August 6, 2014

Airline Customer Experience Management

  Earlier this year I produced a report on Customer Experience Management (CEM). CEM is a major airline trend intended to gather customer insight from all points of passenger interaction and deliver more personalized services at every customer touchpoint.  The report is now available for free download (Simply click on the Image to download this report). The study reviews the state of airline CEM efforts, the […]
August 6, 2014

Intelligent Travel Assistant Update

Those readers who have been following my blog over the last 9 years, know that I have long been an advocate for the creation of a mobile Intelligent Travel Assistant (ITA). Despite the frustrations consumers have with current OS intelligent assistants such as Siri, Google Now and Microsoft Cortana, a second generation of truly intelligent assistants is on the near horizon. Some pundits have […]
April 2, 2014

NDC A Different Perspective

There has been a great deal written about IATA’s New Distribution Capability (NDC). Essentially NDC is an XML standard designed to allow airlines to deliver dynamic content and price based on a traveler’s value. It shifts control over pricing from a traditional published process to a dynamic repsonse controlled by the airlines. NDC has created a lot of controversy.  Major concerns […]
March 5, 2014

The Open Booking Debate

Over the last 18 months I have sat back and observed the heated debate over open booking. My strongest critic of this debate is not about the pros and cons (though I will share that in a moment), but on how definitions vary across articles and thus cloud the very essence of the debate. So before I give you my […]
March 3, 2014

The Dark Side of Travel and Big Bang Disruption

As a consultant over the last 19 years, I have traveled a great deal, but my travel experiences have mostly been sheltered from the challenges faced daily by the average traveler. This is particularly true as a top status frequent flyer with my favorite airline, traveling business class internationally and using CLEAR to bypass security lines at US airports. Even […]
March 13, 2013

Travelport Breaks Ranks and Agrees to Integrate AA Direct Connect

Today’s Travelport /American Airlines announcement marks a watershed moment in airline travel distribution. Over the last six months the two camps seemed to be solidifying their positions. On the airline side the purchase of the Open Axis Group schema by ATPCO followed by the IATA’s announcement that their New Distribution Capability (NDC) would embrace the same Open Axis Group standard,  aligned the airline distribution approach around a single […]