luster like any of the big four with the notable exception of Priceline.

Cheers

Google On the Future. Will It All Be Good In the Googlesphere?

The nice people of Rupert's world sat down with Google head man - Eric Schmidt. The Wall Street Journal team peppered Eric with lots of interesting questions. Some of his answers would make the usual PRHHM (Public Relations hacks handlers and minders) squirm.

In the Googlesphere it has become clear that all information should be held sacred as long as Google has a copy and is in charge of what gets shown and not shown. As Schmidt noted in the Techonomy conference on August 4, 2010 , all information should be subject to "much greater transparency and no anonymity." ... because he assumes that (Google) technology is ultimately good (as opposed to evil). I think that makes me very nervous. And thank you, I vote for my Government which I think is called a democracy.



Going back to the WSJ article, Schmidt continues - "Most people..... They want Google to tell them what they should be doing next."

In general I believe that personalization is part of the mix. My view is that 'context' is better term than 'personalization'. I don't think that everything needs to be/should be uniquely or personalized. That is not how we are in our work and personal lives. To assume that this is the case is blatantly arrogant in my view. What happens if you get this wrong? And yes people who should know better do get these sort of things wrong - frequently. Just look at credit reports. But Google doesn't seem to want to think about that because.... Mr. Schmidt is a believer in targeted advertising because, simply, he's a believer in targeted everything: "The power of individual targeting—the technology will be so good it will be very hard for people to watch or consume something that has not in some sense been tailored for them." ....This is a direct quote from the WSJ. Too bad that Big Brother Google will be the arbiter or this and thence directly or indirectly control and influence our tastes.

This reminds me of the way the legacy GDSs have acted up till now. You can have your content anyway you like as long as they are the gatekeepers to the content and can charge you a toll, and that they control the form of the content.

So when these worlds collide, as they will if Google completes its purchase of ITA, then we will have an interesting battle of epic proportions.

And yes - I want to be around to watch it. But I am not waiting. In my world we have developed independent solutions which we are deploying to make our world independent and user controlled. I believe that there should be free and independent markets. I do not want to be curtailed by censorship or by any form of Big Brother deciding what content I can consume. No matter who you are.

I now firmly believe that Google has crossed the line from universally doing no evil. As we have seen and I have commented before. Evil does not have to come from an overt act. It can just as easily come from an inadvertent act of carelessness or laziness. If I don't drink the CoolAid and can see that Google's commercial direction does conflict with my freedom then I am prepared to join the rebel battalion.

And what do you think?

Are you nervous yet? Bring back Andy Grove so we can ALL be paranoid.

Cheers

LAN + TAM = Latin America Powerhouse. Alliance Anyone?

The blockbuster announcement of the creation of a holding company for two of South America's largest airlines into a single body was predictable but unexpected.

The controlling shareholders of LAN and TAM have agreed to a governance model to jointly manage strategic decisions relating to the alignment of the activities of LATAM group holdings. Mauricio Rolim Amaro, currently Vice-chairman of the Board of Directors at TAM S.A., will serve as Chairman of Board of Directors of LATAMand Enrique Cueto, currently CEO of LAN, will serve as LATAM CEO.

The cross border rationalization in Latin America has been predicted for some time but slow to start. With the intrusion of LAN into several markets it was only a matter of time before the airline would have to address the issue of Latin America's largest aviation market. This is a neat way to address it.

The bringing together last year of TACA and Avianca under a joint ownership but with separate brands was therefore a clue. The possibility of synergies and savings to get to scale was obvious.

All of Latin America's traffic is still smaller than the world's current two largest airlines - Delta and Air France KLM. Therefore cross border mergers are inevitable.

The fragility of the market was underscored in the past 2 weeks with both GOL and TAM reporting losses and the rapid fall of once powerhouse Mexicana.

The new company is not without its challenges. Initially the brands will continue to operate independently sharing back office and common practices. Indeed TAM and LAN have cooperated before with TACA in the purchase of Airbus equipment. The three became known as the Three Amigos in this transaction that has enabled a number of commonalities to occur in the Latin American market.

Once more this throws into contention the issue of the Alliance relationships. LAN is a founding member of OneWorld and TAM is a recent convert to STAR taking over from the defunct old Varig as the anchor in Latin America. Now the map may need to be redrawn.

In their announcement the two airlines stated: The combination would create a new Latin American airline group that would offer seamless passenger and cargo service across the continent and around the world. The new group, to be known as LATAM Airlines Group, would include Lan Airlines and its affiliates in Peru, Argentina and Ecuador; Lan Cargo and its affiliates; TAM Lineas Aereas S.A.; TAM Mercosur and all other holdings of LAN and TAM.

For the other Star Members this creates a set of issues. The LATAM market has played Alliance musical chairs for some time. Already Latin America is getting a little crowded with STAR members:

COPA (who will become part as they are aligned with Continental now a STAR player), TACA who could become part of STAR. TAM was formerly aligned with American.

Avianca - the other international brand of TACA/Avianca group is aligned with Delta but not formally aligned with anyone else.

