Yesterday's WSJ reported that AA is going to begin testing inflight wireless on their 767 fleet.
Unlike JetBlue's wireless gimmickery, this service will not be free. Passengers will pAAy $10 for WiFi during short hops or $12.95 for flights over 3 hours. We immediately wonder, do you pAAy $22.95 to keep on surfin' LAX-BOS if you stop in ORD? Hmmm...
We kind of hope so, because this service sounds pretty sweet, and AA can probably print cAAsh with it. Passengers can reportedly use any device (e.g. BlAAckberry, lAAptop, iPhone), and access any web site (e.g. company intranets, Fare Market Value, etc.). Plus it sounds like they got some other sucker to pick up the tab for providing the service (i.e. no CapEx).
Mostly we wonder if passengers will be able to purchase the WiFi service at the time of booking their trip. Somehow we doubt it, at least to start. Though we see a day when Elites may get the service for free, or the service is bundled with a premium fAAre. In the meantime, a kind word, hearty handshake, and Shout Out to the first FMV reader that sends us an e-mAAil from 30,000 feet!
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Monday, January 21, 2008
SITA tries Ideating...
SITA ponies up huge for R&D – sinking $110 million on an R&D budget. However, it looks a big chunk of that budget goes to B-School consultants. Check out this article from Eye 4 Travel (Yeah yeah, we know they are a PR Newswire) describing the research:
SITA's CEO Francesco Violante said: "The pace of change in developing technologies continues unabated from Web 2.0 to Cloud Computing to new mobile applications and virtualisation. The speed of new technology development requires a dedicated focus on how these technologies can be incorporated into SITA's portfolio of solutions for the air transport industry."
The SITA Lab will deploy an Innovation Knowledge Management system to support the generation, capture and evaluation of new ideas. The system will be open to employees, as well as customers and partners, in order to create an Innovation Ecosystem for the air transport industry.
SITA's Chief Technology Officer, Jim Peters, who said: "Emerging technology is now driven more and more by the digital lifestyle of today's consumer rather than by traditional business-focussed IT solutions. SITA needs to be continually watching and learning from what happens in the consumer digital market to understand key trends and to be able to adapt and adopt consumer-driven technologies to create innovative solutions which address air transport industry problems. "
So they are creating: “An “Ecosystem” for “Innovation Knowledge Management” in order to capture the “virtualization” of “Web 2.0” as a result of “Consumer-Driven Technologies”
Heh heh, You can’t make this stuff up!!
Oh wait – maybe you can….(check out video link below...)
Ideating...
SITA's CEO Francesco Violante said: "The pace of change in developing technologies continues unabated from Web 2.0 to Cloud Computing to new mobile applications and virtualisation. The speed of new technology development requires a dedicated focus on how these technologies can be incorporated into SITA's portfolio of solutions for the air transport industry."
The SITA Lab will deploy an Innovation Knowledge Management system to support the generation, capture and evaluation of new ideas. The system will be open to employees, as well as customers and partners, in order to create an Innovation Ecosystem for the air transport industry.
SITA's Chief Technology Officer, Jim Peters, who said: "Emerging technology is now driven more and more by the digital lifestyle of today's consumer rather than by traditional business-focussed IT solutions. SITA needs to be continually watching and learning from what happens in the consumer digital market to understand key trends and to be able to adapt and adopt consumer-driven technologies to create innovative solutions which address air transport industry problems. "
So they are creating: “An “Ecosystem” for “Innovation Knowledge Management” in order to capture the “virtualization” of “Web 2.0” as a result of “Consumer-Driven Technologies”
Heh heh, You can’t make this stuff up!!
Oh wait – maybe you can….(check out video link below...)
Ideating...
Friday, January 11, 2008
We're Giddy for Alaska (and so are they)
Alaska Airlines has long been touted as one of the pioneers of airlines web sales, largely credited with being one of the first airlines to sell tickets on the web. It looks like some significant milestones were reached a few months ago
"During October, Alaskaair.com generated 50 percent of [Alaska/Horizon] total revenues for the first time. The site also passed the $1 billion annual sales mark in October, earlier than the mark has ever been met in previous years."
