How Airlines Can Capitalize “Revenge Travel” With A Group Booking Solution

How Airlines Can Capitalize “Revenge Travel” With A Group Booking Solution

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After the Covid-19 pandemic-induced travel restrictions ended, millions took to the skies, determined to make up for the time they lost without a vacation.

This phenomenon, “revenge travel” can be utilized to recover airlines’ losses due to the persistent lockdowns around the world.

People are increasingly traveling in groups to their dream destinations and are more than willing to pay premium rates for a great travel experience.

However, this spike in demand isn’t something airlines are prepared to deal with due to their reliance on legacy group booking software. Manual means of processing group requests can’t keep up with the massive number of requests that are currently flooding help desks. Aside from that, airlines have no way of personalizing offers with dynamic prices and ancillaries, which means a lot of potential revenue is lost.

How an automated group booking solution can help airlines maximize revenue from revenge travelers

1. Instant Quote for All Group Bookings

Airlines usually take 1 to 2 weeks to process, calculate and quote group bookings. The pricing isn’t available instantly and the fare quoted is not fool-proof from revenue leakages or losses. The quote then has to be negotiated manually before finalizing the amount.

When you have a group booking system, the users can get instant quotes via a web portal. The Intelligent AI-based algorithm can generate a quote considering various parameters instantly. The group travelers don’t have to wait for emails, calls, and messages, as every step from making the group request to receiving an optimal quote is automated.

2. Optimal Pricing for Group Bookings

Even if airlines manage to seize all their group booking opportunities, there will always be a question about the pricing strategies airlines use. “Does it maximize revenue?”, “Was the group pricing we quoted profitable?”, “Was the pricing too high/low?”.

The current airline group revenue management system isn’t fully capable of optimizing the pricing strategies for high materialization rates and profitability. But with a solution like GroupRM, which comes with real-time dynamic pricing based on factors, like load factor, competitor fare, etc., airline revenue managers can rest assured that the price they are offering is the best possible one that will lead to a booking.

3. Personalizing Ancillaries for Group Travelers

After Covid-19, airlines understood that they needed to extend their services by offering personalized ancillaries to the relevant groups. In the current group booking system, ancillaries are manual and the travelers have to request seat upgrades, meals and baggage, and insurance details separately in emails or chats or by reaching out to the help desk or sales team. This could be a big inconvenience for group travelers and airlines may not be able to give a smooth booking experience.

To solve this, airlines can use an automated system for recommending ancillaries and allow passengers to add on whatever special purchase they want to make. Because of the impact of the pandemic, many people may be concerned about their health, so you can offer up ancillaries, such as travel insurance, telemedicine, etc., to bolster revenue. Providing such a personalized experience will also go a long way in helping the airline retain customers.

4. Self-Reliant, Fast, and Secure Web Portal

Group travelers will be best served using a secure and easy-to-use web portal for all their requests, booking, ticketing, and post-booking modifications, such as changing itineraries, adding ancillaries, etc. This will save them a lot of time and effort because the usual way of booking group tickets is quite tedious. You can expand your customer base by having a web portal with multiple language/ payment options.

5. Making The Post-Booking Process Effortless

The booking part alone isn’t the final step; airlines need to continue providing all the required support to the group travelers till their departure.

It is quite common to see the groups changing their dates, number of people, and destinations. Many steps are handled manually when it comes to upsizing, downsizing, dividing, and changing itineraries. Airlines doing all this manually will end up causing delays for the passengers and consequently bringing down the productivity of the help desk team.

Airlines can introduce automation into the process by using a solution like GroupRM. It can send out alerts, reminders for payment, name updating, etc., that will help group travelers planning trips post-COVID. Meanwhile, airlines can delight their passengers by letting them make their changes to the itinerary straight from a web portal rather than making them contact the help desk via email or phone.

Conclusion

Airlines have been missing out on the potential 28% rise in group booking revenue. With an automation solution like GroupRM, airlines can replace the inefficient process which results in revenue leakages. You can also personalize the flying experience of travelers looking to shake off the boredom from COVID lockdowns and make them lifelong patrons of the airline.

How Airlines Can Provide Exemplary Post-Booking Support For Group Customers

How Airlines Can Provide Exemplary Post-Booking Support For Group Customers

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For a revenue manager, there’s probably no greater joy than taking a group quote to the booking stage. 

