A Group of People Illustrating the Stranded Group Passengers on an Airline Disruption

Dealing With Group Booking Disruptions The GroupRM Way

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Group bookings from business travelers and tourists are among the primary sources of income for an airline.  

What happens if there is an unexpected disruption to your services—a cancellation or a delay—and you leave your passengers confused in the lobby? 

The answer is quite straightforward. Apart from the deluge of negative publicity on social media, you also lose a ton of money by losing your valued customers to your competition.  

This may even have happened to your airline, and you might be in the process of identifying a group booking solution that can help pacify the passengers with top-notch support and handle their rebooking/cancellation requests. 

It is near impossible to avoid disruptions to flights, especially with the uncertainty of covid-19 hanging over major travel destinations. But it is quite possible to manage disruptions effectively and ensure your passengers don’t leave you for your competitors.  

But this is easier said than done. 

Why traditional methods of dealing with group booking disruptions don’t work 

Even during the peak of the pandemic in 2020, around 1.8 billion people had taken to the skies for various reasons. As the pandemic subsides, the number of people flying will only go up, so airlines need to find a way to tackle the following disadvantages of using legacy methods to handle disruptions to group bookings. 

  • The time-consuming nature of manually informing everyone in the group about the disruption. 
  • The near impossibility of dealing with support requests from multiple channels. 
  • Chaotic process of manually rebooking or canceling flights for everyone in the group. 

Delight passengers with automated solutions 

Using the right group booking solution, passengers can be personally notified of disruptions in real-time, provided with support and the ability to cancel/ rebook flights on their own, and allowed to get instant refunds if they need it. 

A solution like GroupRM will do these and much more to boost the customer experience: 

  • Timely notification of flight cancellations or delays through the channel of choice (email, SMS, etc.) 
  • Automatic rescheduling/ cancellation option for passengers through a self-service portal  
  • 24X7 support in multiple languages 

For the airline, an automated group booking solution can:  

Ensure that no passenger is left behind

During a disruption, when passengers get automatically notified, some may quickly navigate to the self-service portal and rebook or cancel their flights while others may be unaware or unresponsive. GroupRM allows you to cater to both by providing the first type of passenger with a self-service portal and freeing up the time of your customer support agents so that they can personally contact the unresponsive ones.   

When there is a disruption, there will certainly be chaos. With the help of an automated solution, you can effortlessly reassign group booking passengers to different flights with low occupancy, free up overbooked flights, and consequently bolster profits. The best part is that this can be done while delighting customers with quick service.  

Bring down the number of support staff needed

Group bookings tend to be filled with businessmen or travelers who are anxious to reach their destination on time. Any disruption in the schedule can cause them to jam up your support lines with questions and rebook/ cancel requests. Using our AI-powered solution, you can handle high-volume days with ease even if you have a lean support team.

Apart from the powerful chatbots, you can also deploy a comprehensive knowledge base for passengers to get answers during a disruption without overwhelming your support agents.  

Conclusion

Undoubtedly, automation is the way to go to effectively deal with the fallout from cancellations or delays to group bookings. Investing a small sum in a solution like GroupRM can go a long way in alleviating passenger frustration during disruption and preventing them from going to your competitors. See for yourself the transformative power of  GroupRM with a demo.  

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.

Should-airlines-create-a-specialized

Should Airlines Create A Specialized Online Storefront For Government Travelers?

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A government employee frantically trying to book flight tickets for official business runs into a variety of issues.  

Firstly, he cannot book tickets directly from the website of the country’s national carrier. Picking another carrier is also out of the question due to government mandates that their employees must only use the national carrier. He must rely on GDS and travel agents, who have no incentive for providing discounted flights.

There is also the possibility that tickets would have been sold out. Moreover, dependance on travel agents goes against the efforts by airlines to bring down their distribution costs using initiatives, such as NDC.

If this were a one-off situation, it could have been easily fixed. But unfortunately, this chaos and inconvenience, coupled with high commissions, is a reality across the globe, and it affects countless employees, departments, and entire governments as well.  

