Thoughts about travel...

I finished a trip the other day, and bought services from the big
three: air, rental car, and hotel, and it got me thinking about how
companies differentiate their products, or how well they fulfill their
promises.

Air travel is largely a commodity. If it weren't for the inflight
magazine and an occasional announcement, I would not have know what
airline I was traveling on. If you don't check baggage, you have
virtually no face time with anyone from the airline itself. I figure
that checking into the flight, and then getting a drink from the
flight attendant works out to all of about 90 seconds of brand
support, if that. So, other than flight schedule or price, how does
an airline create a brand that people choose? And they talk a big
talk about how great they are, but nothing really makes them that
great.

I reserved a full size car, and their example was a Dodge Charger.
But, there were none, and I was satisfied with a Honda Accord, but if
you salivate over getting a particular car, and car rental companies
specialize in disappointing their customers, there must be a better
way to do things.

And finally, at the hotel, I enjoyed my stay, but there was some sort
of ink stain on the carpet. It didn't bother me too much, but I sort
of wondered, if I see something like that, why don't the decision
makers at the hotel see it too? These companies talk up a big talk
about perfection, but I think that few people walk that talk. Maybe
you have to go the more expensive brands to get that level of
attention to detail.

Just wondering if anyone else has some thought about these things.

Sounds like you traveled on Southwest Airlines used Enterprise Rent-a-
car and checked into the Hilton........

--
http://www.moviesitearchive.com

On Sep 3, 7:51*pm, AE Todd wrote:
I finished a trip the other day, and bought services from the big
three: air, rental car, and hotel, and it got me thinking about how
companies differentiate their products, or how well they fulfill their
promises.

Air travel is largely a commodity. *If it weren't for the inflight
magazine and an occasional announcement, I would not have know what
airline I was traveling on. *If you don't check baggage, you have
virtually no face time with anyone from the airline itself. *I figure
that checking into the flight, and then getting a drink from the
flight attendant works out to all of about 90 seconds of brand
support, if that. *So, other than flight schedule or price, how does
an airline create a brand that people choose? *And they talk a big
talk about how great they are, but nothing really makes them that
great.

I reserved a full size car, and their example was a Dodge Charger.
But, there were none, and I was satisfied with a Honda Accord, but if
you salivate over getting a particular car, and car rental companies
specialize in disappointing their customers, there must be a better
way to do things.

And finally, at the hotel, I enjoyed my stay, but there was some sort
of ink stain on the carpet. *It didn't bother me too much, but I sort
of wondered, if I see something like that, why don't the decision
makers at the hotel see it too? *These companies talk up a big talk
about perfection, but I think that few people walk that talk. *Maybe
you have to go the more expensive brands to get that level of
attention to detail.

Just wondering if anyone else has some thought about these things.

Good guess. It was United, Thrifty, and Hilton Homewood Suites.

"AE Todd" wrote in message
...
Good guess. It was United, Thrifty, and Hilton Homewood Suites.


What was?
--
JohnT

AE Todd wrote:
Good guess. It was United, Thrifty, and Hilton Homewood Suites.

And what prompted those choices in each case? Was it,
perhaps, price?

Bob M.

AE Todd wrote:
I finished a trip the other day, and bought services from the big
three: air, rental car, and hotel, and it got me thinking about how
companies differentiate their products, or how well they fulfill their
promises.

Air travel is largely a commodity. If it weren't for the inflight
magazine and an occasional announcement, I would not have know what
airline I was traveling on. If you don't check baggage, you have
virtually no face time with anyone from the airline itself. I figure
that checking into the flight, and then getting a drink from the
flight attendant works out to all of about 90 seconds of brand
support, if that. So, other than flight schedule or price, how does
an airline create a brand that people choose? And they talk a big
talk about how great they are, but nothing really makes them that
great.

I have a cousin who was in marketing at Delta for a couple of decades.
All the research they do shows that airline choice, when there is even a
choice of flights between the origin and destination, is based on price
and schedule. Only when these are fairly equivalent, which is pretty
rare these days, does brand loyalty have any influence on the choice.
Meals, fees, etc. have very little influence.

On international flights there is often more than one choice between a
major U.S. hub and a major foreign hub, and then brand loyalty and
quality have some influence. I know when I used to go to Asia a lot I
had my favorite airlines (Cathay, Singapore, JAL) and tried to avoid
United, Korean, and China Air (Taiwan).

I reserved a full size car, and their example was a Dodge Charger.
But, there were none, and I was satisfied with a Honda Accord, but if
you salivate over getting a particular car, and car rental companies
specialize in disappointing their customers, there must be a better
way to do things.

Can you believe how the rental car agencies have redefined car sizes?!
You need to order two sizes too big these days.

And finally, at the hotel, I enjoyed my stay, but there was some sort
of ink stain on the carpet. It didn't bother me too much, but I sort
of wondered, if I see something like that, why don't the decision
makers at the hotel see it too?

