r&d hub

Travel industry uses Facebook and Twitter to reach customers

Matthias Koch — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 04:57:24 +0000

Booking a flight? Go on Facebook. Running late to the hotel? Send a tweet. Hotels, airlines and other segments of the multibillion-dollar travel industry are aggressively tapping into social media, ramping up their use of online sites such as Facebook and Twitter to build loyalty to their brands.

Airlines are maintaining a presence onYouTube and offering deals through social-mapping networks such as Loopt. Hotels are promoting their properties through bloggers, and they’re using social-networking sites to gather feedback, monitor trends and provide concierge services.

“I definitely think that social media is about to change the way we do things entirely,” says Jill Fletcher, social media and communications manager for Virgin America. “We’re able to admit over social media if we’ve made a mistake or if there’s a weather delay. So we’re able to communicate much faster and more effectively.”

Getting closer to realistic potential of mobile booking apps

Matthias Koch — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 12:15:03 +0000

m-travel.com has highlighted that travel industry is targeting a new breed of travellers who “rely more on their mobile smart phones — the iPhone, BlackBerry or Android — to negotiate, book and manage trips they have already begun”.

“They are booking at the last minute. They are booking near where they are located,” reportedly said John Caine, the senior vice president in charge of mobile development at Priceline.com. “I think they’re staying shorter because they have flexibility.”

This year priceline.com came up with a new version of its Hotel Negotiator App which allows travellers to point their phones in a desired direction and the radar sweeps the area looking for hotels.

Experience

It is recommended that mobile travel information and booking services need to be quick, easy, and light on data transfer.

In an interview with EyeforTravel’s Ritesh Gupta, Bill Keen, director of product development, IHG, emphasised that the experience will need to be tailored to shorten key transactional flows either through utilisation of key features of the phone – geo-location, mapping and integration with voice –better use of the content such as highlighting select key amenities that are important to last minute bookers, and integrating in profile data such as room preferences and credit card information. Keen is also clear that the mobile experience will not replace the deliberate planning process involved with something as important as an annual family holiday.

“The mobile experience is designed for a real-world context with lots of distractions. It is designed for somebody making a booking while waiting on a busy street corner or hurrying to figure out if a hotel room is available at the next subway stop,” said Keen.

“If you look at the regular booking cycle of trip planning/research, book, pre stay planning, in market arrival, hotel stay and post book activities, I tend to agree that trip planning is an activity best suited to other channels. However, booking – especially last minute bookings – along with pre stay planning and in market arrival can be natural fits for the mobile channel. Our statistics show that roughly 70 percent of mobile web bookings are same day compared to 11 percent via the web. Customers who book that day utilise the convenience of “always on, always tethered” mobile devices with location based capabilities to ease the booking and pre stay experience,” Keen said.

Read more on m-travel.com …

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Featured website : airlinetrends.com

Matthias Koch — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 19:15:59 +0000

Airlinetrends.com is an independent industry and consumer trends research agency. Airlinetrends.com is continuously monitoring the global aviation industry for commercial innovations in response to changing consumer behavior. Their corporate clients and newsletter subscribers are marketers, product developers, managers, researchers, suppliers, and anyone else who wants to stay on top of the latest developments in the airline industry.

What others say …

“Raymond has an extensive knowledge of developments in the airline industry. His trend presentations and various desk research assignments provided high quality output that played a significant contribution to our marketing strategy.”
- Peter Verheijde, Product Strategy Manager, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines

“Raymond’s ability to link major consumer trends to daily observations in the business arena, has made him an invaluable part of trendwatching.com’s core team.” - Reinier Evers, founder trendwatching.com

People …

Raymond Kollau (39), founder of airlinetrends.com, has extensive experience in analyzing industry and consumer trends. For the past 7 years, Raymond has been part of leading consumer trends agency trendwatching.com as a Consumer Trends Analyst, a position he still holds part-time today. Combining his travel industry expertise and his experience in consumer trends research, Raymond founded airlinetrends.com to bring inspiration and innovation to aviation professionals. Needless to say Raymond spends his fair share of time at airports and at 30,000 ft.

