Is WAYN For Real?

I am sure that Kim is very nice but I have no idea who she is and why she has anything to do with my travel.

Well WAYN seems to have a secret sauce that thinks that I as a dirty old man will like Kim. And that she (personally) has been dying to know what I think of her. As I while my time away with my head in books as opposed to living on Facebook or gawking at girls on the WAYN site, I hate to disappoint both Kim and WAYN but I am not interested.

So with all due respect to Kim and many other girls that WAYN has been sending my way for some nefarious reasons I will decline.

One day perhaps they will just stop doing it. But in the mean time - it is clear that WAYN like Florida Orange Juice - isn't just for breakfast or any other time of day for that matter.

Cheers

Travelport Ends Air Malta Agreement

In a galaxy far far away....

In a former life - I worked for Worldspan. In that job - one of the things we did was to break conventional models for airlines and distribution.

My team built a solution which let an airline have the benefit of a GDS connection in their market without having an onerous GDS contracting scheme to go with it. This solution was delivered outside of all conventional wisdom at effectively zero cost to the airline and no incremental cost to the agency community. Over the years it returned a nice revenue to Worldspan and then Travelport after it.

While this was not the first time that a dual mode terminal had been delivered in a market - it was the first time and as far as I can tell the only version that enabled a cut over of seamless nature in a market at really no cost.

Today's market costs by the GDSs are very different from the agreement that lasted more than 18 years in Malta. Travelport and Air Malta have announced the end of the agreement.

So hats off to all the team who worked on this project, to the airline's management who understood the value and to an era that has long gone replaced by a higher cost structure that ultimately adds cost to the passenger's ticket.

Cheers

Why I am Tired Of Working For Google...

One of my pet peeves about the development of product today is that as a user I am expected to do things over and above and beyond being - er - well - a USER!

And really I am SO TIRED of having to tell Google what is crappy about their system.

And here we have it again. Another Lite product from the Googleplex. You would think after so many failed efforts in the Social Space to replicate or combat (or both) Facebook that they would put out something that was more fully featured and well frankly not as lame as Google+.

AS we saw Google's first efforts in air - the schedule tool - is pretty darn lame to start with. And we should no longer be surpirsed. What we are seeing is that Google's output is increasingly built on a familiar formula.

V1 - TRUE beta - lame product with a lot of promise and minimal functionality.
V2 - the first real effort based on what the Googleplex drones have slaved away to develop for the hive. The drones have in most cases no idea what they are doing but the Acolytes take the overt and the covert learning and try and built a product. In the early days this used to be pretty good - but lately it has been more like a microsoft V1 product.
V3 - the first product that actually functions properly - typically delivered 2 years after V1 and the first to have the word "BETA" removed from it.

Google+ is following this very tired formula.

Yes I am tired and frustrated with Google for doing such a poor job. With all your squillions you should consider paying us rather than pocketing the cash and making us pay with our increasingly shorter leisure time.

So am I an unpaid Google worker? Yes. Because they take my data and manipulate it. And yes because they steal time from me with their less than perfect apps that make me work their way, not the best way.

Of course I could just stop using Google and its applications.

Couldn't I?

........ message terminated by order of the Googleplex.

PROFESSOR’S TRUE NOTE. As soon as I wrote the word – GOOGLEPLEX – my Blogger account started showing an error. Coincidence or are the REALLY watching.

MySpace Goes For A Pittance

This is really rather sad. It also demonstrates that big media still doesn't get social media.

So now we can see how the damage works

Murdoch's NEWSCORP purchased MySpace 6 years ago for $580 Million. Now the troubled site has been sold on for less than $37 million with NewsCorp retaing 5%. Specific Media is an ad business and will likely treat MySpace as a vehicle of nefarious ad laden overhead.

Sad really

AA Changes Boarding - Interesting Take

So American Airlines is changing boarding to by the time you check in.

No big deal you say?

Actually it is. Check out the local newspaper story.

Now what is interesting is two major factors. One is to do with Carry on and the other with boarding efficiency.