"Having finally broken the 50-percent mark, Mark Guerette and his E-Commerce team have their sights set on generating 60 percent of AAG's total revenues. "Unless we completely change our business model, that may be our high-water mark," Guerette said. "Many big companies still prefer to book through their own managed corporate travel arrangements and there will always be a certain percentage of customers who prefer the high-touch service provided by our reservations sales agents."
That's actually a pretty interesting comment and pretty shrewd on the part of Alaska. They recognize their customer mix, and their customers' preferred distribution channels, but have done what they can to maximize their direct distribution.
One thing FMV has to point out - If there is a story about Alaska Airlines and the Internet, it’s federally mandated that two things must be mentioned. We’re serious about this – happens every year:
1) It must be mentioned that Alaska Airlines was the first airline to sell tickets on the Internet to the legendary “Family of Four” from Olympic Peninsula.
2) There has to be a quote telling us how they happy they were when they remember the good ol' days…
- January 9, 2008 - Looking back to the launch of alaskaair.com in December 1995, "I remember all of us high-fiving because we sold 50 tickets in a week over the Web," said Guerette. "Now, we average more than 10,000 per day.
- December 15, 2006, - "We were ecstatic and high-fiving each other when we sold 50 tickets in a week," said Guerette, remembering an early milestone in the Web site's progress.
- December 28th, 2005 - "When Mark Guerette and his information technology crew at Alaska Airlines saw the first online reservations trickle in over their servers 10 years ago today, they were practically giddy with accomplishment."
So hats off to Alaska, and the travel journalism industry, both for maintaining a solid track record of consistency and success. Trust us, we are ecstatic and high fiving each other here at FMV HQ in your honor. We maybe haven't been this giddy since Flavor Flav hooked up with Bridgett Neilson on Surreal Life. Also, we're printing up some T-shirts, "Web Sales We'll Never Remember, Friends We'll Never Forget". Let us know what size you all need.
"During October, Alaskaair.com generated 50 percent of [Alaska/Horizon] total revenues for the first time. The site also passed the $1 billion annual sales mark in October, earlier than the mark has ever been met in previous years."
"Having finally broken the 50-percent mark, Mark Guerette and his E-Commerce team have their sights set on generating 60 percent of AAG's total revenues. "Unless we completely change our business model, that may be our high-water mark," Guerette said. "Many big companies still prefer to book through their own managed corporate travel arrangements and there will always be a certain percentage of customers who prefer the high-touch service provided by our reservations sales agents."
That's actually a pretty interesting comment and pretty shrewd on the part of Alaska. They recognize their customer mix, and their customers' preferred distribution channels, but have done what they can to maximize their direct distribution.
One thing FMV has to point out - If there is a story about Alaska Airlines and the Internet, it’s federally mandated that two things must be mentioned. We’re serious about this – happens every year:
1) It must be mentioned that Alaska Airlines was the first airline to sell tickets on the Internet to the legendary “Family of Four” from Olympic Peninsula.
2) There has to be a quote telling us how they happy they were when they remember the good ol' days…
- January 9, 2008 - Looking back to the launch of alaskaair.com in December 1995, "I remember all of us high-fiving because we sold 50 tickets in a week over the Web," said Guerette. "Now, we average more than 10,000 per day.
- December 15, 2006, - "We were ecstatic and high-fiving each other when we sold 50 tickets in a week," said Guerette, remembering an early milestone in the Web site's progress.
- December 28th, 2005 - "When Mark Guerette and his information technology crew at Alaska Airlines saw the first online reservations trickle in over their servers 10 years ago today, they were practically giddy with accomplishment."
So hats off to Alaska, and the travel journalism industry, both for maintaining a solid track record of consistency and success. Trust us, we are ecstatic and high fiving each other here at FMV HQ in your honor. We maybe haven't been this giddy since Flavor Flav hooked up with Bridgett Neilson on Surreal Life. Also, we're printing up some T-shirts, "Web Sales We'll Never Remember, Friends We'll Never Forget". Let us know what size you all need.
