eDigital Research Online Benchmarks Suspect

I am a big user of online travel websites. Not just because its my business but because in true fashion I eat my own dog food.

I have to say that the latest etravel benchmark results from eDigital Research leave me a little cold.

In the past I have questioned their methodology. But then perhaps the issue is that the general service sucks in Online Travel Sites. I find so many things that are just - well obnoxious to a consumer.

Annoying popups are thankfully a think of the past. Well almost - they still appear. They are almost so extinct that it might be time to bring one or two of them back!!!

But seriously almost every site I go to seems to annoy me. I cannot possibly be alone. There are very few sites that I cannot break or cause a failure.

I still find BA's site hard to navigate. In discussing the issues with the online chaps there - and nice they are too - they clearly are very passionate about what they are doing - however I find silly things like widget swap over from one side to the other. Also there is a strong need to make the navigation simpler and more logical. One can get lost. I do. Frequently!

But perhaps this is a general phenomenon - I just did some Xmas shopping online - and Amazon's site was horrid. I know they are trying to merchandise me - but you know - I really dont want to be in their game.

So I remain depressed that Online Travel Sites in general suck. I really want to see someone get out there and do a much better job. I have some hope that things like the Hipmunk design can bring better experiences to the user.

Let's hope things get better...

Cheers (or is it Bah Humbug!)

CO's Farelock vs. EC's Cooling Off

A lot of people are excited about Continental's new FareLock Product. The European's are about to ammend an existing law which will guarantee that a customer can cancel within a new grace period. The agency community fears it would be in serious trouble if the amendment to the Consumer Rights Directive tabled by Scottish MEP Catherine Stihler is passed. Why a Scottish MEP is doing this of course is open to question.

Her fellow MEPs on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection committee vote on the amendment at the end of January. The Legislation would take effect within 3 years.

Which is better - the Professor questioned aloud? - Your homework for the week is to answer.

Cheers

What this would mean - is that customers - whether they had paid a deposit or the amount in full, could cancel their holiday booking within two weeks, and demand a refund, regardless of whether the agent has already passed the payment onto the supplier.

Interestingly this would kill a whole revenue sector for the agent not to mention creating a lot of issues for them.

Lookout Hawaii - Here Comes Shamu!

Buy Hawaiian Real Estate Now!

Two sets of people must be having a totally different experience today.

1. Hawaiian airline management must be ringing their hands as they realize that Southwest is going to steal their bulk traffic. Other airlines are going to re-evaluate their strategies to Hawaii. Next affected with be Alaska Airlines who has only just started a big footprint.

2. Hawaiian Hotels must be jumping for joy.

Bye Bye Mag Stripe Hello 2D

So the specialized printing and the expensive machines should now be history. Well not quite - BUT - IATA standard 2D is now fully implemented. But not necessarily fully deployed so they declared this week.

Some carriers are still struggling. Others are somewhat PO'ed that they plonked down a lot of money for those expensive (now) boat anchors. But 2Billion boarding passes a year is a lot!

Cheers

Display is Not Dead (yet)

Display Advertising has been slowly advancing on the level of expenditure of search.

The latest numbers out of eMarketer show that both sides continue to grow while most other media declines.

Yes - online is the place to be...

Cheers

The Professor Sets The Record Straight - The World's First Frequent Flyer Program

In the Spring of 1980 A major US Airline started a revolution that was to change the industry. It was a program that rewarded the traveler for his loyalty.

It was launched on what is still today the most heavily travelled corridor for air travel in the world - Los Angeles (Southern California) to the San Francisco (Bay Area).

Was that airline American Airlines? Nope!
Was that airline United Airlines? Nope!

It was Western Airlines. And the account team at McCann Ericson that came up with the idea. Andre, Mike, Scott, Kim and yours truly.

Here is a quote from Inside Flyer:

About the same time, Western Airlines ("The Only Way To Fly") introduced its Travel Pass program, which might well be called the first real frequent flyer program. The Travel Pass program awarded $50 in travel certificates to passengers who flew five trips with Western. While not mileage based, it did pass the reward test and moved beyond the "earning copper" programs that were already in existence. These earlier programs were designed for the business traveler, and were literally the only marketing efforts by the airlines to this important group. At that time, the airline industry had abandoned the business traveler and was comfortable in turning this customer over to the travel agency.

