The thoughts of a CTO, managing customer centric solutions for travel and e-commerce.
Today when we access data online, web sites capture “big data”, often supplemented by 3rd party profiling data.
In this post I’m looking at how our data is shared, with whom and the accuracy of the data. With the upcoming EU General Data Protection Regulation this is an interesting subject. Continue reading “In the future, who will own my personal data?”
When comparing OTA and Airlines, they sell a similar product. Both sell flights, both sell packages (in most cases). So why is it that OTA dominate in online search?
Continue reading “Digital Maturity is the main gap between OTA and Airlines today.”
As someone who was departing on the 27th of May on BA I happen to have first hand experience of the issues that amassed that day.
As my departure was late in the day I suspect my experience was quite different to those who had already checked-in, or were due to land when the issues occurred. It was a difficult day for everyone.
In the travel marketplace there have been a number of start-ups disrupting the norm. AirBnB came from nowhere. There had been peer to peer accommodation services for many years, but AirBNB came and made renting a room easy for a global audience and within a few years has become one of the market leaders.
Uber have done the same, challenging the norm for taxi services. Recently, talking to an uber driver, he expected his local taxi firm to close, and for their to only be the likes of Uber and Lyft in the near future.
These companies have formed as a startup and disrupted the norm, so whats to stop the next startup from doing the same in the airline industry?
I would like to set you a challenge.
Find me a hotel in say Boston which can accommodate 2 Adults, 2 Children, in two connecting rooms or a suite (with min 1 room), where there are two bedrooms, and ideally 3 beds.
Give it a try.
Continue reading “The nightmares of trying to source accommodation with children.”
Many OTAs lack inspiration, its become “all about the booking funnel”, to me the destination matters, more so than the hotel or the flight. But exploring online leaves me with a feeling of exhaustion and confusion. Continue reading “Where’s the inspiration?”
At the Airline Information Conference, Amadeus showed a study that they conducted, comparing major airlines with regional LCC, and this study showed that most LCC had more steps in their journey than most full service airlines. LCC often requested information sooner, such as an email address, which enabled personalisation and basket abandonment, but many had a number of additional steps.
Amadeus wanted to see how this impacted the user experience. They mapped the time to complete a booking against the number of steps.
What they determined was even with more steps, if the steps are fast and easy (no bullying) that the LCC had a positive experience with the user. Those who were slow negatively impacted the experience.
This shows that more steps doesn’t adversely impact the journey as long as we can handle the information being asked. Its likely to relate to the fact that our memory can only recall information for a limited amount of time. Breaking down steps, enables us to answer effectively, to the LCC’s benefit (to personalise, recover bookings), and also provide a positive experience.
Its a well known fact that if we are looking for something specific that, when given a large choice we will struggle to make a decision, whereas if you only have a small choice the decision is much easier to make. Continue reading “Paradox of choice”
We have all experienced this, we’ve closed our laptop, done something else, taken a call for instance and returned to what we were doing to find;
I’ve been taken to the home page without message
I’ve received a session timeout message
You complete an action, but that action fails.
In a recent conference, on a round table, one comment was made that resonated with me.
No one wants to fly. Continue reading “Who cares about flying?”