With carry on there are no US flights where all the bags fit. So the airlines bag fees have resulted in different behaviour. IE people try and carry on as much as they can. For AA this has resulted in an interesting characteristic. They try and load passengers quickly but quietly offer no charge bag tagging at the gate. Clearly this practice has become widely known so the resulting potential revenue loss is not insignificant lets say $100 per flight (4 bags @$25 per bag). With AA moving more than 3400 flights per day on average this could add up.

Yup that's a cool $31 million a year.

Let's now consider the airport operations issues.

The airport boarding process is one of the least liked processes for a passenger. Right up there with TSA Screening but we are not touching that one right now.

The problem is that everyone wants to board at the same time. It is a hydraulic problem. Getting the people fluid into the vessel. However if you are a long time reader of this blog - you will find that I have examined this issue before. Random boarding beats everything but some very specifically controlled boarding. So randomly boarding people at different points on the plane was one of my suggestions based on check in number.

Seems AA is a good follower of the Professor and agrees. So this is now likely to speed traffic through the boarding gate.

How well it works - TBD.

Cheers

Sabre AND Travelport Take Big Steps Outside Air with New Hubs

While Amadeus has been retreating to focus on the air business - the other guys seem to be going the other way.

Sabre announced the major acquisition of Softhotels which will beef up their Hospitality business - already a vibrant component of Sabre and a major force in hospitality.

Travelport - free of the GTA boat anchor business - has now started a new Agent based leisure service for non-air.

Both of these announcements demonstrate the need of the core business to expand. As the GDS component of the Big 3 GDS companies declines and the market moves to a more open model - we can expect this form of behaviour.

However - for those of you who watch the space carefully - will this be a worthy replacement for the standard GDS business?

Well in my view the GDS yields will be hard to find replication for Travelport unless the former sink below 20% which seems to be on the cards. For Sabre this is a complimentary business and looks to help them in their quest to edge Pegasus out of the nest as the central player in Hospitality distribution.

Are Your Really A Consumer Lover?

Announcing the first Witovation Awards.

Are you a real Consumer Lover? Do they love you back?

Well enough Rhetoric. Show me

Check out the criteria for the awards here and get that presentation together. An esteemed team of judges will be joining me in determining the ultimate Customer Lover.

Go on - put your money where your mouth is.

Cheers

Understanding Groupon and Living Social

I am not a fan of the Groupon/Living Social Model. I fact I detest it. It just smells bad to me.

However - clearly the consumer's like it. So it has value. But this is a zero sum game which is so blatantly obvious that either I am stupid... or they are.

So have a read of the article from eMarketer. It does show some interesting dynamics of the two players.

Sadly it just approaches things from the consumer end not the supplier end.

But worth a read anyway


Cheers

Why I Hate The Manipulation Of Search

Hands up those who think that Search is ALL of the following:

Honest
Easy
Consumer Friendly
Pure
Ethical

Right - all you Google Acolytes can put your hands down now.

I thoroughly dislike the manipulation of search. I hate that SEO has become synonymous with all that is dirty and ugly on the web. Back when the web was young and Google was but a glint in someone's eye, we used to worry that because the web was like the Universe - limitless. Therefore making money on the web was going to be hard as you could never own a piece of real estate long enough for it to have any value. Web Homesteading meant any person could put out his shingle and start selling stuff. The downside was that we could hardly find anything. The upside was that this was the purest. It removed the barriers so that the little guy could compete with the big guy. It was going to be the great leveller.

Today - we have the massive gatekeepers like Google (OK so the Googleplex IS the gatekeeper). Which in turn means we have to play games in order to get any presence. And this means we have to resort to - I can think of no other way to express it - but to call it cheating. In order to Optimize your abilities - you have to get on the Hamster Wheel and run that mad just to stay in place.

The different tricks that people get up to are indeed all over the map. And we are spiraling down to more and more extreme forms of cheating.

Let me just put up a few examples:

Unscrupulous SEO advisers, digital agencies and even individual companies some of whom are quite reputable (normally) engage in these practices.