Speaking of the government, they are also in a bind due to this situation given that there are all kinds of fraud and policy violations being committed with the discounts reserved exclusively for government employees.  

How is this mess to be untangled? When the issue is viewed in its entirety, it seems to be impossible to fix. But what if we told you that there is a straightforward solution? 

Infiniti’s GOM portal—a secure and hassle-free booking platform for government business travelers

 After intense brainstorming, we have come up with the perfect solution— custom online storefronts for flight booking that airlines can create to attract government employees and help them bypass travel agents and GDS.

For such a system the benefits are unparalleled. Here are a few of the benefits that users of the solution have experienced. 

  • The travel expense has come down drastically. 
  • What is more, the process of getting approval for the trip and securing tickets has become seamless.  
  • Besides, government departments have reported that policy compliance has gone up substantially.  
  • Notably, government employees can actively track the status of their bookings. 
  • There is also the option of making payments or raising an invoice directly to the government. Without the hassle of going through the reimbursement process, employees can invoice their government for the various business expenses they have incurred.
  • Given how each airline can assign specific teams to deal with government agencies, approvals for employee requests are done much faster. 
  • Advanced analytics also provides the agencies with detailed insights on employee habits and whether they are complying with department policy. 
  • Bypassing travel agents and GDS further ensures that the airline gets to boost its bottom line and that the passenger pays lower ticket costs.  
  • Airlines also can accurately monitor how well ticket sales are going and optimize revenue by leveraging this information. 

Conclusion

Infiniti’s GOM portal can make the difference between you saving money while catering to government employees and you missing out on major revenue gains due to commissions to travel agents. Besides, it is the surefire way to gain a customer base that consistently uses your service and is bankrolled by governments with infinite spending potential.

Reach us at marketing@infinitisoftware.net to learn more about how our custom GOM portal can benefit you. 

Should-Airlines-Move

Should Airlines Move From Being An Air Transport Service Provider To Managing A Travel Marketplace?

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Just as a customer is booking a flight on your website, he gets an SMS. 

It is from your competitor, informing your potential passenger that he can save a ton of money by clicking on the link before it expires in 10 minutes. 

Without a moment of hesitation, your customer will click away, which means you have lost him forever. Your customer finishes his booking with another airline, confident that he has saved money, and proceeds to look for other services he may need during his trip. Depending on the trip your customer is taking, the ancillaries could be anything from hotels to cars to buses to food.

Is it possible to retain the customer with a discount and earn extra revenue by selling a bunch of relevant ancillaries? 

What if there was a way to even delight customers who come looking for information on flights by offering them exciting and affordable travel packages along with the flight? 

The good news is that it is perfectly possible.

The solution?

Transitioning from an air transport service provider to a travel marketplace.  

Why being an air transport service provider is insufficient

 Historically, all an airline has done is provide customers with flights and make money off ticket sales. The extra income was mainly generated through the sales of business class tickets, food, and other services that only extended to the period when the passenger was flying.  

Largely, this has led to dwindling returns for airlines.  

Some of the key reasons include intense competition, fluctuating fuel prices, and the seasonal nature of the business. With the COVID-19 pandemic raging all over the world, the ensuing lockdowns have further crippled the airline industry, leading to major losses. IATA estimates that in 2020 alone, the industry faced losses to the tune of $84 Billion.   

Given this scenario, there is enough reason for the airline sector to adopt newer strategies for optimizing revenue, such as shifting towards a travel marketplace model that is becoming increasingly popular.   

Pioneers of the ancillary sales landscape

Although this is happening slowly, there can be no doubt that airlines are teaming up with technology companies to develop their travel marketplaces that have become key drivers of their revenue.  

Ryanair, a Europe-based low-cost carrier, has been able to completely change its fortunes by embracing the concept of becoming a travel marketplace. Notably, in the period between 2016 and 2019, seat sale revenue increased by 15 % while ancillary revenue shot up by 86%. Owing to this, it would be fair to say that Ryanair’s growth and profitability have been powered by the sale of ancillaries. 

Ancillaries, in general, are thought to be extra charges applied to in-flight beverage and food, baggage, priority boarding, and airport check-ins, but Ryanair has managed to do so much more. 

