United Airlines has started testing a new marketing technique that would compensate passengers who give up their reserved seats in advance, so that the seats could be resold to last-minute travelers willing to pay a lot more for them.
The airline is working with a tech startup called Volantio on the project, which is called the Flex Schedule Program.
Here’s how it works: Those who book their trips through the airline’s website and who agree to take part could receive a message from United as much as five days before departure, asking them if they would be willing to switch to a different flight to the same destination on the same day in exchange for a $250 travel voucher.
If they agree, that would free up a seat that United could then resell to a last-minute business traveler for a much higher fare than the original passenger was paying. The technology would allow United to determine in advance which sold-out flights are most likely to see significant last-minute demand, and thus where Flex Scheduling would produce the best results in terms of revenue enhancement.
This is similar to the common practice of avoiding bumping by soliciting volunteers on an overbooked flight to take a later departure in exchange for a travel voucher. The value of the voucher can increase until enough people agree to be bumped. The difference is that Flex Schedule would not be used strictly as an overbooking solution, but could be applied for any flight where United thinks it could raise more revenues by reselling seats on fully booked departures.
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