They probably saw it, but they don't want to spend anything to fix it.

Just wondering if anyone else has some thought about these things.

I've found Continental to be a level above other airlines. I flew back
east when my mom was in the hospital in June. I got to SFO and there was
some problem with my ticket, I couldn't check in at the kiosk. They told
me that my flight was delayed so I wouldn't make the connection. They
moved me to a different flight (which I wanted originally but that
wasn't available to me because I was using One-Pass miles and there were
no One-Pass tickets available). They upgraded me to first class. They
gave me a meal voucher because the new flight was several hours later
(even though it ended up getting to the destination at the same time). I
felt like I was back in the 1960's. Compare that to an airline like
JetBlue. When my mom's flight was canceled due to them not having a crew
available they refunded the cost of that segment and wished her luck
finding a flight back to Florida from California. She had to buy a full
fare, no-advance purchase flight on another airline. This is common
practice on JetBlue where they have so few flights, planes, and crews
that any problem propagates through the system and they find it easier
to issue a refund and tell you to get lost than to get you to your
destination.

I used Continental again to go from San Francisco to Newark, and it was
very smooth. They still even provide meals! I think that they are the
last domestic carrier to still provide meals in coach.

AE Todd wrote:
Good guess. It was United, Thrifty, and Hilton Homewood Suites.

Ugh, I found Thrifty to be horrible. Definitely second tier. I've had
the best experience with Enterprise lately.

In message SMS
was claimed to have wrote:

Ugh, I found Thrifty to be horrible. Definitely second tier. I've had
the best experience with Enterprise lately.

We've been renting from Enterprise exclusively lately, and are now on
first name basis with a few of their reps.

The one around here also hands out free-upgrade and free-day coupons for
the slightest inconvenience, or even for things that weren't even a
problem.

They also throw in free upgrades, don't bully or bull**** us about
insurance (we're covered by three different policies which, taken
together, give us complete coverage for a minimal deductible), and have
never beaten us up for returning a car with too little gas or billed us
cleaning fees or being an hour late or anything else.

We're good renters, repeat customers, we always clean the inside of the
car, sometimes vacuum (if there are chip crumbs or anything), often take
it through the car wash (whenever we rent a car we take some mats from
under our cats' litterboxes to a car wash with a pressure washer, so
giving the car a once-over is no extra hassle), etc.

It probably depends on the location, but the one we rent from frequently
has consistently been good to us, and having talked to my dad (who rents
when he travels), he uses Enterprise almost exclusively too, having
consistently had good experiences at multiple locations.

In message SMS
was claimed to have wrote:

I have a cousin who was in marketing at Delta for a couple of decades.
All the research they do shows that airline choice, when there is even a
choice of flights between the origin and destination, is based on price
and schedule. Only when these are fairly equivalent, which is pretty
rare these days, does brand loyalty have any influence on the choice.
Meals, fees, etc. have very little influence.

Personally, I have zero *brand* loyalty.

Confusing meals, fees, seat comfort, other things of value with brand
loyalty is simply confusion on the part of marketing.

I express loyalty to a product or service when the product or service
offers me something of value, but only for as much additional cost as
that value.

In other words, I was willing to pay more for "extra room in coach" and
flew AA almost exclusively when that was offered, but you can bet that
if someone else offered the same route with the same seating for less,
I'd be there faster then you could watch me cash out my miles.

If I could take another airline (without said extra room) for $100
cheaper, then I had to decide if said feature was worth $100. Extra leg
room and enough room for a laptop definitely was.

Meals aren't worth much to me since the quality and quantity doesn't
generally justify it (in other words, no I won't spend $50 more to fly a
route that offers me a meal I wouldn't pay $5 to buy).

Fees are just part of the total price, I won't spend $50 to avoid a $25
fee.

I fly business sometimes, although mostly coach since the cost for
business isn't usually worth the significant price difference (to me)

I have bought WiFi and will again, since the cost is worth it. I'd pay
more then the $5 it cost me, but I wouldn't spend $100+ to change to
another airline just because they offer wifi any more then I'd spend the
$100 while sitting in the seat.

It has nothing to do with brand and everything to do with the
cost:benefit of the services offered.

DevilsPGD wrote:
In message SMS
was claimed to have wrote:

Ugh, I found Thrifty to be horrible. Definitely second tier. I've had
the best experience with Enterprise lately.

We've been renting from Enterprise exclusively lately, and are now on
first name basis with a few of their reps.

The one around here also hands out free-upgrade and free-day coupons for
the slightest inconvenience, or even for things that weren't even a
problem.

That's what happened to me. I mentioned that the TPMS kept indicating a
problem and when I checked the tire pressure everything was fine. I just
wanted them to know so they could check it out. That got me a reduction
in the rental cost of one day's charges.