Travelers now prefer travel apps to web for search and booking

What exactly do we mean when we say mobile?

Up until recently “mobile” really meant either mobile apps, found in places like the App Store, or mobile web, accessible via URLs. What we see now is that travelers are increasingly turning to the app experience, rather than mobile web, to search and book flights and accommodation.
A global study Travelport Digital carried out with 955 end travelers showed that 58% of people prefer apps to search for flights and 53% preferred apps to find accommodation. We found that consumers want a lightning-fast mobile experience, which they feel this is best delivered through apps. Travelers also value the additional functionality and features that the native platforms bring.
Travel brands that can match their app experience to consumer expectations will drive more bookings, add more ancillaries and create longer-term value. And those travel brands that don’t deliver will suffer through online cart-abandonment, as well a pummeling on social media and app store ratings.

Reasons travelers prefer apps versus web

The findings revealed that apps remain the ‘go to’ for traveler engagement. In many respects, native apps are the preferred channel over web due to their speed, additional functionality, and better overall UX.
Rather than showing signs of ‘app fatigue’ now seen in other industries, travel apps are continuing their growth in downloads and monthly active users. 82% of travelers we questioned said they will be downloading the same number or more travel apps than they did the previous year.

Downloading an app vs using mobile web

App functionality that travelers value

Due to the advantages of speed and UX, travelers download and use apps to search and book travel. 35% also like the immediacy of push notifications that keep them up to date, while almost a third of travelers use apps for promotions or discounts in travel.
For 24% of travelers, loyalty features, like automatic log-in, trip details, air miles, and account/payment details are important.

Travel activities preferred via apps and web

When it comes to check-in and boarding passes it doesn’t come as much of a surprise that apps are the favourite choice but things start to get interesting when you compare apps and web for travel search and booking. 58% of people prefer to use apps for searching for flights and 53% prefer apps to search accommodation, with a close run race for who wins out for booking.
Web, on the other hand, wins out being the preferred choice when it comes to car rental and destination bookings.

Push notifications offer a mix of opportunities to delight and monetize

Further insights revealed that the power of push notifications are not waning with travelers finding trip specific push notifications and promotional offers useful. Today, travel push notifications are mainly delivered via native apps and the mobile web does not offer that level of engagement with consumers.
In fact, mobile apps are increasingly being viewed as engagement platforms, given their ability to interact with consumers throughout the trip. These engagement points vary, from prompting them to book via a discounted offer to notifying them of delays or gate changes, sending contextual at-destination information and driving usage post-booking with loyalty updates.

Great UX = Great loyalty. Bad UX = Bad loyalty

Customers these days are extremely savvy. So it’s important to note that any old mobile experience won’t do — having a 1- or 2-star rated app is basically a death sentence for an app.
Travelers value UX highly: 85% say they would be more likely to book a trip with a brand that had a good user experience. Conversely, if they had a bad app experience, 69% would be unlikely to book with that brand again.

Travel brands investment in mobile makes sense

We wanted to see how travel brands we’re responding to the shift to mobile and apps, so we interviewed 55 senior travel industry professionals to gauge their plans for 2018.
90% of those we spoke to said they were investing in mobile this year and 60% of travel brands are looking to enhance or replace their app this year.

Travelers are spending more time and more money on apps. They have come to expect a fast, frictionless, helpful experience when they search and book their travel when they prepare to take off, when they’re in destination and when they return home.

More story here

Airport shopping app introduced to deliver shopping & food to passengers at their gates

As the airport shopping gets more convenient with mobile payments, ‘AtYourGate’ (AtYourGate was the first innovation to come out of SAN’s Innovation Lab which is tasked with creating new ideas to enhance the passenger experience that can be implemented at the airport and beyond to other airports, malls, hotels and convention centers) and mobile ordering platform ‘Golo' have partnered to introduce a new airport shopping app that delivers shopping and food to passengers at their gates at San Diego International Airport (SAN).

The app aims to raise the bar on passenger satisfaction for both - airport consumers and retailers, by directly embracing new technologies that push the envelope.

As per Jean Francois, CEO of Golo, “Consumers and merchants today expect a frictionless and sophisticated retail experience when making purchases or selling using their mobile technology. They want to see the products accompanied by visually rich images, in a smooth app where searching is intuitive and there is a secure way to transact.”

2 live examples of such innovation include:

Airport Sherpa, that is a gate delivery service app, which is currently live at Baltimore Washington International Airport. The app keeps track of passengers’ flight schedule to ensure the goods get to the right gate even if there are flight changes, and includes a live order update feature to reassure buyers their goods are coming.  (This ideation can be tested in Hackathon!!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcPcLzKMHuU

Grab introduced convenient app-based airport shopping in 2015, with a consumer app as well as an open platform for airport and concessions integrations. It has grown to offer food and beverage pre-order and pick-up services at 24 airport locations in the US and UK. Grab recently signed an agreement with Air Canada to integrate Grab within the airline’s mobile app offering services from restaurant and retail partner concessionaires. Grab also partnered with LevelUp this February to boost mobile engagement in the US.

