Airline fees are extensive, vary between carriers, and change frequently. In response, Kayak has posted a Fees Chart which is particularly handy when comparison shopping includes checked bags fees.

The quality of some flights is, well, let’s say “less than ideal”. Kayak has launched a “Flight Quality Warning” which serves as a filter helping travelers identify short connections, long layovers, few seats remaining, turbo prop planes and those flights with an on-time record of 75% or less.

In response to record high gas prices, Kayak has launched a Miles Per Gallon (MPG) filter and Fuel Cost Calculator on the results page of its rental car search.

We talk a lot about how user generated content has redistributed power to travelers. It is true: social marketing has had a massive impact on online travel planning.

But sometimes, the power is simply in information. Kayak has given this to travelers by providing information tools that are timely, relevant, and easy to find.

Today, Southwest Airlines launched an online casting call to find their next “Blog-o-spondent” for its corporate blog “Nuts About Southwest”.

Readers are invited to create a one minute video explaining why they should get the position. Blog readers will vote for the top three entries who will compete at the 2008 BlogWorld Expo in Las Vegas.

This is a great example of how a corporate blog can be an interactive community builder and branding tactic.

Nuttiness will surely ensue… if you’re interested in demonstrating yours, check it out.

American Airlines and Kayak disagreed about how AA fares would be displayed on Kayak – specifically if fares would be displayed via AA.com or through Orbitz or other partners.

The “CEO of a competing travel site” leaked information to TechCrunch last week suggesting that American Airlines would have to pay a double fee for its fares sold on Orbitz via Kayak. This doesn’t makes sense as far as I understand it: Orbitz would pay Kayak for the lead, and American would pay Orbitz for the sale. This is a surprisingly oft-quoted comment given it doesn’t make sense and unnamed sources from competing sites aren’t exactly unbiased credible sources.

According to an American Airlines’ spokesman, the airline wants to retain control over its distribution and it requests from Kayak the same linking policy as it has with Mobissimo and Farecast.

From Kayak’s perspective, they can’t offer exclusive listings to airlines and maintain relationships with online travel agencies who provide access to carriers with whom Kayak doesn’t have relationships as well as cross carrier airfares.
Rock, meet Hard Place.

I think the essential missing piece of information behind this dispute is how many people selected the American fare through an online travel agency that, in all likelihood, had a higher price point that included a service fee.

According to Compete, Sidestep and Kayak directed 1.3 percent of traffic to AA.com. AA has launched an email campaign to passengers who have booked an American flight through Kayak or Sidestep in the last year, offering 1000 bonus AAdvantage points to return directly American next time.

So the question is: what proportion of that 1.3 percent will be driven directly to AA.com by the 1000 bonus points? And, at 1 cent a mile, will American end up ahead?

To a large extent, I have now surrendered to the chaos of air travel. My flights were all delayed, the longest by over four hours. One delay was caused by a labor contract requiring the pilots who’d arrived an hour late the night before now leave an hour later the next morning. My annoyed air travel reflex wondered why I received the delay alert shortly before scheduled departure when I was already at the airport instead of the night before. I suppressed that thought. And I noticed that other passengers helped me several times as in-flight crew watched me struggle with bags, stroller and a one year old. I must confess to casting an irritated glance at the flight attendant who told me she wasn’t allowed to store my son’s bottle in the fridge and gave me a bucket of ice.

Joe Sharkey has written a good article in the NY Times about passenger hostility and its impact on flight crews. The pilot interviewed describes the flight crew as part of the "labor puzzle".

Mr Sharkey's article follows the Miami-New York flight cancelation a couple of weeks ago after the crew arrived 75 minutes late and passengers booed (or were unruly, depending on the source).

After we have run the gauntlet to get to the gate, most air travelers are nerves are frayed. Passenger frustration will not be abating any time soon. This could be a good opportunity for airlines to turn the negative around, by offering welcome smiles and a bit of extra assistance.

This was a missed opportunity when I flew across the country with a bucket of ice balanced between my feet. Maybe next time. Deep sigh.

Certainly Virgin America realizes its in-flight entertainment is an important brand differentiator. But this email turns a negative into a positive, simply by being upfront and considerate.