Raymond holds a Master degree in Business from the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands and also studied International Relations at Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea. His professional background also includes positions as Industry Analyst at PricewaterhouseCoopers Management Consultants (now part of IBM), and Internet Strategist at agency.com. In these roles, Raymond worked with many clients in the travel industry.
For questions on airlinetrends.com’s services, or for input if you are writing an article, please contact Raymond directly at

Researchers. airlinetrends.com works with a small and experienced team of freelance market researchers and workshop moderators. Depending on the nature of the project, a small and flexible team is formed with the required skills.

Website. Harley Peddie, independent designer, developed the current airlinetrends.com website and keeps all tech running.

Board of advisors. airlinetrends.com greatly benefits from the advice of Reinier Evers, foundertrendwatching.com, Liesbeth den Toom, senior editor Springwise new business ideas, and Stan Vermeulen, innovation director Generous Minds.

New Delta iPhone app enhances customer experience

Matthias Koch — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 12:50:30 +0000

Customers also can use the app, which is available on iTunes, on Delta’s Wi-Fi-equipped flights to access these features for free. Additional features will be available soon, including flight notifications and travel alerts; delayed baggage information; and a game.

“Our customers spend a lot of time online, and they’re looking for the latest ways to connect with us,” said Bob Kupbens, v.p.-eCommerce. “We continue to deliver new technology that unlocks the full power of social media and mobile apps, while providing innovative travel tools and greater convenience in our customers’ mobile world.”

In addition to already-scheduled updates for the iPhone app, Delta also is working to maximize the mobile travel experience, including introducing Delta Droid and Blackberry apps. As these other apps become available, Delta will relay the info through its blog, Twitter page, Facebook page, as well as traditional e-mail and direct customer communications.

Delta has launched its first Apple iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch travel application, or “app,” with on-the-go features and tools that customers can use to check in and view their flight status; review their SkyMiles account balances; access boarding passes; view upcoming flight schedules; get airport information and weather reports; and even store a parking location. Customers also can use the app, which is available on iTunes, on Delta’s Wi-Fi-equipped flights to access these features for free. Additional features will be available soon, including flight notifications and travel alerts; delayed baggage information; and a game. “Our customers spend a lot of time online, and they’re looking for the latest ways to connect with us,” said Bob Kupbens, v.p.-eCommerce. “We continue to deliver new technology that unlocks the full power of social media and mobile apps, while providing innovative travel tools and greater convenience in our customers’ mobile world.”In addition to already-scheduled updates for the iPhone app, Delta also is working to maximize the mobile travel experience, including introducing Delta Droid and Blackberry apps. As these other apps become available, Delta will relay the info through its blog, Twitter page, Facebook page, as well as traditional e-mail and direct customer communications.

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Delta Airlines : Paid catering at JFK lounges

Matthias Koch — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 05:59:11 +0000

airlinetrends.com ( a website we warmly recommend ) reports that Delta Air Lines has just opened a new café concept at four Delta Sky Club lounges at New York JFK Airport.

The new full-service cafés offer made-to-order breakfast, sandwiches, salads, small plates and desserts for purchase, as well as premium beverages. Meals are USD10-15 and premium drinks USD12 and bring another source of ancillary income to Delta. The café include dedicated seating areas within the lounge, but visitors also can order from the menu and dine anywhere in the lounge. Delta emphasizes that it continues to offer members the same selection of complimentary snacks and beverages in its lounge.

Delta’s introduction of paid catering in its lounge follows earlier initiatives from American Airlines and United. Besides complimentary beverages and snacks, American offers specialty sandwiches, salads and small bite samplers for purchase in its domestic Admiral Club lounges. The menus are available for dining in the lounge or to-go in travel friendly packages. United Airlines earlier in 2010 began offering a variety of sandwiches for sale in its Red Carpet lounges at Chicago O’Hare and Los Angeles International Airport.