Thursday, December 27, 2007
SideStep - "He Gone"
OK – we’ll interrupt our holiday festivities and comment on the Kayak / SideStep “Merger”. There are a lot of tidbits coming through so we thought we’d throw in a few cents from the FMV point of view:
First of all – Reports say that Kayak will only hire 20 of the company’s 75 employees, not including its chief executive, Rob Solomon.
Wow, nice timing on that one Kayak – right before the holidays. Merry Christmas SideStep – now you guys can include a resume in your holiday cards you’re sending out!! Try this on your next search site: From: Santa, To: Kayak, and you'll get a big lump of coal in all of your results.
Second , Kayak raked in $196 million in VC money to be able to pull this “Merger”.
FMV puts the word “Merger” in quotes (insert air finger motion here) simply because we always thought that the larger company buying out a smaller company was called a “Takeover” or "Buyout" – but it’s obvious we’re not finance guys…
Third, the financing round was led by prior investor Sequoia Capital – and also included General Catalyst Partners, Accel Partners, Norwest Venture Partners, Trident Capital, Oak Investment Partners and Lehman Brothers Venture Partners, Silicon Valley Bank and Gold Hill Capital.
We guess $196 million is a lot of money so you need a lot of players.. FMV thought about joining in as well, but Kayak called saying they were drawing a hard line at $196 million and therefore they didn’t need our extra $250 to pull off the round…
Fourth, Kayak says there is less than 10% overlap among Kayak and SideStep users. (subscription needed)
This one actually caught us a little off-guard. We're told time and time again “There is NO loyalty in the airline search market, people always check multiple sites”. But now we’re told that tens of millions of searchers have a very strong loyalty to their preferred meta-searcher and don’t cross check? Or maybe because people don't know more than one? Whatever the case - seems like a weird fact.
Finally - Kayak co-founder and CTO Paul English added: “As a native Bostonian, I am also personally gratified to finally see an East Coast technology firm purchasing a West Coast counterpart.”
OH YEAH BABY – IT’S ON !! West Coast Sucks !! It's like the rapper wars again - Biggie and Puff can take down Snoop Dog and 2PAC ANY DAY ! Don't bring your weak stuff in our house Silicon Valley !
Man, where did this quote come from?
Overall – interesting stuff. We always thought that a few of these guys would get taken out, we just didn’t look at them “Merging” with each other. If the 10% overlap part is true - nice play for Kayak on simply shortcutting the process and ramping up their scale.
It’ll also be interesting to see what happens now with FareCast and Mobissimo - will others just look at these companies and think that they can get in the market now on the cheap(er)? Although we think Mobissmo has a long long way to go.
First of all – Reports say that Kayak will only hire 20 of the company’s 75 employees, not including its chief executive, Rob Solomon.
Wow, nice timing on that one Kayak – right before the holidays. Merry Christmas SideStep – now you guys can include a resume in your holiday cards you’re sending out!! Try this on your next search site: From: Santa, To: Kayak, and you'll get a big lump of coal in all of your results.
Second , Kayak raked in $196 million in VC money to be able to pull this “Merger”.
FMV puts the word “Merger” in quotes (insert air finger motion here) simply because we always thought that the larger company buying out a smaller company was called a “Takeover” or "Buyout" – but it’s obvious we’re not finance guys…
Third, the financing round was led by prior investor Sequoia Capital – and also included General Catalyst Partners, Accel Partners, Norwest Venture Partners, Trident Capital, Oak Investment Partners and Lehman Brothers Venture Partners, Silicon Valley Bank and Gold Hill Capital.
We guess $196 million is a lot of money so you need a lot of players.. FMV thought about joining in as well, but Kayak called saying they were drawing a hard line at $196 million and therefore they didn’t need our extra $250 to pull off the round…
Fourth, Kayak says there is less than 10% overlap among Kayak and SideStep users. (subscription needed)
This one actually caught us a little off-guard. We're told time and time again “There is NO loyalty in the airline search market, people always check multiple sites”. But now we’re told that tens of millions of searchers have a very strong loyalty to their preferred meta-searcher and don’t cross check? Or maybe because people don't know more than one? Whatever the case - seems like a weird fact.
