Another stupid idea that devalues the concept of social recommendations. If any of my friends sign up for this I am un-friending and un-following you.

This is a cool little feature showing the profile information as a small badge.

Posted via email from JEBstream

Posted via email from JEBstream

Most agree that an important trend in e-commerce is personalization. This is even more essential in the mobile environment where location, context and personalization form the cornerstone for mobile search and marketing. Disturbing news of late around how mobile devices collect our information has created shockwaves across the Web. This includes the most recent reports on Carrier IQ and how it may be tracking every keystroke and behavior on your mobile phone to the revelation that the new Kindle Fire Silk Browser collects all your online behavior automatically suggesting Web content. Combine this with major efforts in and out of the travel industry to use your social graph to understand your preferences, the balance between privacy and personalization has clearly emerged as a major battleground between protecting your personal information and delivering relevant content.

There are heated debates online with some saying privacy is dead, so get over it, while others looking for government intervention to prevent unwanted spying. Over the last few years a similar uproar arose over the issue of behavioral targeting used to deliver ads. So how much information are travelers willing to disclose to get a more personalized offers? Where is the line drawn between more relevant content and invasion of privacy? From my perspective it is all about control. Consumers and in our industry, travelers, must feel like they are in control of their information. The amount of control may represent a generational divide where Baby Boomers like myself are more reluctant to share personal details online than the Millennial Generation. No matter how personalized the delivery of content, under cover spying is unacceptable and in some cases may simply be illegal. I encourage the industry to balance the need for personalized information by being transparent in the way information is being collected and used to deliver more personalized content.

Travel Tech Consulting provides services that cross all segments of the travel industry (airlines, hotels, OTAs, tour operators, TMCs, government and technology suppliers who support all these segments) with the underlying theme of how emerging technology is changing business practices. A common topic across these speeches and engagements has been the impact of mobile technology and social media on the travel process. Whether addressing audiences in Israel or Amsterdam, I was able to observe first hand the impact mobile technology and social media is having worldwide. Just as much of the traditional travel ecosystem has become accustomed to dealing with online issues, mobile and social are changing the game. As part of various research projects including a comprehensive special report for PhoCusWright entitled “Mobile  Hits the Mainstream”, I have interviewed a wide range of travel and technology companies about the impact of mobile and social media on their strategies. Here are a few observations:

• In many parts of the world mobile is becoming the primary means to connect to the web.
• The emergence of tablets is not only un-tethering the travel planning process, but extending the ability to plan and book travel any place at any time. When I returned I was greeted by my new Amazon Kindle Fire, the first under $200 tablet that represents the fusion of the e-reader and media tablet at a lower cost that the market leading iPad (Amazon Kindle Fire is now the #2 tablet worldwide).
• Audiences and clients all now agree that their customer’s social graph is having a direct influence on travel purchasing and most are struggling to implement an effective social media strategy to target the key influencers while protecting their brand integrity across social media channels.

Now that I am back home in the San Francisco Bay Area and looking out my office window at San Francisco and the Silicon Valley I am amazed how my region which is home to Apple, Google and Facebook is changing the travel industry in every corner of the globe.

As reported in PhoCusWright´s Latin America Online Travel Overview, 70% of flights in Latin America are concentrated within five airline groups: Avianca-Taca, LAN-TAM, Copa Airlines and AeroMexico and GOL. The Latin American air scene is promising, as reflected in the expansion of aviation groups and the large volume of passengers. According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), Latin America has been the only region with profits in the airline industry in recent years, although it is expected that earnings growth will slow in 2011.

The Merger’s Approved, But….

Surprisingly, approval instances for the merger, especially in Chile, became increasingly intricate. At some point, there were even rumors that LAN was looking for other merger partners. On September 21, 2011 , the Court of Defense of Free Competition (TDLC), in a split decision, finally approved the merger between LAN Airlines S.A. and TAM Linhas Aéreas , subject to mitigation measures. The airlines had to agree to surrender four daily Guarulhos slot pairs to other airlines willing to fly Santiago-Sao Paulo, to give up membership in either Star or Oneworld, and to interline deals with other airlines that operate selected routes, among other provisions.

The road continues to be rough, however: LAN (and TAM) expressed unhappiness with the antitrust court’s ruling, citing “numerical errors” that produced allegedly erroneous and misleading yield figures. Both airlines will appeal certain concessions:  1) the required antitrust review of codeshare deals reached with airlines outside whatever alliance LATAM ultimately chooses, 2) the need to surrender four fifth-freedom traffic rights to Lima in Peru, and 3) the introduction of government surveillance powers, including access to sensitive databases, accounting systems, call centers and other areas.

Alliances

The alliance scenario in Latin America is overwhelmingly dominated by Star Alliance (Copa Airlines, Avianca-Taca, TAM); Oneworld’s only hold in the region is LAN (after the collapse of Mexicana last year). SkyTeam has Aeromexico, and starting next year will incorporate Aerolineas Argentinas, which – according to Air Transport World – is the second-largest most unprofitable airline , surpassed only by Air India. Thus, retaining LAN is critical for Oneworld.

LATAM represents the first time two major airlines from competing alliances have merged. Gol , which recently took over its rival Webjet in Brazil, has so far insisted it will remain unaffiliated, and that – if it changes its plans – it would most likely end up in SkyTeam.

The industry may not see another alliance battle of this scale for quite some time. For Star, losing TAM would be a bitter pill, but the more likely outcome is a Oneworld victory. Or could somebody envision the unthinkable: Avianca-Taca, Copa, TAM and LAN all within Star?

LATAM Reservation Systems

TAM quickly adopted the Star Alliance’s recommended integrated IT platform, the Amadeus Altea customer management solution – a system already used by more than 60% of Star’s member airlines. Although this deal was announced in August 2009, Amadeus and TAM had already been working on the carrier’s migration to Altea for several months, and a cut-over to the new system occurred in March 2010. Altea manages all TAM’s reservations, inventory and departure control processes. TAM would eventually also adopt Amadeus’ suite of e-commerce services to support its websites and grow online sales. Participation in Amadeus’ global distribution system (GDS) was not part of the arrangement.

In 2010, LAN signed a multi-year agreement to transition to Sabre as its reservations system provider, a role previously performed by Amadeus and Resiber. Implementation of the SabreSonic system is in progress.

From the information above, we can conclude that recent investments from both carriers in their respective reservation systems have been strong. The door on a split system option would be open and could be pursued, as the two airline groups stated that they will remain separate units under the new LATAM structure. This kind of arrangement has a precedent in the United-Continental merger, both airlines have kept their own reservation system until now.

Is the topic settled or still not a negotiation priority? Right now, a combination of both.

We requested the opinion of PhoCusWright ´s distribution expert ,  Senior Technology Analyst Bob Offutt on this matter “ With the Interline and Codeshare tools available to them, two airlines hosted on different systems can come very close to appearing to operate like one airline.  The challenge is if there is a difference in the features and functionality between the two reservations systems that affects customer service, customers on one airline could be disadvantaged”