What Booking a 'Mistake Fare' Really Means | The risks and rewards of buying that really, really low-priced flight!!

Flight pricing errors are a godsend for wanderlust’s with big dreams, but small wallets. It's like an opening that crinkly take-out bag, and realizing you got an extra set of fries with your order 😊 . Believe it or not, airline pricing mistakes happen all the time. Here are few of them:

* 2007: San Francisco to Auckland, New Zealand return, business class – $1,500 USD instead of $15,000 USD. The cause? Human error resulted in a missed zero – oops.

* 2012: Myanmar to the US, return – $300 USD. How come? A mistake when converting the price between currencies.

* 2013: Various US cities to Hawaii, return – $7 USD. Why? A computer glitch that lasted 2 hours messed up the price.

But what rights do travelers like these who have booked a mistake fare actually have? In fact, what even is a "mistake fare"? Here's how to find these fares—and make sure you're not left in the lurch after booking. 

Mistake Fares, Decoded

Error fares or airline price glitches, are a HUGELY reduced flight ticket due to a blunder. Various botch-ups can create a mistake like:

• Human error: Laziness, fatigue, or a case of stubby fingers and a small keyboard can cause numbers to be omitted or added in error when entering a flight price, resulting in a seriously reduced ticket.
• Currency conversion misfortunes: Calculating a rate from one currency to another poses a huge risk for miscalculations. A famous example is a $4,000 United Airlines ticket that was listed for just $79 – allegedly due to a mishap when converting the Danish Kroner to the British Pound.
• Omitting fuel surcharges & fees: Fuel surcharges were first created in the 70's during the oil crisis to accommodate fluctuating prices. Annoyingly, they were kept ever since – supposedly partly to prevent frequent flyer programs from allowing people to book 100% free tickets using miles (you must always still pay these additional fees). Every now and then though, these charges may be dropped by mistake. Fuel surcharges make up a surprising percentage of an airline ticket, so if left out, it equates to big savings!

Statistically speaking, error fares are foreseeable. With the profusion of flights and traditional flight booking systems out there, mistakes will happen and they will be overlooked. It is far too time-consuming and costly for airlines to continually correct every single price conflict.

Things to know before you book

DOT used to make all airlines honor mistake fares, but that all changed in 2015, when a first-class ticket on an United Airlines flight to Denmark cost just $51 if you marked that you were in Denmark in your billing address. The error curtailed from a currency conversion mistake. Though DOT's policy is to keep airlines from jacking up flight prices after travelers had booked a ticket, the transportation agency ruled in this case not to enforce it, since the passengers who booked the flight had done so "in bad faith," lying about their address to book a lower fare. Because of this, since May 2015, airlines have been able to cancel tickets booked on error fares at will, as long as they can prove to the DOT that the ultra-low fare truly was a mistake, usually by comparing the prices between a standard fare and the error fare. Few of the airlines also provide an advisory message , to be sure of the price – for instance, American Airline’s contract states: "If we sell a fare in error, we have the right to cancel the ticket. This includes fare errors, computer errors, and third-party errors (human or computer). We make every effort to prevent, detect and correct errors as soon as possible. When we issue a mistaken fare, we'll void the ticket, give a full refund and notify you within: 72 hours after we learn of the mistaken fare [or] at least 24 hours before departure if you bought the ticket less than 72 hours before departure."

How can I find mistake fares?

The easiest way here is to stalk the experts. Secret Flying is arguably the best resource out there for worldwide flight pricing errors. Each day they scrape up current mistake fares (in mysterious ways), and are prompt with updating when tickets sell out or become defunct. Airfarewatchdog, or The Flight Deal to find these deals. The other option is to set up flight alerts on Google Flights or Hopper for a variety of routes you'd want to fly.

The gray area here is whether or not a low fare is a good deal (which the airline can't backpedal on) or a mistake (which they can). Though a fare may be low because of lack of demand or increased inventory, there is one way to know for sure the deal isn't a mistake fare.

What to Do If Your Ticket Gets Canceled

The DOT requires the airline to reimburse you for all of your non-refundable purchases, including, but not limited to, "hotel reservations, destination tour packages or activities, cancellation fees for non-refundable connecting air travel and visa or other international travel fees." Make sure to keep receipts on hand for any of the purchases you do make, as the airline will likely require proof of purchase. That said, reimbursement is such a hassle that it's worth it to wait to book those non-refundable charges until you have a booking reference or passenger number record to make those purchases.