Finally - Kayak co-founder and CTO Paul English added: “As a native Bostonian, I am also personally gratified to finally see an East Coast technology firm purchasing a West Coast counterpart.”
OH YEAH BABY – IT’S ON !! West Coast Sucks !! It's like the rapper wars again - Biggie and Puff can take down Snoop Dog and 2PAC ANY DAY ! Don't bring your weak stuff in our house Silicon Valley !
Man, where did this quote come from?
Overall – interesting stuff. We always thought that a few of these guys would get taken out, we just didn’t look at them “Merging” with each other. If the 10% overlap part is true - nice play for Kayak on simply shortcutting the process and ramping up their scale.
It’ll also be interesting to see what happens now with FareCast and Mobissimo - will others just look at these companies and think that they can get in the market now on the cheap(er)? Although we think Mobissmo has a long long way to go.
Monday, December 24, 2007
Happy Holidays from FMV & MAXJet
Hope this holiday season finds all you good readers very well. Unlike passengers of MAXJet, the all-business class airline/gimmick that ceased operations today. At least some stranded passengers will get a complimentary hotel stay from MAXJet.
We wish the very best to you and yours this holiday season, and are looking forward to lots more fun in 2008.
We wish the very best to you and yours this holiday season, and are looking forward to lots more fun in 2008.
Monday, December 10, 2007
Free In-flight Wireless*
*Sometimes, Maybe, & Limited. Your mileage may vary. All Rights Reserved.
This is a bit outside our core discussion area, but we feel compelled to comment on JetBlue's new inflight Wi-Fi service, which apparently debuted a little while ago It seems pretty cool to offer this service, and we can understand people getting excited about it, so we're not surprised JetBlue's getting a bunch of media buzz. However, when we read the details we were left underwhelmed:
This is a bit outside our core discussion area, but we feel compelled to comment on JetBlue's new inflight Wi-Fi service, which apparently debuted a little while ago It seems pretty cool to offer this service, and we can understand people getting excited about it, so we're not surprised JetBlue's getting a bunch of media buzz. However, when we read the details we were left underwhelmed:
- Works on limited devices only
- Works only with Yahoo! mail
- Hardware/bandwidth won't allow for attachments to mail or full web access
- Probably only available on transcons
- No available roll-out plan
The most telling quote from JetBlue, "It's not marketable. It'll have to be more of a surprise and delight for our customers if they get it." Well, with that kind of attitude, they certainly can't charge for it. And they won't. Though they imply that someday if they can get it right they may. Which is why we're keeping an eye on this.
But in the meantime, we're just annoyed that this is portrayed as something really special when it seems to be little more than a parlor trick.
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Take Off, Eh
Wednesday's WSJ reported (subscription required) that Aeroplan is hatching a maniacal plan for global domination. Well, that's a paraphrase. In fact Aeroplan acquired LMG, an operator of retail loyalty programs in Spain, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Canada, and the Mideast, as well as the UK's (apparently) popular Nectar program. Perhaps more interesting to us, was the Aeroplan CEO's comments that the firm remains interested in the US market. Aeroplan believes that an acquisition is the way to go in the States.
Now maybe you've heard, approximately EVERY US carrier has some sort of militant shareholder insisting that said carrier should divest its loyalty program. That includes not only American, but also United and US Airways (Star Alliance cousins to Air Canada) and Northwest (effectively based in Canada). We can imagine that any of those programs would be a tasty morsel for Aeroplan.
In the past we'd ignore this invasion from the north, but not after Rush and Bryan Adams. All signs point to credibility:
In related news, earn two frequent flyer miles for every purchase you make using Google Checkout this month. Woo hoo!
Now maybe you've heard, approximately EVERY US carrier has some sort of militant shareholder insisting that said carrier should divest its loyalty program. That includes not only American, but also United and US Airways (Star Alliance cousins to Air Canada) and Northwest (effectively based in Canada). We can imagine that any of those programs would be a tasty morsel for Aeroplan.