Here are just a few of the ways the airline and other players in the industry make extra money by being a platform for various vendors. 

  • Car hires
  • Hotel reservations 
  • Bus and Rail tickets 
  • Covid testing and support
  • Travel medical consultation
  • Travel health insurance

Frankly, this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Airlines can do a lot more to tap into the endless pool of travelers who are looking for flexible travel packages and attractive pricing options. 

Now that you see how much potential the concept of an online travel marketplace has, let us explore it in more detail with an emphasis on the must-have features and the consequent benefits.  

So, what is a travel marketplace?

In the airline sector, it refers to a place where companies offering travel-related services, such as hotels, cars, etc. can connect directly with customers. They can offer these services individually or as packages. In turn, the customers can compare all the offers and customize their trip to their liking.

What makes a good travel marketplace?

To be useful as a means of boosting revenue, travel marketplaces need to have the following features.  

  • Manage bookings for flights, hotels, and other services included in the package. 
  • Manage personalized pilgrimage packages for different markets 
  • Provide customers with exceptional support via a self-service portal 
  • Manage multiple vendors
  • Have inbuilt content management system to handle website content and blogs
  • Configure travel policies for each scenario
  • Handle third party payment gateways
  • Manage a multitude of users with different privileges 
  • Effective ancillary management
  • Enable customers to have a comprehensive overview of the product’s performance

How airlines can benefit

When a potential passenger lands on your site looking for flight information and finds providers for all his travel needs, he is much more likely to make a purchase, especially when it is easy to compare different vendors. Besides, customers who are not comfortable with too much choice can opt for the packages on offer. 

Another major benefit to the airline is the increase in revenue brought about by targeted promotions that can be carried out for various customer segments. When it comes to selling packages, the ability to directly distribute them will lead to a reduction in operating costs. Additionally, airlines can satisfy customer expectations through personalized offers and packages.

Conclusion

In essence, as the “Amazon of travel,” a one-stop solution for all your passengers’ travel needs, you will have created a remarkable source of income that will help you gain an edge over your competition.

MICE-Automation

MICE Automation: A growing opportunity for Airlines

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“Even as everyone prophesied that the rise of digital would do away with face to face business, precisely the opposite is happening now. The value of in-person meetings are rising, and the need is only getting bigger and bigger, much to the delight of the travel industry.”

Just scroll down your LinkedIn feed, and be astounded by the endorsements of countless conferences happening around the world. Surprisingly, the more people are getting plugged-in through the world wide web, the more the hunger is to have face-to-face interaction. Knowledge and doing business are no more confined to a particular tribe. MICE (Meeting Incentive, Conference, Exhibition) give people from diverse geographical locations the opportunity to connect, share and learn. But for corporates, event managers, TMCs managing travel for such large events are complex and labor intensive.

The role of Airlines

MICE industry is booming! But MICE planners are struggling to find an efficient way to manage such large scale movements of people across geographies. Airlines can make things easier by providing a platform that enables MICE group booking. This allows airlines to attract event planners to their website directly and hence reduce distribution and servicing costs.

How can airlines make conference group booking a breeze?

Though MICE is a profitable segment, the conference group request is a challenging process for the airline’s group desk. This is because airlines follow a manual process which is operationally inefficient leading to high turnaround time and error prone. However, with technology airlines can overcome the hurdles faced by the group desk in their day-to-day operation.

Furthermore, the airlines can redefine their groups business by allowing less than ten passengers from every single origin to get access to group fares as long as the overall size of the group is above their group booking threshold.

The technology breakthrough

Airlines can fulfill conference group travel request effectively with a fully automated end-to-end solution. An airline group booking tool makes it easy for customers to raise travel request mentioning multiple sources and the destination. Once the system receives the request, it responds instantly with the ideal quote. This is possible as the system can automatically calculate the fare considering several pre-set conditions. Also, through a negotiation platform customers get an opportunity to negotiate group fares. Group bookings require timely reminders for payment and name list submission. Automatic follow-up increases the probability of conversion. Over and above for monitoring purpose, the system also keeps a record of all information and generates reports accordingly. For more understanding, let’s take a closer look at how technology can combat challenges.