1. Put keywords that include brand names of your competitors. While largely stamped out this practice remains prominent

1. Freelance blog for money commentators who are usually factory farming people writing from home or in low cost countries who mascarade as real bloggers or commentators. These people are trained in techniques that they can use to commentate. They are literally nothing more than robots. ( would hazard a guess that some indeed are machines now). I have been getting quite a few of these appearing on my blogs.

2. Fake people. a 19 year old professional "faker" masquerading as a 35 year old housewife from Stockport replete with fake name, normal sounding email and other persona credentials.

3. Compensation mechanisms which are tied to the latest version of Google's algorithms. (EG Panda v1 and v2).

For a great list and discussion on this topic go to InfoWorld here.

And who is to blame? We all are.

However I think there are ways to do something about it. Firstly the consumer is tired of this and HE/SHE KNOWS YOU ARE CHEATING. So anyone who thinks you can do this and get away with it - you might gain some short term advantage.

For my part - I believe that one of the drivers of Social Media is that the Trust of the peers - are helping to raise the stakes. But now we have "Fake Social" peers who are attempting to become arbiters of this Trust. I have about the average number of "Friends" in Facebook and a larger number of Linked in contacts. I routinely weed people out and only accept people I know personally. However fakers still slip in.

All of us have the responsibility to route out these fakers and cheaters.

So think about this today - go into your Facebook and Linked in Accounts and remove people who are not personally known to you.

Cheers

FTC FINALLY Opens Up Broad Review of Google’s Market Dominance.

As I have pointed out over many a blog, In my view Google as a company of one. It cannot be judged by any precedent. Because frankly there is none. FTC to Serve Google With Subpoenas

No other company in the history of technology has held as much power and sway as the now sits in the hands of Larry Sergey and Eric. Google’s protestations to the contrary – they are now clearly a company that transcends the ability of any single government’s ability to control them via conventional regulatory means. The law – arcane and archaic as it maybe does have one or two tricks up its sleeve. Based on its limited controls – the US Law allows the various instruments of the US government’s executive branch to determine anti trust behavior. It is here that the Department of Commerce in conjunction with the Dept of Justice has come with the conundrum of what to do about Google.

While I believe that there are few if any Google employees who are outright evil. The ability to exert that power is just too strong. Google is doing bad things. This will come out in the investigation. But as regular readers know I am a strong believer in Newton’s Second Law. I firmly believe that Google is doing bad things through its lack of effective oversight of its employees who are in many cases determined to crush the opposition to anything that will get in the way of the Googleplex Borg. It is not – thus – that the people are doing bad things- but rather that they can manipulate a marketplace by either their direct actions or their withholding of certain facilities or even just by trying to do one thing – Google will (and yes sometimes inadvertently) effect a change in the marketplace that benefits the company. My opinion was that there was little that the US Government could do to prevent the Google acquisition of ITA Software. This proved to be right. BUT Google has stepped beyond the role of a conventional marketplayer.

Google knows this and its people know this. But Google has not yet put in place those controls to prevent damage to the marketplace. Google therefore has therefore been allowed to “get away” with things in the past. In my view this has only emboldened the Google Acolytes to behave even more without constraint. Should the Government have stepped in before? Yes. But they chose either through lack of direct evidence or through negligence or even because they lacked the resources to engage the giant. No matter – the decision has been made to go after them.

Am I right or wrong? On the one hand Google’s resources may indeed be greater than that of the Government’s ability to pursue this case. Thus there is no sure thing that the US Authorities will prevail. On the other hand successive US and International Authorities have failed to place any controls on the tech giant. As it evolves into a product based company from being a pure search utility – it has blown through many control gates.

In travel their power is not absolute. However do they have the ability that they can and will use? In my opinion yes. The lackluster appearance of Google Places for Hotels and the mediocre Google flight product may be a harbinger of a somewhat less than stellar product that will come from Troogle. But make no mistake – these are first generation products and Google will do better. So before these products start to appear to dominate the market, we need better controls. Well sadly it is too late for that. We will get products from Google’s cash pile that will kill certain players in the market. Some of these players probably will deserve to die. But others will be harmed irreparably. There will be “Mapquests” in travel. Indeed let’s be clear here – in travel’s case - there will be some “victimless” crimes. But there will be victims and that awesome power has yet to be revealed.