Read more on airlinetrends.com …

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Using a mobile travel application offline with no roaming fees

Matthias Koch — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 12:21:20 +0000

In its analysis, WalletPop has emphasised on expenditure pertaining to international data usage.

“To the shame of many short-sighted iPhone app developers, many budget travel apps have an enormous flaw. This fatal issue could turn a 99-cent app intended to save you cash into a nightmarish drain on your cell phone bill. The problem: Many travel apps require a data connection to work,” highlighted an article from the site.

One needs to be wary of the cases where apps don’t tell users how much data they are using as they use it. No matter whether you use an iPhone, a BlackBerry, or whatever, the amount you spend in data could far surpass the amount you thought you were going to save by using the app.

“Bless them, but computer developers are not known, as a group, to be intrepid travellers. They are known for embracing new technologies, though, and that characteristic isn’t always compatible with thinking like a traveler does, and travelers know that data usage means money,” says the same WalletPop report. “Before buying an app, comb the product description for the phrase “no Internet connection required,” “off-line,” “locally stored” or something similar. Many data-reliant applications will gloss over this programming failure by simply neglecting to mention it, and if that happens, comb the user reviews for a customer who will deliver the truth about how it works.”

There are workarounds. You could activate a Wi-Fi network, but in most places outside of America, free Wi-Fi signals are hard to find. They’re also site-specific, which defeats the purpose of being able to roam anywhere you want and have information at your fingertips, says the report. It further goes on to add that probably the worst offender among travel app genres is language learning. Almost all of them require an expensive data connection to function and many of them just dump you into an inefficient, web-based translator.

For long, the industry has indicated that that there are still two issues that need to change: There need to be more standards over the whole industry so that development is easier and faster, and the network providers need to reduce the data rates especially for roaming but also the flat rates in their home markets as the customers are afraid of unknown cost for the usage of mobile services.

“The first challenge – standards – and keeping to the standards have become even worse compared to last year. For example, Samsung has added a new operating System “Bada” to the already diversed market. Android is used in many different ways which makes it even more complex all the time. The market seems to be futher away from standards than ever. This is still the biggest challenge for the mobile development, especially in combination with the demand for Apps,”Andrea Keipert, product manager – Mobile Services, Lufthansa told EyeforTravel’s Ritesh Gupta.

“The second challenge – the costs of flat rates and roaming are improving. Not only in Germany but in many other markets the competition has lowered the prices so that many people do not need to fear the use of mobile Internet or data transfer anymore.”

In June this year, interactive travel guides publisher mTrip launched travel guides for iPhone and iPod Touch.

According to mTrip, its offering has several unique features and one of them is about locating the traveller on the map automatically and displaying the most optimal route by subway or foot to any point of interest. The company says user can also view any point of interest in the area. This is all done offline with no roaming fees.

Plus, there is an augmented reality feature, too. The traveller can look through the iPhone 4 or 3GS to display the city and all the tourist attractions in the area at a heightened, surreal view. No Internet connection is required, says the company, a specialist in interactive travel guides for smart phones and portable devices, such as the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. The traveller can also send postcards via Facebook and email to be sent to friends and family. Unlimited sharing is free and no roaming is required, says mTrip.

Assessing such developments, Marko Balabanovic, head – Innovation,lastminute.com, says, “We think that smart phones are going to be indispensable for travellers, especially once the high cost of data roaming comes down.”

RFID : AA’s Hidden Test to Find How Bags Get Lost

Matthias Koch — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 05:53:54 +0000

American Airlines is using high-tech tracking devices to figure out how it can move passengers and their bags through the airport faster and with fewer hassles.