Faster revenue accounting process

MICE booking involves multiple request ID generations for various PNRs. Details of their sector-wise revenue and payments received from time to time are recorded manually. A little alteration may result in a mismatch in the accounting process. A group booking tool generates a single request ID for all PNRs. This helps the reporting engine to auto capture the details and maintain accurate records of various financial transactions.

Gaining visibility and control

It is difficult for the airline’s group desk analysts to track the status of every MICE request and their resulting impact on the revenue. Group Desk analyst can get complete visibility on all transactions and easily identify violators. Airlines can now efficiently run reports to see the effectiveness of their group booking program.

Group Travel is growing exponentially, and airlines around the world are consistently trying to make group traffic management more efficient. A technology solution for groups provides automation and allows airlines to pursue newer markets and reduce cost. Worlds top airlines have already started tapping this lucrative segment. Is your airline ready to take the next big leap with MICE group booking?

Top-group-booking

Top group booking challenges faced by airlines

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Over the past few years, we have seen airlines making attempts to aggressively reduce their costs and increase operational efficiency while trying equally hard to increase their revenue. Hence there has been a rise of new revenue streams which airlines are focused on capitalizing. One of such emerged market opportunity is to serve group booking. Though the group booking phenomenon is continuously on the increase, airlines are still struggling for a hassle-free group booking tool or process. The reasons are many including the fact that the traditional approach tends to bog down in the complexities thrown up by the industry. Let’s glance at top challenges airlines are facing while realizing group booking

Operationally inefficient

Once the airline receives a group travel request, it involves many iterations to quote a fare. The airline’s group desk team needs to collate data, analyze the behavior and consolidate prices from pricing and revenue team. Due to the manual nature of how group request is handled, there is a long wait time for customers to receive relevant information causing dissatisfaction.

Complex communication channel

Group booking involves a lengthy thread of e-mail exchanges between the client and airlines. Also, to respond to a group request with a fare, the local sales team has to coordinate with group desk and revenue management teams. With these multiple layers of communication, there is a higher chance of misunderstanding and human error.

Group Pricing

Airlines group desk faces a tremendous challenge in quoting the RIGHT fare to the right group at the right time. So the airlines need to consider an array of factors before they can compute a group fare. When done manually this is time-consuming with a higher chance of error. Also, there is always a room for inappropriate forecasting.

Difficulty in adhering to terms and policies

Group fares come with terms and conditions. Different groups will have different cancellation, rescheduling and payment terms. It may be difficult for a manual system to ensure policy compliance and perform quality check accurately. This makes the airlines vulnerable to fraudulent and unethical behavior which could result in revenue and brand dilution.

A massive set of the workforce

For quoting a group fare, various teams are involved, and they spend a considerable amount of time on deciding the fares. Besides, some teams are required to do regular follow-ups, verification of documents and manual entry of the group details. This involves a considerable workforce and cost associated with it.

Groups are going forward

Today’s travelers expect information instantly, and any delay is unacceptable. The airline with quicker response time, better price wins the group contract. Also, an opportunity to negotiate on the fares leaves room for a higher chance of acceptance rate. However, with a manual system, these can never become a reality which inhibits a faster business conversion.

Driven by the demands of the industry, many premier airlines have already started automating their entire group revenue management process in their wisdom. Quick adoption of a highly intuitive and robust group booking tool is the only way forward!

Automated-solution-helps

automated Solution Helps Airlines Manage Group Bookings Profitably

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Today’s tech-savvy passengers would like to search and book their flight tickets from the airline websites or other online portals. The process of online booking is very easy, less time consuming and provide ample options to passengers for searching flights, feeding their details and making payments to book their flights. But the scenario is entirely different in group bookings for more than nine customers.

As usual the group passengers expect for a negotiation in the fare and prompt responses from an airline when they approach that airline for group booking. And, this the most challenging task for the airline to handle.