But by any measure the company is a monopoly and therefore its power must be curtailed. However that is achieved will determine much of what we can and cannot do in the coming years particularly in innovation will shape not just the Travel Industry alone.

I urge you if you are a new or occasional Reader to type the word “Google” into the search box and read some of the posts I have written before. Wander through the Professor’s prognostications. This represents my opinion. Let’s hope that both common sense and the what is “right” rather than what one company can do with its power prevail.

Everyone is entitled to an opinion. This is mine. Please feel free to write to me and tell me how you feel about this.

Cheers

Delta steps into the Dog Poo CORRECTION SEE UPDATE

PLEASE NOTE CORRECTED INFORMATION AND POSTSCRIPT BELOW

Skyteam has come from a late last place to a good second with Star retaining its global dominance in airline alliances.

However along the way – as the key players have been snapped up and now more than 70% of all global airline traffic can be booked on one of the big 3 alliances – there was bound to be a cultural problem or two.

And sure enough there is. As the Huffington post is reporting – Delta passengers on the code share flight with SV-Saudi Arabian Airlines (also known as Saudia) must comply with Saudia’s rules. This includes..

1. No Jews or Israelis
2. No Outward displays of religious affiliation other than that of Islam
3. Women must be accompanied by their husbands or a close male family relative
4. No transportation of religious artifacts of the Christian or Jewish or indeed any non-Islamic faith.
5. Oh yes and don’t expect any Martinis on the flight.

CORRECTION: DELTA IS NOT CODESHARING WITH SAUDIA.
When I checked the story to start with I could not find any DL Code shares out there with SV. Now I understand that Delta has issued a statement that indicates that they will not code share but will of course (as they do today) still interline.

This is of course well within the right of Saudia to insist on this policy which has existed for many years. Further entry into the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) is governed by the same level of restriction through its strict Visa program.

EVERY country has the right of self determination, however – Code Shares across boundaries somewhat messes up the global order. OK for conventional arrangements but not for situations like this. So what is Delta to do? Hmmm – someone in International planning is probably sweating bricks right now. Cultural sensitivity is always hard. So the simple answer is that you hope and pray that the controversy blows over. Fat chance. You can cancel the agreement and then Delta becomes the symbol of American Jewry to all Islamists. OR Delta takes a pragmatic approach that is all inclusive. IE That on DL served flights the rule applies and non DL operated flights those rules apply. If then those who arrive in KSA with these bad things – then they have to accept the consequence. BUT DL must now accept that it has to operate some of these flights rather than allowing SV to operate all DL coded flights to KSA.

Clear?

Good luck…

Cheers

EDITORIAL ADDENDUM

This makes most of the point of my story different in the narrative. However my point is writing the story in the first place is that these restrictions will occur no matter what happens. There are different policies some of which are governed by national requirements, some are operational requirements. As a frequent flyer I am exposed to these issues ALL the time. It is an occupational hazard of code sharing. I have pointed out in the past that the so-called seamless experience between carriers is a myth.

As the practice of code-shares proliferates then you will find more of these types of situations emerging. And that was the point of this story. Thanks for reading!!!!

What Cloud Computing Means To Open Airline Distribution

This is a modification of a response to a discussion going on in the Beat.

I have just returned from 2 days of the SITA IT Summit. I believe that it has finally dawned on the airlines that they need to do something about the control of their content. And voila... along comes the very essence of the tools to do this. Apps and the Cloud. What has been missing is a viable product and content delivery mechanism that enables the airlines to easily connect and the users also. The structured nature of the industry is artificially constrained by older and now increasingly irrelevant mechanisms. The reality of today's world is that NO ONE has any right to impose ANY STRUCTURES on any user community. I am not preaching anarchy, just acknowledging what the consumers are expecting of us in the industry to deliver.

