Virgin America has announced plans to fly from Los Angeles (LAX) and San Francisco (SFO) to both Orlando and Toronto starting later this year. Toronto will mark Virgin's first international service while Orlando will be Virgin's second foray into Florida - and a route that potentially strikes at the heart of JetBlue.Toronto makes a lot of sense for VA - good demographics, little low-fare competition...
Priceline.com has begun including "pay-at-checkout" inventory alongside traditional, "pay-in-advance" merchant model hotel inventory at select hotels. Priceline has developed a jazzy new logo and tagline: “Pay When You Stay” to highlight this option. Users are then given the option of paying upfront or at time of booking when they click to select the hotel. And this isn't a matter of simply...
Continental Airlines, which has made considerable marketing hay about the fact that they still served airline food for free, has decided to drop the practice.Clever Continental advertising pieces like these will need to be re-worked a bit but free (airline) food can't be as big of a draw as other airline purchasing influencers such as price, schedule and frequent flyer program.Back when other airlines...
We were a bit surprised to be leafing through yesterday's Wall Street Journal and find the ad (left) for getaroom.com in Section A. No, in the Personal Journal (Section D) where most travel related advertising and leisure oriented stories end up, but actually in meaty section A.First take is, wow, interesting audience to go after - would not expect the average WSJ reader to be drawn to any hotel...
Expedia Media Solutions (the media arm of Expedia Inc.) yesterday announced that the San Diego Convention and Visitors Bureau had named Expedia.com "Partner of the Year." According to the press release, the San Diego CVB was recognized as "a top advertising partner and major sales channel for San Diego hotels."The press release continues:"'As a promotion partner, Expedia not only grew San Diego's...
Today, at Google's Campfire One "mega-do" TripIt's new Groups App was the only travel app included in the new Google Apps Marketplace.TripIt Groups brings transparency to business travel allowing registered users (who choose to share their plans) to collaborate on their travel plans. The product provides business travelers within a company, division etc an easy way to see when, where and how fellow...
For a long time, the hospitality industry has managed to convince business travelers that they should pay extra for high speed internet access (or HSIA in industry parlance) in four and five star hotels even though the same companies offer it for free in their lower tier brands. Four Points, Courtyard, Fairfield, Hyatt Place, Holiday Inn as well as newer brands such as Aloft and Indigo have all offered...
Late on Friday afternoon, Allegiant announced they would purchase six 757s. These 757s are Allegiant's first stray from the venerable MD-80s which now make up the fleet.Allegiant plans to begin flying them later this year from West Coast cities to Hawaii which currently lack nonstop service to the islands. Don't expect to see Allegiant announcing LAX-HNL service - while LAX is a focus city for Allegiant,...
In the first significant change to the Orbitz flight results matrix in as long as we can remember, Orbitz has taken a less is more approach. Traditionally, Orbitz has returned a myriad of flight options using the power of ITA to build numerous multi-carrier and multi-leg trips. While flights from New York to Boston via Buffalo may have been not only scenic but cheaper (and resulted in a few extra...