However, lacking post-booking support can and has often unraveled all the great work that the airline help desk, sales team, and revenue management professionals have put into making the passengers accept the booking and pay a competitive group fare. 

Complete chaos could ensue at the drop of a hat. An airline route may get disrupted due to bad weather. A passenger may change his plans and want to travel on a different date. Another may want to make changes to their itinerary.

Pretty much anything could happen, and airlines are woefully unprepared for the massive number of group passengers flooding their support systems in need of post-booking support.

But why is that the case even though airlines spend millions on their IT systems each year? 

Challenges in providing post-booking services to group passengers 

Even now, group passengers’ only option when it comes to accessing post-booking support is call centers. The passengers must reach out to the call centers via phone calls or emails to raise their requests manually, and most likely, they must depend on non-airline industry professionals to help them make changes to the itinerary, cancel their bookings, or add ancillaries.

Given the time-sensitivity of these requested modifications and the huge amount of cash involved, customers can be incredibly frustrated by slow or generic responses from the airline. 

Because post-booking support is still handled manually by the airline or partner call centers, they may have a hard time keeping up with support requests coming around the clock. 

Also, the fact that the airline employees in the revenue, sales, or help desk team are occupied with mundane tasks, such as itinerary changes, name updating, etc., brings into question how productive they are. Additionally, airlines’ failure to quickly address cancellation or ticket modification requests can lead to poor customer experience, which will drastically affect the carriers’ ability to bring in repeat business. 

However, the worst issue is the revenue leakage from airlines not being able to provide personalized ancillaries to individual group passengers once the booking has been made. Having to reach out manually for each customization of the booking may leave passengers dissatisfied and lead to the airline losing revenue by not being able to upsell special meals, pre-paid baggage, in-flight Wi-Fi, etc.

The simple fix to airlines’ post-booking woes 

Providing self-service options to your customers and automating whatever is possible is the way to go for making your post-boking process a delight for customers and a revenue winner for the airline.

With the right technology partner for providing post-booking support, airlines can allow customers to make modifications on their own. If a solution like GroupRM is put in place to help with group passengers’ post-booking requests, they will be able to effortlessly change date/ flight time, upsize, downsize, split the PNR, and cancel their group bookings, requesting a refund without the hassle of going through a call center. 

Besides, they will be able to use an online interface to access personalized airlines ancillary inventory, including: 

  • Travel Insurance
  • Tour packages 
  • Baggage services, such as baggage claim tags, baggage insurance, etc. 
  • Pre-boarding, wheelchair assistance for passengers with disabilities
  • Loyalty program memberships
  • Lounge access 
  • Priority boarding 
  • Meals 

In addition, airlines using automated technology for providing post-booking support have a major advantage when it comes to servicing group passengers during flight disruptions. They can send out automatic alerts regarding changes in flight timings or outright cancellations due to factors, such as bad weather. The group customers can easily rebook/ cancel their flights with a few clicks using channels, such as chatbots or the airline website. 

Undoubtedly, this ability of passengers to access self-service throughout the year at any time of the day can lead to the airline saving substantially on support staff or call center bills. 

Another area where airlines can up their post-booking game is the tedious name-updating process. Airlines can empower their travel agent or corporate customers with the ability to update all the group customers’ names on their own by bulk uploading the same without having to depend on time-consuming emails or calls. Notably, the names of the group passengers can also be modified after the booking has been made, if the airline has the right technology in place. 

Conclusion

Automating and allowing for self-service when it comes to post-booking requests can bring numerous benefits to airlines. It will lead to heightened efficiency, accuracy, customer satisfaction, and cost savings, which will help airlines stay competitive in a crowded market. One solution that can help airlines to automate this process is GroupRM, a platform designed specifically for the post-ticketing needs of airlines catering to large numbers of group passengers. With GroupRM, airlines can streamline the post-ticketing process, reducing reliance on manual labor and improving the overall customer experience.

By implementing GroupRM, airlines can take a major step towards improving their post-ticketing process and better serving their customers. Reach us for a demo to learn more. 

3-Tips-for-Exceptional-Group

3 Tips For Exceptional Group Sales Experience That Retains More Passengers

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Airlines have their work cut out as people worldwide make frenzied travel plans to shake off the misery of the pandemic-induced lockdowns. To benefit from the burgeoning demand for group travel, airlines need to digitize and make the entire process of group booking and pricing pain-free. 