When Takeshi Misutake lands at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airportat 9 a.m., a white tag attached to his backpack tracks some of his moves. He volunteered to be part of the test when he boarded Flight 176 in Tokyo.

The tag on Misutake’s bag contains a tiny radio-frequency identification antenna. The airline placed another identical tag on the suitcase he checked. As the bags move through critical points in the airport, they pass under scanners that read the RFID tag, telling the airline exactly how long it took for the luggage and the traveler to move through parts of the travel process.

American is trying to find any hidden bottlenecks or points where bags are more likely to disappear.

“Where did the passenger get slowed? Was there a line? Was there a number of bags in one area waiting to get through?” AA spokeswomanStacey Frantz said.

The RFID technology allows the company to see what actually happens to bags and travelers, without anyone from the company having to be there to personally watch.

Airline fees : is unbundling the right way ?

Matthias Koch — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 05:46:24 +0000

Michael Hiltzik’s tells us in his column in the Los Angeles Times what he is thinking about airline fees. I would guess that most airline customers would agree …

American’s bright new idea is to charge coach passengers extra for a seat in the first few rows of the cabin, the idea being that these are desirable because their occupants can be assured of getting overhead bin space and get off the plane faster after landing.

I can certainly understand the desire to get off an American Airlines plane as quickly as possible. But this is just another example of the airlines’ relentless campaign of “unbundling” — charging for service that used to be included in the ticket. Baggage fees, check-in fees (some airlines charge for checking in by phone, some for checking in online … what else is there — checking in by ESP? Soon there will be a fee for that). …

Everybody understands what’s driving the proliferation of fees. It’s the airline industry’s nearly permanent condition of economic prostration. American, for instance, has recorded only two profitable years in the last five. Bankruptcies and shotgun mergers riddle the entire industry, especially among the older, “legacy” carriers, saddled with fixed costs in equipment and labor that hobble their ability to compete.

It’s no surprise that the airline best at avoiding silly fees is Southwest, which came into the business after deregulation and kept its expenses low from the start. Yet it’s not completely innocent either. Southwest charges a baggage fee for three bags and over, and it has lately been rolling out new fees for preferential spots on the boarding line.

In any case, the airlines are being fundamentally dishonest by quoting fares in one place and then piling up fees, some of them entirely unexpected. The service you buy with the basic fare shrinks all the time.

Read more on the Los Angeles Times ...

Selfboarding and biometric check-in : Precise BioFlight …

Matthias Koch — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 18:51:03 +0000

Precise BioFlight, a solution for matching passengers through the aviation processes. Here used for boarding an aircraft. The 17 passengers on the clip boards in 6 seconds in average, back-to-back, taking into account card users and a few that has to try twice. The time between the finger is placed on the scanner, and the passenger pass through the turnstile, is about 2-4 seconds in many cases.

Precise Biometrics’ Jonas Andersson demonstrates a biometric check-in solution at GSMA World congress.

Amsterdam Schipol opens library for fliers

Matthias Koch — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 13:17:57 +0000

Amsterdam Schiphol Airport has opened a library aimed at travelers on intercontinental flights awaiting their connections. Users can browse through books and a display of national art and download digital audio and video files. The 24-hour facility also features seats with iPads and 14 lounge chairs.

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The utility of mobile travel-related applications

Matthias Koch — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 13:14:53 +0000

The rise of smartphones with browsers which can both display desktop sites and make it easy for users to interact with them has been a significant development. The travel industry expects mobile usage to continue to increase as the browsers get better.

As more and more leisure travellers download travel-related applications on to their smartphones, one of the most intriguing questions facing travel service marketers today: how are travellers using these devices to plan, purchase and share information about both destinations and travel service suppliers?

According to the results of a new survey, around 19 percent have downloaded a travel-related application (app) to their smartphone.

The Ypartnership / Harrison Group 2010 Portrait of American Travellers survey, featuring 2,524 U.S. households, assessed the impact of the current economic environment, social values and media habits on the travel habits of Americans with an annual household income of $50,000 or more.