Somewhere I still have some of the blanks of the TravelPass $50 card.

For a small fee if anyone is interested - I can spin a yarn or two about the TravelPass program. The team that created it at McCann clearly started a revolution and its high time they got some credit.

Cheers Guys!

Oh Dear... Will I Trip To The Dark Side?

I used to love Tablets. Then they lost their way.

Along comes the iPad everything you wanted in a tablet but less.

Less horsepower
Less battery life
Less disk size
Less camera (actually no built in one)

So along comes the Black Turtle-necked one. it is likely he will announce in January or no later than April - the next gen iPad.it will have cameras and more disk size.

Oh I am getting tempted.

Lies, Damned Lies and Surveys...

I hate when a useful tool is misused.

So it would seem to be with SurveyMonkey.

BTC is at it again with their very biased surveys which are then used (shall we say abused) to demonstrate the points of the anti-American Airline platform.

Surveys should be delivered in an unbiased fashion and get results that can accurately reflect the spectrum of possible opinions.

If you dont believe me then go here and check it out for yourself.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/direct_connect

if its expired - I have a hard copy of it.

This should never be allowed by responsible parties.

Customer Experience - A good Checklist

So you too can benefit from a lot of good though.

Go and check out Forrester's User Experience 25 points. This is Version 8 of the tool.

This is one of those things that is good sound advice and its free. If you don't do anything about it - then you are ... well you get the stuff you deserve.

Cheers

Ryanair Punishes Stansted

It has been a bit of sport lately watching Michael O'Leary get on his soap box about various causes in particular the one about UK APD. Air Passenger Duty. The UK Air passenger will be paying more than his fare share of tax in the coming years. The UK increase is significant making it the most costly of any market in Europe. In contrast Ireland has just cut its tax from 10 euros to 3. So if you want to save money hop on a flight to DUB and then catch a FR flight or even another airline.

But what of this loss.

Traffic declined more than 10%. Ouch. FR reduced its footprint at STN by 17%. That's a lot. But the traffic decline is not just because Ryanair cut capacity - but because Britain is fast becoming a poor country.

However UK being a net contributor to the EC will have to ride it out.

For a more in depth review read this article from ABTN

Cheers

Timothy

Microsoft To Address Web Tracking

Score another one for the good guys. (Say what Microsoft a good guy???) In this case yes - definitely of the white hat variety.

The Wall Street Journal's By NICK WINGFIELD reports that "Microsoft Corp. said it will include a privacy feature in its Internet Explorer that would let users list websites that can't track them. It is similar to a key feature it dropped in an earlier version of the Web browser after a heated debate with advertisers"

The battle will now get more interesting

Cheers

Should Technology Define The Interaction?

I originally wanted to title this one "Does Technology Define the Dialogue." But you can appreciate the subtle changes I have made to challenge several precepts.

What troubles me are several elements about our interaction with people on the internet.

While the web can be a bit like speed dating in a dark room with no bathroom privileges there are these horrid terms and conditions that no one reads and everyone signs up to - or policies that give again huge implied consent to the website owner being able to do whatever they like with your data and the results of your interaction.

Sorry I think that is wrong. And disclaimers are just that a bunch of BS. If I don't want you to track my activity I should not be the one who has to opt out. Its my darn data and my persona you are messing with. (Are you listening Googleplex?).

However broadly lately I have been thinking that in too many cases we have let technology define the conversation not the other way round.

So my wish list for 2011 is to focus on more ways to have the consumer and user be given solutions that enable she/he to define and control the interaction.

And what is your opinion?

Cheers

De-Demonizing Of Airline Fees

Most people get all riled up about airline ancillary service fees.

They hate it and much prefer the simple all in one model that has persisted for the airline ticket since - well before there were airline tickets going back to the time of Thomas Cook.

Europeans and now just about everyone else in the world are well used to paying fees for unbundled services. Indeed one or two airlines offer Fee packages - buy once use many. Examples of this are United Options and Easyjet's annual Speedy Boarding pass. So the griping (me included) is beginning to subside and the stage of acceptance is creeping in.