Thank you Virgin America. I needed that boost in my faith that there is some care out there.

Priceline announced today that they are lowering hotel booking fees and eliminating change and cancellation fees.

Last month, Orbitz launched its Price Assurance program to give passengers cash back if another traveler books the same flight itinerary at a lower rate.

Expedia is offering $50 in free gas to travelers booking three or more nights on its site in a MasterCard cross-promotion.
According to BusinessWeek, May saw an 8% increase in visitors to online travel agencies which is consistent with price-sensitive comparison shoppers.

This figure doesn’t tell where travelers purchased.

At this point, it is too early to tell is dipping into their margins will pay off.

But, as a marketer told me last week at the Eye For Travel Marketing conference in Chicago, “It’s not easy. But I’d rather be trying to sell travel than Fords.”

Orbitz will foot the bill for amounts between $5 to $250.

How popular will this be? According to Expedia, only about 6% of air travelers purchase the qualifying identical itineraries. The Wall St Journal quotes an Orbitz spokesperson as saying "We expect to be sending out thousands of checks per month."

The skeptic in me notes how the possibility that Expedia is underestimating while Orbitz overestimates.

At first glance, one has to wonder how sending out “thousands of checks” per month can be a good idea, particularly for an online travel agency that has been struggling with market share.

A couple of thoughts here:

Firstly, if you accept the premise that concern ticket prices may fall is an obstacle towards early flight booking, then this program will assuage these fears – presumably resulting in a booking at Orbitz.

Secondly, Orbitz’s risk is minimized by the trajectory we’ve seen in airfare prices in the last year.

Other online travel agencies will have the opportunity to watch as Orbitz goes first in this experiment and judge if they want to duplicate it (not the first time that’s happened).

You can link here to United’s statement about rising oil prices (self-evident) and how they are trying to meet what consumer value most (somewhat less evident).

The airline industry is in crisis. That fact is increasingly apparent with the seemingly daily reports of reduced capacity, layoffs, fare increases, and fees fees fees. Today US Airways also announced a $2 charge for soda and non-alcoholic beverages (now we all knew the free pop couldn’t last forever).

At its simplest, airlines need to raise fares dramatically. AA went first on the $15 baggage fee. But no one wants to go first on a major fare hike. Instead, the airline industry will continue to nickel and dime in the hopes of staying alive longer then their competitors, thereby surviving to a day when there will be less capacity and fares can be raised.

According to IATA, the airline industry will lose $2.3 billion this year. That’s a lot of nickels and dimes.

In fact, in a report we published a few months ago called “Online Destination Planning: Influencing Undecided Travel Researchers”, we found that 39 percent of online travel researchers had not decided on exact dates when they begin researching travel online, and 15 percent have not decided on a specific destination.

Reshaping the booking process from its predominantly destination- or date-based navigation is one of the great challenges facing the online travel agency. Yesterday, a new Web site called TravelMuse launched its public beta promising to be the travel industry’s first “inspiration finder”.

While there are other travel Web sites that offer destination guidance and inspiration, I’ve not yet seen one that considers the multiple dimensions that TravelMuse looks at, including budget, travelers’ ages, maximum hours in flying time, and preferred vacation activities. The site blends this personalization with collaboration tools, travel guides, photos and original editorial content. Definitely worth checking out.

This trend is certainly consistent with JupiterResearch’s travel forecast. We looked at this trend specifically among online leisure and unmanaged business travelers, and forecast that hotel Web sites will account for 54 percent of online leisure and unmanaged business travel revenue in 2007, a share that will grow to 57 percent by 2012. This trend is further fueled by managed business travelers who go outside their companies’ preferred booking partners and prefer supplier sites, frequent travelers who are notably more likely to book their accommodation at supplier Web sites, and the leisure travelers shifting from telephone reservations to hotel Web sites.

This shift to supplier Web sites adds up to a challenging situation for the online travel agencies. After 9/11, online travel agencies were able to leverage the travel slowdown into opaque pricing and vacation packages. This will likely happen again as there are fewer heads in beds and hotels need the distribution partnerships. However, in 2001, the online travel agencies were more likely to be a first stop in travel research. They will have to fight for that position now.