Key findings:

Among them, nearly one-half have navigated a destination using the built-in GPS functionality (47 percent) or searched for the latest information on flight schedules and delays (46 percent).
Nearly three in 10 have compared airfares or hotel rates (29 percent) or shared information or photos about their travel experiences (28 percent) using their smart phone.
Approximately one in six has booked air travel or lodging (18 percent) or viewed a virtual visitor guide that provides information on things to do and see while visiting a destination (15 percent).
Finally, more than one in ten (11 percent) has used their smart phone to download and redeem mobile coupons, while one in 20 (six percent) has downloaded an audio walking tour of a specific destination.

“Clearly, mobile devices are destined to play an increasingly important role in the distribution and sale of travel services in years ahead,” said Peter C. Yesawich, chairman and CEO of Ypartnership. “Both shopping and more real-time engagement in the discovery of what a destination has to offer are likely to rival talking and texting in the years ahead.”

The r&d hub twitter tag cloud …

Matthias Koch — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 19:03:25 +0000

This is our twitter tag cloud. Like it ? Follow us on twitter ...... Read more.. Related posts:

JAL interested in starting budget airline ?

Matthias Koch — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 05:37:00 +0000

The Birmingham Star reports that Japan Airlines is considering the establishment of a low-cost carrier while it goes through its state-supervised restructure.

JAL may submit plans for a budget arm on Tuesday, when it fronts the Supreme Court in Tokyo. Management at JAL have already expressed interest in a business model that will intensify competition to reduce air fares. Sources within the company have said that an increase in the number of flight slots at Haneda and Narita airports makes the entry of another Japanese budget carrier viable. All Nippon Airways has recently also expressed plans to establish a no-frills airline.

Self-serve kiosks expand beyond airline tickets

Matthias Koch — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 18:32:35 +0000

Consumers accustomed to using self-service kiosks to withdraw cash, pay for groceries, and check in for flights are finding do-it-yourself computer stations in new and sometimes unexpected places.

Some doctors’ offices are using the stations to check in patients. Hotel customers can check in or even buy accessories such as bathing suits. Movie tickets, cruise-line boarding passes, and DVD movie rentals can, in many places, be picked up with the swipe of a credit card.

“We’re seeing self-service technology take off in really in every industry,” said Jeff Dudash, spokesman for NCR, the company that creates most of these machines and invented the automated teller machine.

That’s because customers are used to having more control, and for the most part, they’re loving it, said trend researchers.

Quick Boarding with Lufthansa

Matthias Koch — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 19:23:46 +0000

Lufthansa is one of the airlines which launched a self-boarding process in early 2008, one of the pioneers with SAS. Let us take a look how it works :

When you are travelling with etix® – Lufthansa’s electronic ticket– and have received a boarding pass with a printed barcode, you have the option of boarding your aircraft quickly and conveniently with this boarding pass. Just use our Quick Boarding machines at selected gates at Frankfurt, Munich, Berlin-Tegel, Dusseldorf, Cologne, Hanover, Hamburg and Bremen!

Place your boarding pass, with the barcode face down, onto the scanner. After a short verification, the gate will be released. Please remember to take your boarding pass with you. If your seat has changed at short notice, the Quick-Boarding-Gate will print out a new coupon with the latest details, which you can pick up as you pass through.

You can now enjoy even more relaxed boarding at Frankfurt and Munich airports. Easy to use and with gates that open automatically, the so-called ‘Quick-Boarding-Gates’ (QBGs) at Munich Airport already facilitate much quicker and more convenient access to the aircraft at all Lufthansa gates. QBGs are becoming increasingly available at Frankfurt.