Some are even embracing this.

Joe Harkey the veteran MY Times columnist actually wrote an article about it this week.

Have a read here.

Cheers



With Ack to Scared Monkeys for the great image.

R.I.P. RIM?

Oh say it ain't so!!!

None other than Infoworld long a supporter of and indeed for many the voice of the Crackberry Generation has served up a rather disquieting analysis of the state of Play - iPhone vs Crackberry vs Android.

I love my Blackberry. I have a Bold 9700. One of my team just acquired a 9780 from T Mobile and it has evolved a little bit more. I have played with the 9800 Torch and its very good but its not an iPhone killer. It still does what Crackberries do best. Better email, better security and its a reasonable Phone. Unlike its competitors which are useless in at least 2 out of those three.

For me - there is still a significant set of issues with Android devices. They are like an early version of Windows and Linux - unpolished would be a kind word for it. The HTC devices are getting pretty darn good though. Look for the next generation to be acceptable. iPhone is like all things Apple, beautiful, arrogant and expensive. For me its just way too expensive. Not the device but the business model that i have to pay for. Oh yes and the phone is useless.

The faithful are awaiting the Playbook - aka Crackberry Tablet - but by then the choice will be either the next version of the iPad or the Crackberry non-3G device a rough and ready companion only or Wifi product. However IF they can arrange for BBM to tunnel through so that there would be no roaming charges for Playbook usage - then it would have a winner. But that is my dream and has a zero chance of being adopted.

Come on RIM - don't abandon us yet. Don't be the Nokia or Palm you are heading to be.

Hawaii Comes Back ... Perhaps

Hawaii Tourism is starting to return it would seem. According to the Hawaii Tourism Authority's preliminary statistics for October, total expenditures by visitors who came to Hawaii during the month jumped 24.7% when compared with October 2009. In total, travelers to Hawaii spent $961.5 million in October, or $190.6 million more than they did during same month last year. October numbers were up all round continuing a trend that has been building for a while. Average daily spending by visitors statewide increased nearly 10%, to $188.70, and total tourists to Hawaii were up 13.6%. Among the destination's top four markets, arrivals inbound from the U.S. West rose 21.4%, while those from the U.S. East increased 6.1% year over year. Visitors from Canada surged 17.2%, and even arrivals from Japan inched up 1.6%.

HOWEVER be careful in reading this as the be all and end all of the situation. Remember that capacity remains constrained. The US Carriers are not that keen on adding capacity for which their yields are poor. Mexico's woes started to kick in with a vengeance in October and therefore a lot of people diverted from Mexico to Hawaii. Continuing a trend that I have seen for decades.

That said Hawaii's #2 long haul carrier in terms of flights is soon to be Alaska Airlines. Yup the plucky guy from the Northwest is expanding his footprint and bringing the Proud Alaskan with the Lei tail to the islands big time.

New routes consist of the following
San Diego (SAN) - Kahului, Maui (OGG) 10/01/10 1x Daily
Portland (PDX) - Kona, Hawaii (KOA) 11/12/10 - 04/09/11 Mon, Wed, Fri, Sat
Seattle (SEA) - Kona, Hawaii (KOA) 11/11/10 - 04/07/11 Increase to 2x daily Tue, Thu, Sun
Bellingham (BLI) - Honolulu (HNL) 01/07/11 1x Daily
Oakland (OAK) - Lihue, Kauai (LIH) 03/28/11 Mon, Wed, Fri, Sat
San Jose (SJC) - Lihue, Kauai (LIH) 03/27/11 Tue, Thu, Sun

This gives the islands:

Kona 4 routes
OGG 5 7 routes
HNL 4 routes
LIH 4 Routes

2 Years ago these did not exist.

Travelport vs AA - Round 1 (Postponed)

According to those in the know - the first round was supposed to be last week (December 2nd) with a hearing on the Temporary Injunction against AA.

This has been delayed to this week and into next week Dec 10 and 13 respectively.

Seconds out....


With special thanks to DarmnMalaysia for the image.

What Else Did The Internet Kill?

I used to live in Southern California in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It was a great experience.

Late night TV in LA was a trip - quite often literally. Channel surfing on the Goddess of Cable - Theta out of the Westside while overlooking LA out of my apartment window. It was magic.

