United removes website hold feature

This is somehow strange to be decided by an airline company to show its customer-friendliness. Instead of exerting some more efforts to keep their existing customers, they are doing something which might push the customers away.

Both canceling the non-ticketed booking within 24 hours, and canceling the ticketed booking within 24 hours without penalty have the SAME effect on the seat inventory but the former option is definitely more customer-friendly.

The feature of auto-cancellation due to expired time-limit has been there since almost the dawn of the automated reservation systems. That feature could be simply used without dissatisfying the customers and without negatively affecting the seat inventory of United Airlines.

Published at: http://www.bnet.com/

The £300m flying palace

This is really a flying beauty.
It is the taste of luxury at its best.
I am wondering whether this aircraft uses regular fuel or champagne.

Published at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/

Kazan: A taste of Tatarstan

Quite interesting article about Kazan, Republic of Tatarstan, Russian Federation.
For traveling to Kazan, Kaliningrad might not be the best gateway as Lufthansa operates four flights weekly from Frankfurt with one stop en route in Samara.

Date: 06 June 2009 commenting on http://www.dailymail.co.uk/

Value addition versus value creation

The feature of value-added has to be there at the start of the planning stage, which simply means that the value has to be created with the product itself. However, value-adding could be implemented at any subsequent stage if the existing value is not enough or if there is no value at all.

Published at: http://toostep.com

Airline branding book review: Flying high in a competitive industry - secrets of the world’s leading airline (SIA)

There is one more link between Singapore Girl and the integration of differentiation strategy with cost-leader strategy.
By reflecting natural femininity, grace, and warmth, the girl is acting in a lady-like style. Ladies highly care about their social (public) profiles compared with their private lives.

Seemingly, Singapore Airlines adopted the same style by investing in all “visible” aspects of operation and tightening the belt “behind the scenes.”

Published at: http://simpliflying.com

Randy Petersen of Flyertalk on social media and frequent flyers - Part 2 of 2

What is remarkable in the speech of Randy Petersen is the link between current users of social media and the future generation of business executives who will be using the airline services.

Regarding Randy and his achievements, the professional popularity can not be accurately measured by the number of Twitter followers alone.


Published at: http://simpliflying.com

Randy Petersen of Flyertalk on airline branding - Part 1 of 2

Airline brand loyalists choose to fly a specific airline due to a deep emotional connection and for accumulating air mileage as well.

It is true that your most valuable customer is like your best friend. He’s there for you even in the tough times. However, we have to be careful with the analogy considering the fact that there is no business exchange between friends.

To a great extent, frequent fliers are loyal customers. I would be flying my preferred airline as long as its fares, schedule, and service are meeting my expectation. Otherwise, no one can blame me for putting my loyalty aside and finding another service provider who cares about my needs. For me, loyalty loses its meaning when it is one-sided.


Published at: http://simpliflying.com