This means that the days of customers emailing the sales team, waiting for days on end for a quote as the sales and revenue management team tussle over optimal pricing, and finally getting an unsatisfactory deal need to be over if airlines ever hope to recover from the pandemic. 

Here, we explore how airlines can start treating group sales as a mission-critical aspect of their operations and provide a booking experience that leads to higher revenue and passenger retention. 

Invest in an intelligent group revenue management solution

Over 60% of group booking business goes to airlines that send the quickest quote. With manual group sales processes, airlines usually spend 5-6 days coming up with a quote that is satisfactory for both the sales and revenue management team. 

Consequently, airlines need an end to end, automated booking solution that can generate instant quotes (based on passenger willingness to pay, market demand & competitor pricing) and contracts while also ensuring airline policy compliance in group bookings across all users, including internal sales team, revenue managers, and travel agents. 

Further, look for a solution to automate bookings, approval, and even the ticketing process for group travel requests across every sales channel. 

Notably, the solution should allow bookings and contracts to be managed in one place to facilitate changes to Passenger Name Records (PNRs). 

Ensure a frictionless user experience

Travel agents and other users who depend on your booking solution need to have a seamless experience with it. Airlines can achieve this using a digital booking solution that eliminates the need for manual review of group bookings, delivers real-time alerts related to the booking, automates contract generation, enables easy payment tracking, and allows users to book tickets based on group/ trip type. Real-time, data-driven recommendations to users is another way to enhance their experience and boost revenue through the sale of ancillaries. 

Prioritize relationships

Ensure that your group sales management solution allows you to effectively manage the relationships between stakeholders, such as travel agents, internal sales teams, and revenue managers. 

Crucially, the solution should allow travel agency level rules to be set up and managed, facilitating trust between sales and revenue teams by ensuring that the group pricing aligns with their goals.

Moreover, airlines can foster transparency between revenue management and sales with a solution that allows both teams to manage group pricing and policies from the same location. 

Apart from this, airlines should use a tool that provides real-time price comparisons so that customers don’t cancel contracts. Leveraging a tool that can track metrics, such as individual customers’ conversion and materialization rate, will also go a long way in facilitating a better relationship between the airline and its group passengers. 

Conclusion 

Group sales account for 5-10% of airline revenue, and in some regions, it is even more than that. Given that corporate travel and tourism is making a comeback with relaxed covid restrictions worldwide, it is time for airlines to invest in an intelligent booking and pricing solution that takes away the pain of group bookings. 

The need of the hour is GroupRM. Its automated itinerary building & relationship-building capabilities, intuitive user interface, and intelligent pricing will keep you ahead of the competition. 

Reach us for a demo / consultation. 

Airlines-recovery-path

Airline’s Recovery Path To Profitability After The Pandemic – Reduced Distribution Cost And Increased Ancillary Revenue

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After months of lockdowns and travel curbs, the aviation sector is on the path to recovery, but profitability seems to be out of reach for many airlines. Airlines are especially finding it hard to fill seats due to many passengers’ hesitancy to board flights (only 61% of passengers are comfortable flying in the next six months). 

Further, airlines must combat unreasonably high distribution costs, which are among their most significant expenses, thanks to the oligopoly of the three most prominent GDS companies. To make matters worse, ancillary sales, an important revenue driver, have fallen by 73% year on year.

Consequently, airlines’ chances of returning to pre-pandemic levels of profitability will depend entirely on whether they can drastically cut distribution costs and come up with ancillaries that passengers will care about in the era of COVID. 

As you read on, you will find out exactly how airlines can go about achieving this. 

The value proposition of NDC

The New Distribution Capability (NDC), an XML-based standard for data transmission, put forward by the IATA, can disrupt the vice-like control that the major GDS companies have on airline distribution.

By letting airlines control their offer, ticketing, and settlement processes without the GDS across all channels, NDC enables them to cut costs significantly. Moreover, if airlines partner with multiple NDC aggregators globally, competition between the aggregators will bring down distribution costs to around $ 2-4 instead of the $14 – 25 that airlines are currently spending. 