Most of the airlines follow the manual process of handling the group traffic due to the non-availability of proper web base automated solution for group bookings. The airline group desk need to consider lots of factors to evaluate and quote the group booking fare, which demands a lot of time and resources. After determining the fare also the airline group desk need to contact the passengers through phone, emails or travel agents for the final negotiation and booking. That makes group booking a lengthy, time consuming and complicated process.

By the time customers may get the lesser quotation from the other competing airlines. And if the consumers choose to fly with any of the competing airlines then the first airline in the process of negotiation lose the potential revenue and passengers. The whole hard work and process followed by the group desk of the airline up to that time turns into a complete waste.

But now this problem can be eliminated by the airlines, by adopting Group Revenue Management Solution. It brings a high level of automation in the airlines’ existing group revenue management system enabling airline group analysts to better manage the group traffic and optimize group sales.

Automated group Revenue management solution enables the customers to directly request for the fare with which they want to book the airline tickets for the group of more than nine passengers, from the airline website itself. Simultaneously, it helps the airline group desk to monitor incoming group request, evaluate them and determine the appropriate fare by processing the request in multilevel automated matrix system and respond back to the customer within very less time period. Other SSR services can also be managed through the automated solution that does nothing but maximizes the revenue of the airline.

Thus, it results in reducing the risk of other airlines approaching the customers and vice-verse for group booking. Moreover, as per the general trend customers become happy with the prompt responses and like to do repeat bookings with the airline in the future.

Overall, integration of automated revenue management solution with the existing revenue management process of airline makes the group booking a happy and error free process for the customers and revenue generator for the airline.

Maximize-airline-revenue

Maximize airline revenue by implementing Dynamic Pricing for group booking

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Be a business travel or tour, group traveling is always an exciting one. The exhilaration would be much better if the fare and process of group booking are made seamless and faster. As group travel is becoming increasingly popular, airlines should gear up their group booking procedures to serve customers efficiently. Airlines do not require a mere group booking solution but a group booking revenue management system. The advantage of group booking revenue management system lies in providing the right fare to the right group at the right time. The appropriate blend of these three elements is the powerhouse of revenue to the airlines.

Right Fare to the Right Group

On an average, medium sized airline group desk receives around 150 to 200 group request during low demand season and it ranges up to 500 during peak season. Though airline sets the turn around time to be few hours, it takes around two days to process each request. Here, identification of the right fare to be quoted to the right group becomes a mandate that would yield better revenue to the airlines. Depending on various factors such as availability, current load factor, size of the group, requested fare, nature of trip and demand the best fare should be quoted. But the changing nature of all the above mentioned factors makes it difficult for the airlines in decision making to groups. For which a dynamic pricing strategy, speedy processing and altogether an automation is vital.

Right Fare at the Right Time

A dynamic pricing strategy must be applicable to multiple scenarios on the basis of market condition. The challenge of the airlines lie on deciding the fare to be quoted for each group travel request. The travelers now are more keen to negotiate on their group booking and be assured of receiving the best deals. Airlines have to monitor the competitors price as well as evaluate the customer’s history to quote a price. Conjointly, there also exists special scenarios where airlines decide on promotional fares and surge fares varying from sectors and season. Since the customers are provided with huge choice and the probability of switching is also too high, group fare negotiations help airlines to retain the customers. It requires a timely decision with a right fare in order to maximize revenue from each group request.

Right Group at the Right Time

While hundreds of group requests are being showered on the group desk analysts, it consumes huge manpower and time to process them. Prioritisation of the group becomes almost impossible as the processing of group requests begins as in the request arrives. The challenge lies in choosing which group request to be processed first with the appropriate fare. Priority of serving group requests includes not only the volume of passengers traveling but also the revenue and prior client relationship of the airlines. An opportune fare on time and automation in work process are the key to retain internal and external customers.

Considering all the above scenarios, a customer sending group request to two different airlines, one with a manual processing and another with an automated group booking tool. Imagine, it takes one days to obtain a reply from manual processing while it takes an hour from an automated group booking solution. That’s where the power of automation lies. !! While myriad obstacles are being put forth to an airline front. If there could be any one stop solution to all the problems being posed, then bringing an automation to the process becomes the answer.