Mexicana was once part of STAR with United's help. Last year it formally joined Oneworld. However in its troubles the partners there did not lift a finger to assist Mexicana as they had to assist troubled Japanese carrier JAL. With the collapse of the airline and filing for bankruptcy - the alliance membership is likely at the very least in question. The recent downgrade of the Mexico Airspace by the US FAA has resulted in all US carriers pulling code share flight numbers. No US Carrier can put their code on a Mexican airlines' flights until the raising of the category.

About the only stable player in all of this has been Aeromexico with their small but steady participation in Skyteam.

This is going to leave GOL as a much courted partner by all three alliances as they each try to figure out what the new world order map will resemble. And what about the rest? I believe there will be a number of airlines who will now seek to combine together to create more formal groupings to combat the sheer size and market power of the new LATAM group.

For the attendant and dependent players particularly PSS and GDS vendors such as Amadeus and Sabre - there will be a hotly contested market for distribution and Airline IT. In my view, direct distribution now becomes a much more viable proposition with the extensive reach of these airline partnerships. One thing is for sure - the money men will be sharpening their pencils while legacy GDS lawyers run to their contracts and see what they can salvage.

Cheers

Scholarly Discussion For A Friday

On Jet Blue Flight Attendants, Michael O'Leary's personal habits, Dead Puppies and Stupid Unions.

The professor is part of an esteemed panel of guests discussing Airline Foibles and Tribulations.

Cheers

JetBlue Flight Attendant - Criminal or Folk Hero?

By now most of you know the story of Mr Slater and his temper.

In some sectors he has been immortalized for his actions as a folk hero.

Let's be clear about this one. He is a criminal and should go to jail.

He abused a position of trust and placed a number of people in serious jeopardy of injury and even (in the case of ramp workers possible death). I don't say this to dramatize the issue but to highlight that someone could have been killed by the explosive deployment of the chute. His protestations to say he took care about deploying the chute show the action was premeditated and therefore deliberate in putting his co-workers (on the ramp) at huge risk.

Mr Slater in my book is a criminal and should be locked up in jail for his actions. I believe there are more than a few regulations and laws he contravened not least of which showed he could be classified as a domestic terrorist.

For once I agree with Donald Trump.

Cheers

UK Market Source Traffic Woes

The UK market still shows a decline. It is not rising to the level pre-2008 and there are some companies who are failing.

So far this year we have had 12 ATOL failures (CAA Figures). While not as bad as last year - for the recovery year this is not healthy.


But this is not all. Thomas Cook reported this week that its numbers are way down. The Official HMG stats also show a decline of 9% in the April-June quarter outbound travel.

So guys message to Unite - now is not a good time to strike..

Cheers

Who Do You Trust And Why in Social Media?

Well it isn't really the Tweeters. Nor is it brands.

People trust what they know personally or have a connection to. This is borne out by the study recently made by Invoke Solutions and quoted in a recent study by eMarketer.

And then perhaps even more interesting to me was the analysis of what inspires trust in Social Media.



My conclusion from all this is that Tweets are going (if not already have become) a lot of noise. I use Tweetdeck to see what's happening but frankly I find it all tiresome and my views on it are decreasing. I go for weeks without looking at it - unless I am feeling narcissistic!

US Sen. Ted Stevens - RIP

It seems that fate sometimes strikes twice. For the second time Former US Senator Ted Stevens, it did not smile brightly. He was killed on Monday Evening in a plane crash in the State, Alaska, that he loved and served.

He had survived a plane crash in 1978 that took the life of his first wife. Sadly he died in a plane crash this week in a 1957 vintage DHC-3T Turbo Otter.

A towering figure in the US legislature for more than 40 years, he had a huge impact on aviation and obviously the State of Alaska before being ousted under a cloud in 2008.

Stevens loved to fish, and loved airplanes, and "if he had to die — I think this is the way he would have wanted it: in Alaska's bush, on the way to catch salmon," said John Iani, a Seattle attorney raised in Kodiak, Alaska, and a longtime friend.

Customer Service That's Speedy - That's Clearwire

Having been spammed for long enough by Clearwire - who sold me a product I could not use! - I have been trying to opt out of their emails.

Finally I get the option to opt out.

Here is the response.

I thought you would like the time lines

Cheers

More Scary Google Things

Seems my day for finding scary things in the Googlesphere

In logging into Google Maps it asked me if I wanted to load an alternative mail address.

The one it had was for SOMEONE completely NOT me.

Scary!

WSJ Gets Its Headline Wrong - Google Agonized Over Privacy, But Obviously Not For Long

READING NOTE - the links require FLASH so hard luck iPad users.

It agonizes no more....

The Wall Street Journal has an interesting piece on Google agonizing over the use of its treasure trove of data on what we all do in the Googlesphere. The headline reads:

Google Agonizes on Privacy as Ad World Vaults Ahead

Well boys and girls - clearly it worries no more.

But time for you to do some homework dear reader.

Go to the WSJ and check out the story. Also click on the link for interactive is you want to see the continuing and mushroom cloud growth of the Googlesphere.

Now I could not find the actual doc - I am sure it will show up soon enough - but here are the extracts.

So given the piece I did yesterday - I would suspect that now would be the time to be somewhat - make that a lot - afraid of the power of the Google Blob.

For all of us we have to get a handle on the difference between privacy (and abuse thereof) and personalization. Its a fine and difficult line to draw.

Cheers