In addition to this, airlines can cut back on distribution costs with an automated group revenue management solution that ensures that group bookings are made in a manner that brings in the most revenue while spending the least possible amount on distribution. 

There is also the option of partnering with various governments to serve as the official carrier of the nation. This means that without any indirect and expensive distribution channel, you can reach hundreds of high-yield passengers.

Boosting revenue with ancillaries

Ancillary sales are way down now that customer priorities have changed. Mainly, passengers are looking for safety from covid, personalization, and great value for money. As a result, the ancillaries you offer need to reflect these realities. 

For instance, many airlines have found great success by offering comprehensive covid insurance covering quarantine, telemedicine, screening, etc., if passengers test positive for the virus. Also, you can make it a point to offer immunity-boosting kits and baggage wrapping for enhanced protection from the infection.  

Notably, you can offer passengers the ability to book the seats next to them to ensure social distancing. 

Another ancillary that passengers will be delighted by is the ability to cancel free of charge if they catch covid.

Meanwhile, your corporate passengers can benefit from Wi-Fi, easy seat upgrades, access to business lounges, shuttle service to their destination from the airport, etc.

With tourists, a surefire way to boost revenue is by offering fully packaged trips to places, such as religious destinations. Specifically, you can provide food, hotel bookings, car rentals, bus services, etc., which will enhance your profit margins.  

Airlines can further offer ancillaries, such as relaxation and well-being packages, given how people have endured a lot of stress and trauma during the pandemic

Conclusion 

There is a lot of uncertainty ahead regarding when passengers will regain confidence in traveling. However, by following the double-pronged approach of bringing down distribution costs and boosting ancillary sales with personalized offers, airlines can return to profitability in no time. 

If your airline needs an IT partner for implementing Direct Distribution Solution or any Consultancy to generate the maximum possible revenue from every seat, reach us at marketing@infinitisoftware.net 

An Airplane Surrounded by 5 Sales Component Pictures that represents the Airline's Ancillary Sales

What Ancillaries Should The Airlines Focus On In The Post Covid Era?

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Long before covid, airlines—especially the budget carriers— have been boosting their operating margins with ancillary revenue. Ancillaries, which are non-ticket sources of revenue for airlines, brought in 109.5 billion U.S. dollars in 2019 alone.

Since the pandemic has made passengers pickier—they expect personalization and higher safety standards—and airlines need a massive boost in revenue to recover from the devastation caused by international travel restrictions, ancillaries are expected to lead the way.

Choosing the right ancillaries to focus on

Emerging from the pandemic, customers have a variety of concerns they need resolved before they can trust air travel again. A few of them are: 

  • Increased safety measures
  • Flexibility in pricing
  • Modular offers for corporates

Meeting these should be an airline’s primary focus if they want to rekindle passenger confidence in flying and provide a seamless journey for their customers. This is because customer behavior has seen a massive shift due to social distancing requirements, fears of infection, the economic downturn, and the shift towards online buying. 

The way out of the pandemic—personalizing the passenger experience

To stay relevant and gain increased customer loyalty, airlines need to focus on personalization the way Netflix and Amazon have been able to, by moving from a product-focused approach to a customer-focused one.   

Here are a few of the ancillaries that you can offer passengers in light of the pandemic and your efforts to fill more seats with high-yield passengers. 

Covid related health measures

Passenger confidence will be boosted if you take the initiative to offer ancillaries, such as travel insurance and baggage wrapping and immune boosting kits to protect from infections. Ensure that the insurance is affordable and comprehensive, covering aspects like screening, telemedicine, treatment, and quarantine costs.  

Also, you can take a cue from a variety of tour operators who are offering tours in Russia with a twist—you will be given the vaccine on arrival. 

Moreover, some airlines are allowing passengers to book seats or whole rows near them to ensure social distancing. This can be quite lucrative if airlines are able to automate the booking process and make sure those seats are blocked from being booked by others.

Crucially, passengers also need to be offered the ability to cancel without any penalty if they contract covid.

Modular bundles for business travelers 

Identifying flights or timings with more business travelers and offering something as simple as Wi-Fi will do wonders for your bottom line. Also, offering business-class lounges, extra legroom, transport facilities in their destination, etc. for corporate travelers can significantly boost ancillary revenue.  

To attract more corporate clients, airlines can also begin offering tickets that offer changeability of the seat, refundability, and easy upgrades. 