In the past we'd ignore this invasion from the north, but not after Rush and Bryan Adams. All signs point to credibility:
- Aeroplan is pursuing some corporate structure changes to facilitate deal-making (i.e. they want to raise money);
- Aeroplan's revenue is up over 20% so far this year over last (i.e. people will give money to them);
- The Canadian dollar is up more than 60% over the last 5 years to parity with the US dollar (i.e. the money will go a long way).
The next several months should have some fun news on this issue. Building a global loyalty brand with some leading carriers seems like a good way to mine a lot of customer data and mint some cash. Let's be honest, a lot of consumers are just fiends for acquiring loyalty points, cheap trinkets, and other shiny objects (Exhibit A: Flyertalk.com). Now imagine if you could use points for anytime rewards to Las Vegas *OR* Toronto. Nice.
In related news, earn two frequent flyer miles for every purchase you make using Google Checkout this month. Woo hoo!
More Spirit
Here is a legitimate news story about Spirit's MILF promotion, consumers' response, and Spirit's counter-response. We use the applause meter to break it down. According to ABC:
But Spirit continues:
So they start to insult your intelligence by suggesting that it was an innocent mistake by a naive Brit. Then they slug you with their carefully crafted witty quote. Well played. And at the end of the day, they hit their target audience. Probably at a price point cheaper than a bi-plane pulling a banner at Daytona.
"[Spirit's spokesperson] said that Spirit's senior vice president of pricing isFMV APPLAUSE METER: [Dead Silence]
a British citizen who was unfamiliar with the MILF terminology and that the
airline is not trying to offend customers."
But Spirit continues:
"The most obscene thing we've noticed, is what other carriers have charged to fly the Caribbean before Spirit's $9 fares."FMV APPLAUSE METER: [Raucous Clapping, Party Music, and General Spirit of Hilarity]
So they start to insult your intelligence by suggesting that it was an innocent mistake by a naive Brit. Then they slug you with their carefully crafted witty quote. Well played. And at the end of the day, they hit their target audience. Probably at a price point cheaper than a bi-plane pulling a banner at Daytona.
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Apparently Fares Fluctuate 400%
Seems that Yapta is actively trying to promote their pre-buy shopping tools over post-buy change alerts:
More importantly, what's up with that 400% stat? What is the source? What does it mean? That average fares start at say $150 and end as high as $750? Fares don't even really change much, do they-availability changes? So many questions for such a petty point. But if consumers take the bait - more power to Yapta.
"The average airline ticket price fluctuates 400%. All those tricky price changes mean people like to shop around before they purchase airfare. That’s why the latest version of Yapta includes a comparison shopping notepad, right in a sidebar window of your Internet browser. "Seems like a good call, given trends toward less generous carrier reprice policies. And the Yapta tool in your browser seems kind of neat. However, we question whether a downloaded app model will ever prevail over pure web services such as Kayak. Are consumers comfortable with another monitor on their PC in this era of pop-up blockers and virus threats? We know that even SideStep eventually had to go to the web-site play even though they were really sucessful with the download app.
More importantly, what's up with that 400% stat? What is the source? What does it mean? That average fares start at say $150 and end as high as $750? Fares don't even really change much, do they-availability changes? So many questions for such a petty point. But if consumers take the bait - more power to Yapta.
Monday, December 3, 2007
Spirit Airlines - MILF Sale
For those that are lucky enough to not be spammed by Spirit Airlines promotions, you're missing out on unbelievable teasers like the title of this post, the actual subject line of an e-mail we received over the weekend.
For those that aren't familiar with the common use of this acronym, type it in Google and spot check the results, or use the Urban Dictionary. You probably don't want to try that exercise at work, it's not for the morally squeamish. Of course, per Spirit, MILF stands for Many Islands Low Fares. Seriously (see graphic).
Can you imagine any legit company ever running that kind of promo? We really don't know whether to be thrilled by the corporate whimsey or dismayed by the seemingly unnecessary PR risk. Anyway, it was edgy enough that we decided to pass it along to you Fare readers to contemplate.
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