Marketing and pricing: May 2008 Archives

Nice work if you can get it. The Vatican it seems has a travel office. It makes sense when you think that it is place that puts a lot of people on the road, many of them pilgrims. And that's just what the travel office calls itself - Opera Romana Pellegrinaggi. The office, which means Office of Roman Pilgrimages, just launched a website its calls Journeys of the Spirit, a portal that provides package tours to religious sites. (Our Lady of Fatima, three days, two nights, many miracles, double occupancy?) JOSP chose Sabre's Travelocity for white label packages, meaning that the end user never knows that it's Sabre or anyone else doing the heavy lifting. The site comes in several languages and is actually a way into some very cheap deals..

US Airways has been filling its employee newsletter with word of its shrinking workforce. It's not firing people, but it's encouraging its workers to lose weight by eating better and exercising. In fact, one employee has lost 9.7 pounds so far and another, 8 pounds, while one Charlotte maintenance guy lost 118 pounds over 13 months. This is very impressive, and now US Airways is trying to help its passengers lose weight. As of June 1, it will no longer serve pretzels or any other complimentary snacks on board domestic coach.

How to follow: if no one has yet to adopt American's fee for a first checked bag, that may be because a few stragglers are catching up with the fee for a second bag. The few who hadn't seemed the use the hubbub to sneak their fee through. Midwest, the former Midwest Express, did so, saying it would start immediately, exempting only its most frequent flyers and military flyers; Frontier Airlines did the same, but also came out with whole list of baggage charge changes that, it said, reflects the economic realities of today's flying. Frontier is also putting in lighter-weight leather seats, ending its animals in the cabin policy and instituting a few new charges. Among them is a new charge for - drum roll - antlers, accompanied or not. Yes, antlers, as in they were on a moose but then the passenger shot the moose and is bringing home the antlers to mount over the fireplace to impress people with his manliness, bravery, and deep pockets.

It's our bag. Or not. American Airlines rocked the airline world with word that is going to start charging for every checked bag, not just a second bag. The $15 fee is set to go into effect in a few weeks, with only the airline's premier-level frequent flyers exempted. Like every other legacy carrier, American is already charging for second checked bag ($25, with the same exemption for elite-level members).

The response from the travelling public was predictable, with nickel and dimes mentioned as the world waited watched and held its breath to see if others would match. One carrier that made it clear it wouldn't was the one carrier that never planed to and never even thought about it: Southwest. At the core of the Southwest philosophy is giving people little, charging them little - and being funny and wearing a smile as they do it. The airline has never charged an extra fee (except for oversized bags, etc.) and they don't intend to now. They even went so far as to put out a statement subtly chastising The New York Times for not making this clear. "That is not true," said the airline of the Grey Lady's suggestion that it was considering the fee.

Kudos, or even kudoses. Well, several congratulations anyway. One to Herb (Kelleher, but he's known by his first name almost universally). Herb stepped down as chairman of Southwest Airlines at its annual meeting the other day, and promptly ceded his title to the youngster who has taken his other past job, chief executive: That's Gary Kelly, who became chief executive 2004 in and will become president in July, when another one of Southwest's icons, Colleen Barrett, retires form that post. The trio was effusive in their praise of each other. And Southwest pilots joined in the praise, lamenting the fact that they are negotiating their first contract without Herb.

What's it for? Airline fuel surcharges are mounting. With fuel at about $150 or so barrel, fuel surcharges are approaching $100 a flight on some routes. And one group that questions them are corporate travel departments. Take, for instance, attendees at the Association of Corporate Travel Executives meeting in Washington this week. John Caldwell, who advises travel firms from Washington, asked "how do we audit it?" Duane Futch, who manages travel for a little company called Wal-Mart, raised a number of questions, including, "how do we know that they'll use it for fuel?" and with ancillary fees such as charges for window seat and the like, "how do we know it's for that?"