The open web has enabled us to enjoy almost unlimited access to content. However that content has been constrained by the structures of those who believed that they are the gatekeepers. And they still believe that they can control that and impose the relevant taxes for the privilege. Cloud Computing, Open Systems and low cost app development with rapid deployment and mass consumer adoption all conspire to blow away these archaic legacy structures.

What has been missing is the delivery mechanism. Clearly Cloud Computing does that - but the airlines need a common delivery infrastructure to do so. One that enables the distribution of product and content in any way shape or form. SITA is stepping up to that plate with an Airline Community Cloud. This is but one of many potential options - but for the first time we will have such an Open Delivery platform that can enable true freedom of distribution.

Then next generation companies such as LUTE Technologies who provide aggregated and common services can compete fairly with the legacy players such as the GDSs.

LUTE does not impose rules and restrictions on either side. We provide splintered or common content. We enable unique bilateral dialogues without restriction. All via the Cloud. The owner of the content decides what he wants to sell. The consumer decides what he will use. This is a balanced and logical way to do things.

So rather than moaning about how the lack of ubiquity (aka the lowest common denominator of content) which is the gripe from the intermediary community - they should now embrace the fact that they can TRULY differentiate their services and provide value both up and down stream. Most importantly they can provide really valuable services to the community that they are (and hope to continue to) service.

Idealistic? Unreasonable? Unachievable? Hardly. This is real folks. The incoming Gen Y and Millenials who are replacing the Baby Boomers EXPECT - actually - DEMAND this level of service. if we don't do it now - then someone smarter and faster will.

So stop whining and embrace the real world. Now can we stop debating whose control is better? Let’s devote our energies to servicing the customer. GDSs need to either embrace or go away. But I don’t worry about that any more – the Technorati have spoken. Now the airlines realize that in 3 year’s time, 58% of their distribution will come from non-GDS channels. Actually I think that number is way too low. Open Clouds with deployment of new functionality in minutes rather than years will crush the structured legacy models.

Cheers

The Flip Side of LBS - Cyber Stalking.

Al Franken - Comedian no more - at least not for the next 18 months - is a Senator in the USA.

He is also very liberal. He is sponsoring a bill essentially to prevent Cyber stalking using Location Based Services in your mobile phone.

You can read about the details in the following article.

The bottom line to this is at a combination of Apple and Google's over-reaching use of LBS systems, and some pretty sloppy coding by Android developers has resulted in not just potential by actual abuse. People forget Newton's second law.

Let this be a lesson

Cheers

DoT Toughening Up on Online Advertising

The US Dept of Transportation is increasing both its surveillance of online advertising for Airline related businesses.

Indeed there is quite a lot of legal constraints on what you can and cannot do/say.

The DoT has just fined Frontier Airlines for a transgression.

Last month several online websites were fined.

And don't forget that the cash strapped US States are also getting into the act.

you have been warned. Comply with the letter and the spirit of the law

Cheers

Ever Wanted To Know The REAL Seattle?

Then here is a way to learn it all in about 2 hours.

This week's A Prairie Home Companion came from Chateau Ste Michelle Winery in Woodenville just outside Seattle and near where I live. So along with a few friends and probably most of the local NPR Station's listeners (KUOW) I went along to listen to Garrison Keeler. It was a great show.

To listen to it (from Monday June 13th) go to the PHC website and down load the archive.

http://prairiehome.publicradio.org/programs/

Cheers

Are US Travelers Stupid?

For a long time the value of brand has been that you can persuade someone to do something that they might not do otherwise.

In today's online - "just a click away" culture - the assumption is that the consumer is now better informed and will therefore make a better decision.

So what about fact?

Are the brand values we know and respond to actually meaningful and correct? Indeed do the brands match up to the expected value that consumers have for them?

In reality often times they don't. Case in point Southwest Airlines.

In 2000, my team did an assessment of Southwest and found that in most cases for the top 25 US based markets southwest did not have the lowest fare in all classifications. In reading Scott McCartney's analysis in the Wall Street Journal last week this trend is really showing. With the end of WN's legendary fuel hedging advantage - WN is well just like any other airline.