Via lufthansa.com …

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CHECK-IN 2010 in Las Vegas

Matthias Koch — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 06:30:09 +0000

This will be the fifth in the series of highly successful international events, attracting up to 400 airports, airlines, security and immigration agencies, handlers, hotels, cruise operators, solution providers, planners and suppliers from around the world to discuss the most efficient, cost effective and customer friendly means of processing passengers through airports, hotels and cruise liners and how facilities should adapt to evolving technologies and stakeholder requirements.

Delivered in partnership with McCarran International Airport, and IATA (who will stage a supporting Simplifying the Business workshop on September 8th) at the MGM Grand, Las Vegas on September 8-10th, the event aims to provide a forum for all levels of experience; beginners and established travel industry stakeholders alike can share experiences and work to agree standards, best practice and procedures, as well as provide key insight on how check-in practices will evolve in the long term and what impact this will have on systems and facilities.

Key advancements will be covered through presentations and panel discussions involving all stakeholders, plus architects and planners, in areas such as CUPPS, web-based check-in, ADIX, FT, PCI, XML, offsite check-in and bag drop, self tagging, airport layout, common bag drop, biometrics, self boarding, RFID, new generation bag tags, near field communications (NFC), facilitation, baggage reflight, location based services, automated border clearance etc.

Crucially, the debate will always return to how developments in each of these fields can, and must, be integrated into the ‘Terminal of the Future’. R&D Hub will be there, meet you …

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Why Credit Cards Won’t Exist in 10 Years

Matthias Koch — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 05:32:56 +0000

Ric Merrifield writes on Blogging Innovation why credit cards won’t exist in 10 years : Our mobile devices will be the “credit card” of the future. You would “beam” some information to the merchant about yourself (it could even be your Paypal account – which, at a restaurant you could include in your OpenTable reservation and skip the “beam” step) they then transmit to you the amount you owe, you click some sort of “agree to pay” button and that’s it. It would also ask you if you want to pay a gratuity, which you could also have pre-programmed to calculate percentages so you don’t have to do that math in your head after a glass of wine. It’s easy to password protect cell phones, so if you lose it you aren’t going to get hijacked by whoever finds it. The way things are going, we will be having mobile devices with us for a long, long time, …

The revolving airport shop …

Matthias Koch — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 05:25:09 +0000

Last September, we wrote about Planeshop, an innovative new airport retail concept developed by the pop-up retail pioneers who launched Vacant. Planeshop’s principle is simple: it lets different brands take turns running its permanent store. Now, 11 months later, Planeshop is opening in a former departure lounge at Glasgow Airport.

The first brand on rotation at Planeshop is Californian sports label K-Swiss, which will be using the space to sell and market its sneakers and clothing. The store’s exterior is entirely K-Swiss branded, billboard-style, while the interior features black-and-white graphics by a Glaswegian designer.

To put it mildly, opening an airport store can be challenging. For brands who want to test a market, launch a new product or reach consumers in vacation mode, Planeshop removes most of that friction. It will be announcing its next guest brand in a few weeks. And the company is thinking big — it aims to open Planeshops in airports around the world. (Related: Nationwide network of pop-up marketing spaces.)

Website: www.planeshop.net via springwise.com …

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NFC iPhone already in Testing?

Matthias Koch — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 19:37:45 +0000

Over the weekend it was reported that Apple hired Benjamin Vigier, an expert in near field communication (NFC), a short range wireless protocol most synonymous with contactless payments. This key Apple hire is perhaps the strongest public signal yet of Apple’s intent to use NFC to build on its micropayments franchise and disrupt traditional point of sale using a mobile commerce model.

hipmunk or the “Better Flight Search”

Matthias Koch — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 18:25:33 +0000

A new flight search site, hipmunk, positioned as “Better Flight Search” has been launched by Steve Huffman and Adam Goldstein.

“Most flight search sites haven’t changed in years. They have an intimidating search page and endless pages of flight results. Finding the right flight often takes all afternoon—or all week,” the company says on its website. “At Hipmunk, we make your experience a lot better. We’re building better interfaces for searching, browsing, and filtering your flight search results.”