CO Initiates Better Relations
<B> CO Initiates Better Relations</B>
By Jay Campbell
Arming itself with improved database technologies, Continental Airlines is taking a number of steps to get closer to travelers, travel agencies and corporations.
The carrier is spending what one Continental executive called "big dough" on three internal systems: the Customer Information System, designed to get closer to frequent travelers; Sales Insight, for managing relationships with travel agencies; and Corporate Insight, aimed at better understanding corporate accounts.
The airline revealed the plans at its corporate travel manager advisory board meeting earlier this month, at which the carrier and its customers also discussed e-commerce, the changing distribution system and Continental's product line.
The first two pieces of the software revamp are nearly complete, but Corporate Insight won't be installed for about nine months. The Customer Information System, now in its first phase of rollout, will use frequent flyer numbers to track an individual's lifetime history and value as a customer. That information, in turn, will lead to special perks and attention to the details of the travel experience, such as flight delays. An evolution of that system--probably a year or two away--would allow for at-the-airport identification of and special treatment for travelers who work for the carrier's top accounts.
The agent and corporate systems will allow the airline's field salespeople to be better prepared to negotiate using laptops full of customer performance data. Such systems could allow Continental to ratchet up to the likes of American Airlines, long known as the airline industry's data king.
Continental is bringing better data to its global account management as well, developing a system that allows any sales associate worldwide access to information about a given account. A salesperson in Brussels, for example, now will understand better that a New Jersey client negotiates its programs with the airline in the United States and perhaps should not be approached with a local or regional contract offer.
In the distribution arena, Continental now is selling e-tickets to 60 percent of U.S. customers. To support the growth, it is doubling the number of its airport e-ticket machines and upgrading them to speed up seat selection and other features. By April, Continental said, 90 percent of its passengers will have access to the machines.
Continental's vice president of distribution planning, Steve Cossette, said the industry can expect the first interlining exchange of e-tickets between Continental and codesharing partner America West during the third quarter. "Interlining for e-tickets is a 26,000 man-hour project," Cossette said. "That's bigger than electronic ticketing itself was."
Meanwhile, the airline is looking to update its Website, on which it sold $62 million worth of tickets in 1998. Continental purchased the rights to the address www.continental.com from another company, and is considering the addition of electronic timetables and a booking system, which would enable small businesses and travel agencies to receive discounted rates.
In other news, Continental this year will conduct a complete review of its international BusinessFirst service to determine whether new products from its rivals, such as Delta Air Lines' BusinessElite (<I>BTN,</I> Oct. 5, 1998), warrant a competitive response.
Vice president of scheduling Glen Hauenstein also told advisory board participants that Continental will take delivery of a new aircraft every six days during 1999 and by year-end will have the youngest domestic fleet in the industry. Hauenstein estimated that 40 percent of the domestic fleet will have in-seat audiovisual capabilities, especially for flights more than three hours long.