News and notes from around the interweb:
- How to stop a manspreader on a plane in 3 easy steps
- It’s Time For An AI Transformation To Revitalize Brand Loyalty Programs Most loyalty program email I get is ‘junk mail’ because it’s not relevant to me. I’m never going to ‘invest with Betterment’ and it’s hard for most members to remember the offer from their monthly email statement when they’re considering a purchase that’s actually relevant.
Programs need to market the right offer, to the right member, at the right time in order to drive behavior. They have rich databases, but few people on staff know how to really use them. AI tech may finally make all those collections of member data actually useful. (Disclosure: article is written by the founder of a startup I’m advising.)
- Portland cracking down on animals at the airport (HT: Daryl W.)
- 10 most misleading travel terms I don’t see how ‘direct flight’ can be left off the list, since it doesn’t mean non-stop and it doesn’t even mean you’ll be on the same plane, it just means your connection has the same flight number.
- Early look at the Hyatt Ocean Resort Casino Atlantic City
- American’s Senior Vice President for LAX explains the importance of the city to the airline. She points out the area’s massive economy. Oddly, the LA economy is significantly smaller than New York where American isn’t trying. American’s LAX Managing Director Jim Moses gets a well-deserved shout out.
But if you have fat thighs like Chrissy Teigen, you can’t control your spread.
I think the most misleading travel term is enhance.
While I don’t use bettermint, I do use wealthfront (basically the same). You take a risk profile quiz and they just put your money in vanguard funds. They have features like tax loss harvesting to lower your taxes. While they do charge an advisory fee (after a certain amount) its very low compared to other managed solutions.
Other misleading terms: changes you will like, more choices, customer feedback
AI is not the friend of the average travel hacker. Sure it might help target the right offers or help a credit card company, airline or hotel. However if you improve the IT systems to that level with advanced AI it can eliminate things like “error fares” or currency mistake fares, etc. Sure over time these IT systems will improve anyway but it seems easier to find opportunity in antiquated systems and processes. The IHG accelerate targeted offers come to mind. They offer a lot of bonus points but the requirements are adjusted by how loyal you already are in their system. This doesn’t benefit me as a loyal IHG customer as it is built to attract other people. Sure you can “game” some of this but as systems become more advanced it gets harder.
Bang-on on “direct flight!” Which seems to be used that way nowadays only in the USA (legally.) I guess it follows on “direct train” & “direct bus” in the meaning of “same vehicle all the way–no transfers.” But when I view the Websites of Air Canada, foreign versions of Expedia, etc. ‘direct’ is used in the meaning of ‘nonstop!’
In the late 1990s I heard the term “thru flight” for “same plane with stops.” I like it now, as in “this flight flies from Pittsburgh nonstop to Kansas City, then on thru to Las Vegas.” But when I first heard it, I found it deceptive because I had heard infrequent flyers say, ‘I’m flying from Pittsburgh STRAIGHT THRU to Vegas, but I have to stop & change in Chicago on the way home.’