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Westin has done a formidable job in branding the key elements of the hotel experience.

Now it's getting into bed with United Airlines to extend their branding elements into the air and airport.

- Westin Heavenly Bed products will be available to passengers on United's ps service

- Media experiences including music and soothing nature videos

- Westin food and beverage program- from WestinSuperFoods and White Tea heavenly experience in the sky

- Westin Renewal Lounges are already located within United’s Red Carpet Clubs to give travelers a soothing hideaway for relaxing and renewing

This looks like an incredible paid-for media deal. United, strapped for cash has gone and sold space to the highest bidder, or perhaps Westin came to United with a plan.

It's clearly a very smart play for Westin to secure this valuable media property and reach its core target in a new and interesting way.

It's safe to assume that with all US airlines searching for additional funds, similar types of deals will be available across the sky and present ad agencies and media companies with new opportunities to take advantage of.


Posted by Ed Cotton JD Power's ratings for airlines are out and surprise, surprise, customer satisfaction is down. It suggests airlines invest in people, but with a 72% increase in jet fuel price and the inability to pass this on to consumers, where does the money come from.

"Across the airline experience, from check-in, to the flight, to deplaning, passengers are being affected by the ramifications of carriers making staff cutbacks and have expressed that performance and attitudes of airline staff are suffering. In this unstable industry environment, it is critical that airlines invest in their employees as a means to enhance the customer experience, as there is a strong connection between employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction. Those airlines that focus on keeping their employees informed and motivated will be better able to change negative consumer sentiment and truly differentiate themselves."


Sam Thanawalla, Director of the global
Hospitality and Travel practice at J.D. Power and Associates.

Posted by Ed Cotton

For an industry that's already skating on wafer-thin margins, a 72% annual increase in fuel costs has sent the business reeling. It's almost impossible to plan for an increase like that and certainly no way this can be passed directly on to consumers in the form of fare increases.

The future for consumers looks tough with airlines taking more planes out of service leading to overcrowding and fare increases many business travelers will be asking themselves is they really need to travel. The video conferencing industry, so long talked about as a viable alternative, may at last see the boost it has been promised for so long.

This quote is from the Business Travel News 2008 survey.

"The Air Transport Association last month projected the domestic industry's fuel bill this year will be 72 percent higher this year than in 2007, while JP Morgan's Baker last month projected the cost of fuel to bleed industry profits dry in the next two years, forecasting a "an all-time record" $7.2 billion operating loss this year and a 2009 operating loss of $8.1 billion.

"Certain more modest forecasts are difficult to reconcile absent heroic fuel declines or unprecedented demand growth," Baker said. "A war of attrition appears to be underway. One belief is that airlines will act collectively to massively reduce capacity, leading to near-record fare improvement, but management may instead engage in value destructive behavior as they attempt to merely outlast one another—after all, capacity cuts thus far fall meaningfully short of what we and most executives deem necessary. At current fuel prices, legacy bankruptcies and/or merge-at-all-cost attempts are a question of when, not if."

Rising costs may have one positive effect, reducing the carbon footprint.


Posted by Ed Cotton After a summer from hell in the US, where air travelers got to experience a system strained to the max.

From June 1 to Aug. 15, U.S. carriers canceled more than 30,000 domestic and international flights to the USA's top 30 airports, up from 16,000 last summer, according to a FlightStats analysis for USA TODAY. FlightStats' data show the proportion of flights arriving at least 45 minutes late jumped to 13.4% this summer, up from about 11.2% last summer. FlightStats tracks flights worldwide.

From USA Today- September 9th, 2007

It’s clear that air travel isn’t what it used to be.



Sadly, for Americans there’s very little they can do about it, for shorter journeys, it might be worth looking into bus or train alternatives, but for all kinds of reasons many of us still have to fly.

Over in Europe, things are changing and the rapid train system called Eurostar, which links the UK to Europe via the Channel Tunnel. The network has just undergone a 2.0 upgrade. For years, the UK rail system wasn’t able to allow the high-speed trains on the Eurostar network to go high speed, now that has all changed and it's now safe to travel at 186mph.

With some belated engineering fixes, the UK is ready to go high speed to Europe, which means train travel times to Paris, and Brussels easily beat out the equivalent air routes.

Finally, to put the icing on the cake, London’s famous gothic icon, St Pancras station has undergone a massive revamp turning it into a C21st architectural gem.

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

It’s not surprising that Eurostar now gloats in its TV advertising that promotes its new faster service,with the poor "whipping boy", none other than air travel.



Posted by Ed Cotton There was a good piece in the New Yorker, a couple of weeks back, by James "Wisdom of the Crowds" Surowiecki on why consumers tolerate delays on airlines.

"In other words, we’re stuck with the current system, because it isn’t really in any airline’s interest to try to change it. As long as no airline makes a dedicated effort to distinguish itself from the pack, all the airlines can stay lean, even at the expense of quality. In that sense, the most honest thing about the airlines may be their advertising, which tends to emphasize the flying experience—lulling us with talk of leg room and fully reclining seats. You may end up waiting on the runway for a couple of hours, the message seems to be, but at least you’ll do it in a comfortable chair."

The challenge appears to be for those who are trying to do something genuinely different- Jet Blue, Southwest and Virgin.

How do they avoid getting lumped into the category?

How do they also motivate their staff to care and raise standards, when the competition is doing such a bad job?

How and can do they do more than promise a comfortable chair?

It's interesting to think of other categories were the image of the category is so strongly ingrained, it's very tough for brands to push against it.

Banking is an obvious one.


Posted by Ed Cotton US consumers don’t appear to hold positive views of many industries, according to the findings from a Harris Poll conducted in July 2007.

Looking at the period 1997-2007 the only categories to show positive growth were- hospitals, banks and car manufacturers. Those with some work to do on their image included the obvious candidates; health insurers, and tobacco companies.



Oil companies, always the category the public loves to hate, are still hurting despite the efforts of PR and advertising to turn things around.

Most surprising was the performance of airlines, who've experienced a 40 point decline since 1997.

The category was the subject of last week's Business Week cover story that suggested things are unlikely to get better anytime soon.

And if you think the Summer from Hell is over, fasten your seat belt. The FAA predicts 1 billion passengers a year will take to the skies by 2015, a 36% increase from the current level. FAA officials say this year's Labor Day crunch could become an everyday flying fiasco within eight years, costing America's economy $22 billion annually.
 

Posted by Ed Cotton