One of the expressions I would love and became attuned to was the local car sellers hawking their wares. The expression was often spoken in homespun speak from guys dressed as cowboys or often even more exotic eccentric ways to get you to "Come on Down!" Whatever happened to people like Cal Worthington....his famous expression was "Go See Cal". At age 89 he is still out there... click here to see his current website.

I was thinking the other day as I was channel surfing that there was a distinct lack of cable TV ads exhorting you to "Come and See".

Instead they have been replaced by web sites.

Hmmm - I wonder what else the web has killed?

Cheers

Confessions of a Webaholic

I stand before you proverbially naked. I am prepared to make a full and complete confession in public.

I have sinned - I am eviil - Yes - I am a webaholic.

I have been a secret webaholic for years. I sneak peaks. Even for no apparent reason or when I have no business being on the web. Yes I am an addict.

And you know what REALLY pisses me off? Bad website User Experience.

When people ask me questions on the web - just like my use of the web - I answer the first thing that comes into my head. For me speed isn't just part of the process - SPEED IS EVERYTHING! This is just so you don't think that when I tell you stuff in surveys you wont think that I am telling you the truth. Like all Webaholics I LIE. In my humble opinion look at my behaviour don't look at my words.


And yes I am SONIC!

Don't make me think about the process - the UX has to be completely intuitive. If there are more than 5 choices on the page other than the results then I get nervous and I will choose the first one. Listen up you web designers - the first answer is the one I will go with. Even if I am wrong - I would rather get a viable answer than to have to spend all day figuring out the way you made your site SO DARN COMPLICATED.

Gerry McGovern seems to agree with me. This week he makes the point. In one paragraph he neatly sums up the problem...

"When people are on the Web they are instinctive, impatient, impulsive, in a hurry. They click on the first link that looks in any way right. They search with the minimum number of words possible. Only when they get bad search results do they add more words to the search string. I have seen tests where people preferred to get poor results quickly than invest a little more time and effort and get much better ones."

Just think about this and do me and yourself a favour. Quite with the extemporaneous crap you dump on to your website. Group things nicely. And then give me a place to get help.

If you don't then remember one thing. it is just as easy to click out of your site as to click inside your site.

Sorry got to dash - I just saw some thing bright and shiny over there....

Who You Are + What You Do

Its Saturday - time for a little lighter point rather than dull old travel.

Question - what is the one man made object that you interact with/touch more than anything?

The answer is at the bottom of this post. However if you were to ask the question 40 years ago the answer would have been a packet of cigarettes.

I was intrigued by a Forbes Article on Celebrities and their phones of choice. It must have been a slow news day. Obviously I don't care about Celebrities (OK I do occasionally pick up People magazine in the supermarket) but what phones and how they are used does fascinate me.

Regular readers will recall some of my rants about the iPhone and Apple's business Model.

I was finally able on a day trip across my State to catch a TED Talks. I was a significant Genesis fan in my day and now enjoy listening to them with more of a nostalgic sense. However I admire Peter Gabriel and his focus on doing good. Particularly on the WITNESS project. Check out this video on his motivation behind WITNESS. How the camera phone has now revolutionized citizen activism is pretty well known. For those of us who live in western style democracies we take these freedoms for granted. (If they are indeed freedoms - let's call them Liberties instead). Those who live under some more formalized totalitarian type governments where deviation from a set norm is frowned on or worse are not so lucky. There are indeed some countries that have banned camera phones and others that ban cameras of one type or another.

SO as you pick up that thing today - think about that.

Cheers





Answer: Your mobile Phone.
And I dont know who to thank for the great picture of a Blackburry Bold 9000 with stuff on it.

VRMA Wants Independence Via a GDS Like Switch

There is an interesting debate over at the VRMA - the Vacation Rental group.

They are seeking independence by promoting the concept of a switch. Head over to their site and read all about it.

It is interesting that they would ask the question now and promote the idea when at the other end of the travel scale - Airlines are trying to drive their wagons out of the GDS environment.

I suggest that you read up about this debate. I am not convinced that a Switch is the right answer to their issues.

I welcome feedback from people on this one.

Cheers