Airlines Upgrade Web Products
<B> Airlines Upgrade Web Products</B>
By Marshall Krantz
As the lure of low-cost distribution and high-paying customers continues to draw travel vendors to the Internet, a few airlines have revamped their Websites significantly over the past couple of months, offering new serviceswhile streamlining the ones they already have.
But the real action online is taking place literally offsite, where the push is on to deliver low-fare offers by e-mail. In what is the leading edge of this nascent direct-marketing effort, at least two airlines are tailoring their e-mail offers to individual customer profiles, created by travelers themselves.
American Airlines in June launched its next-generation Website (www.aa.com) with what spokesman Tim Smith called "personalized messaging." Web visitors can specify the destinations for which they want to receive e-mail messages containing low-fare offers. United Airlines (www.ual.com) operates a similar personalized service.
The e-mail service augments the company's weekly Internet-only specials, which are e-mailed weekly to people who register on American's Website. Smith said that the new e-mail service "may ultimately mean that all 1.7-million NetsAAver subscribers will receive market-specific e-mail."
Visitors to the American site also can create personalized home pages displaying their names and the number of frequent flyer miles they've accumulated. The site has been organized into four broad categories--the AAdvantage frequent flyer program, travel planning, specials, and products and services--for easier navigation and has cut the number of screens needed to book to four or five, about half of what was previously needed.
AA later this year will explore the possibilities of adding a voice recognition system for bookings, as well as pager notification of gate or flight changes.
The carrier experienced so much traffic on the new site that it went down for much of its first day. "I had about 2,000 users at one time yesterday," said John Samuel, director of interactive marketing, on June 25, "compared to our 7,000 telephone reservations seats."
American has no plans to offer negotiated rates for large corporate customers on the pubic site, but Samuel said it will "participate in the other products out there" and is "looking at what we may be able to tailor for smaller companies."
Northwest Airlines, meanwhile, has offered e-mail delivery of its weekly CyberSavers announcements simultaneous with a posting on its Website (www.nwa.com) since last June. In July, Southwest Airlines began its e-mail service announcing online-only specials, which it initiated last February on its site, www.southwest.com.
In the latest step in online marketing, Continental is "very close" to debuting a purchasing system for its Internet fare specials via a hot link embedded in e-mail, according to Ken Bott, Continental's manager of Internet marketing. Customers who subscribe to Continental's weekly e-mail newsletter will be able to click onto the link to access the company's booking engine.
"A lot of tech sites have been doing this for some time, and now everyone else is catching up," said Bott. "About 40 percent of the online public has html mail capability, and more and more people will have it as their Internet service providers update their service. We're following the pace of technology."
Once the new purchasing system is up and running, customers also will be able to view and book Continental's Internet travel specials on its Website, at www.flycontinental.com.
While a handful of airlines already offer ticketing and even seat selection on their Websites for both regularly published and Internet-only fares, others like Continental are rushing to catch up. Trans World Airlines plans to offer online booking of Internet specials around the end of this month, said managing director of distribution Dennis Gudorf. Like Continental, TWA already permits direct booking of published fares on its site (www.twa.com).
US Airways, meanwhile, plans to begin testing its first online booking system in the next few weeks.
TWA in June debuted its remodeled site, featuring a more integrated interface between the site and the airline's booking engine. The two previously, "didn't mesh well," acknowledged Gudorf, "but now they have the same look and feel."
To make the site more easily navigable, a "home" button has been added to the each screen. Previously, visitors retraced their steps using the "back" button.
In conjunction with the launch of the new site, TWA is offering 1,000 bonus frequent flyer miles for the first ticket booked online, and doubling mileage for each additional ticket, for a combined total of 15,000 miles for four tickets. The promotion will run through 1998. TWA's continuing online promotion of 1,000 frequent flyer miles for each ticket bought online kicks in upon purchase of a fifth ticket.
Delta Air Lines (www.delta-air.com) also gives frequent flyer miles as an incentive for booking online, 500 miles per ticket.
Swissair launched its next-generation Website (www.swissair.com) in June, featuring direct booking of any published fare, not just the Internet fare specials previously available. Visitors also can book flights on Swissair's partners, Delta Air Lines, Austrian Airlines and Sabena, and they also can reconfirm flights on the site.