Frequent flier rewards 

Airlines can present passengers with the opportunity to be part of a rewards program that benefits the fliers every time they use the services of the airline. Seeing rewards accumulate will serve as an impetus for many to become loyal to the brand.  

Further, the airline can make money selling loyalty points to credit card companies who pass it on to their premium customers. These customers go on to become patrons of the airline.  

Tour packages

Tourists and religious pilgrims will form a substantial part of airline revenue for the next few months, given the reluctance of many business travelers to begin corporate travel because of factors, such as remote work.

 So, catering to the tourists with fully packaged trips to their dream destination, including car rentals, hotels, and food, will serve to delight your passengers and add to the bottom-line as well. It is worth noting that airlines can profit from offering relaxation or wellbeing-themed tours because of the effect that the pandemic has had on people’s minds and bodies.  

Conclusion 

Airlines need to come up with innovative, personalized products through dynamic bundles across all touchpoints and channels. Doing so will go a long way in giving the airline a competitive advantage amidst these turbulent times.  \

If you want help with offering customer-centric ancillaries to optimize your revenue and strengthen recovery, don’t hesitate to reach us at  marketing@infinitisoftware.net 

How-airlines-can-shift-to-a-travel-marketplace

Can Airlines Move Up The Value Chain And Provide A Fully Packaged Hajj Pilgrimage?

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Umrah and Hajj pilgrimages are both rapidly growing markets. Since these are trips undertaken by millions of devout pilgrims every year in the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia, catering to them has become a highly competitive industry.  

Consequently, every year, airlines servicing these areas are in a mad rush to book the most passengers in collaboration with large travel agencies. 

Unfortunately, this has turned into an arrangement with two significant losers—the religious pilgrim and the airline. 

Why? 

The travel agents, realizing that these trips are extremely important to the faithful, leave no stone unturned in extracting the maximum amount of money possible from the pilgrims.  

Given that the price of tickets only accounts for around 20 or so percent of the pilgrimages’ cost, airlines do not make much money off the trips. 

Is it possible for airlines to rectify this issue and end up making more money while also delighting their passengers? 

The answer is yes, and the way to achieve this is simpler than you would imagine. 

Read on to find out how you too can jump on the bandwagon of offering fully packaged Hajj and Umrah pilgrimages and bring in tons of ancillary revenue that you are currently leaving on the table. 

Taking your customer experience to the skies 

One of the main customer pain points when planning a Hajj or Umrah pilgrimage is that they do not know much about travel and accommodation in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. As a result, they must search extensively for travel agents who will plan the whole trip for them. A major issue here is that the prices are exorbitant, and the customer is put in a position where they must suffer a large financial burden.  

Here, there is a massive opportunity in creating a pilgrim-centric service for travelers to Hajj and Umrah. As an airline, you can go beyond picking up and dropping passengers and provide them with an all-inclusive religious pilgrimage that they will cherish for the rest of their life.

Now, how do you go about doing this, and is stellar customer experience the only benefit?  

Airlines can go about doing this by becoming a travel marketplace, an “Amazon of travel” so to speak, which is a platform for various travel agents and other vendors to provide services for which you also get a commission.  

Apart from this, you can strike deals with travel agents to ensure that only your flights are offered as part of their tour packages.  

You can also offer the following and even more to customers while making substantial amounts of ancillary revenue along with the flights they book.  

  • Cars for hire 
  • Hotel bookings  
  • Travel health insurance 
  • Covid testing and support.
  • Flight, bus, and even train tickets. 

For passengers, this will be a godsend because competition among the travel agents listing on the airline’s portal will bring down prices for the travel package. Meanwhile, you can ensure that your flights never fly with empty seats, and rest assured that you are making the maximum amount of money possible from each passenger’s trip. 

Conclusion 

Airlines will benefit massively by moving up the value chain and providing a fully packaged Hajj and Umrah pilgrimage. The opportunity to scale operations is massive; nations, such as Malaysia and Egypt have largely underserved markets that will welcome the ability to complete their religious duties cost-effectively.  

Transitioning to such a travel marketplace model does not have to be complicated at all. Reach us at marketing@infinitisoftware.net to know how we can equip you with travel marketplace capabilities just as the pandemic subsides and demand begins to soar for pilgrimages.