Indeed domestically WN is the largest airline in the USA market.



With the merger of AirTran that number has indeed grown.

According to the US DoT WN's average ticket price has skyrocketed 39% in the past five years, while the average ticket price for domestic trips for the industry was up 10%, and much of that is driven by the changes in WN's model.

But you also have to watch for some of the Gotchas. WN used to let you standby for an earlier flight at no cost. Not any more. They used to check a bag no matter what. Not any more - there is a weight and size limit that is typically lower than that of the average bags. They used to treat everyone the same. Not any more you can pay for a premium package with 2 levels of business class fare. You used to be forced to get to the airport early if you wanted a reasonable seat. Not any more - you can buy an earlier boarding pass.

So WN is no longer a discount carrier. It has old planes. It has older employees. It makes money from Ancillary Revenues. It participates in the GDSs. It charges more than 1000 dollars for a ticket.

Yup that makes them a full service airline. But they still like to poke their noses at others. And they still like to accentuate beautiful females to appeal to the male travellers. It will be interesting to see if they ever put a guy on the side of the plane....

Cheers

Bad (Survey) Monkey - Garbage in Garbage Out

I have made many comments before about how I feel that there should be a total ban on Survey Monkey and its usage by unqualified users.

In today's world of validation at every turn - just in case we make a slight mistake - we now have tools to track our every move and there seems to be an obsession with asking the customer or user or audience a question at every turn.

However this is bad.

Comparing Survey Data to Actual Behaviour is like a night and day revelation.

Let me cite a specific example.

BTC - who is a one man publishing machine from Radnor PA - uses survey money or rather abuses it. Just take their latest survey...http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ancillary_fees

It distorts the true nature of the actual results. Indeed today the effectiveness and value of surveys are now far less. Yet users and marketeers continue to use Survey's as a surrogate for behavior tracking.

Let me cite a recent study by ASTA on GDS. In the survey - the share of systems bares no relation to actual traffic through those systems.

Thus you get what you pay for... garbage in and garbage out.

But perhaps the best question of all on the BTC survey is the last one:



Hardly a survey question would you think?

Cheers

May ARC figures better but still down

May 2011 should be the month where we see an improvement in the numbers from ARC. Expedia settled with AA so we should be seeing a better set of numbers all round. Or should we?

We have been hearing a consistent story that the US market is stagnating. Further the US market is seeing a channel shift to direct from the Agency community.

With the US economy looking like it may be in a mild double dip recession - the nature of the beast is that the agency based transactions are not moving ahead. Further things are not looking good for the rest of the year for the corporate budgets. With many companies showing that their budget share is now spent higher than was anticipated due to the rising cost of air fares I think we are going to see corporate budgets quietly cut after Labor Day.

You have been warned.

Cheers

Cell Phones InFlight

There seems to be a big plot out to fight mobile telephones (cell phone to Americans).

First we hear that they really do cause cancer in Laboratory Amoeba - now they cause Autopilots to disengage all by themselves.

Could this be the real cause of AF447's demise in the middle of the South Atlantic?

So listen to ABC's Dianne Sawyer describe the situation for you in her best gravitas voice.

if you sit in the front of the cabin on a conventional plane - you should be more careful and turn the darn things off. If you have a GPS turned on - that could definitely cause an abnormality.

However just think of that Microwave oven right behind the cockpit - its working on the same frequency.

Cheers

The Web's Had an Impact - Yes Really Here's Proof.

Has the internet changed our lives?

Yes

Any questions?

What - you still don't believe. Where have you been hiding? Under some rock in the Gobi desert I would think.

OK but to what extent has the web changed our lives, our enterprises, our future and that of our kids?

In a very detailed and actually quite compelling piece of reading - McKinsey has done a nice piece on this. Entitled Its quite long 70 Pages but worth the read. I have skimmed through it and on one of the next flights I take I will try and labour through the whole document. In the mean time - I recommend that you read it and reflect.The report titled Internet Matters can be downloaded for free after signing up. Click the link and follow the instructions.

Now about that Betamax machine everyone has been talking about.

Cheers