Continental Airlines continues to push their website, this time in a new and interesting way.Airlines began by offering mileage bonuses for online flight bookings. This was win-win. They took business away from travel agents, and even reduced their telephone agent costs at the same time. This was worth well more than the cost of awarding bonus miles. Plus they figured they were changing consumer behavior at the same time, creating substantial long-run cost savings. Some of the most lucrative offers (such as America West’s offering 3,000 bonus miles per booking) have gone away as consumers have taken to the web for making travel arrangements. Then airlines began offering bonuses for booking award tickets online. While this doesn’t take business away from the travel agents, it does save substantial labor costs for the airline. Award tickets…
