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Lisa Hronek Travel/Leisure
Skycouch – Innovative Thinking Outside of the Box
With the holidays coming up, I was thinking of my upcoming travel. Every year, I go back home to New England to visit with family and friends for the holidays. However, the flight home is a means to the end. How can I get back home in a quick, efficient, and cost-effective way without being as cramped and uncomfortable on a flight that will last no longer than two and half hours? My upcoming travel got me thinking about future trips that I want to take (without breaking the bank or my legs). I would love to go to New Zealand and Australia, but the concept of flying over 24 hours in a confined space is not a thrilling prospect for someone tall like me – I’m 6’2” – who needs that extra legroom! I would love to fly business class, or even first class, for such a long flight, but the additional costs are usually prohibitive. Air New Zealand, however, has introduced a new innovative concept for coach… called “Skycouch” (or also known as “Cuddle Couch” by industry observers). So what exactly is SkyCouch and how did this idea happen?
Per Air New Zealand, the Skycouch is a trio of Economy seats that together create a flexible space for two people. You can use the seats like you normally would, or with the touch of a button, the footrests will come out from under each of the three seats, that the passengers can then pull up to create a flat, flexible space for sleeping or to stretch out in. Two passengers thus take up the three seats and pay about half the cost of the third seat to get this additional convenience.
So how did this concept evolve? The project began in 2004, when the airline ordered new 787 and 777 aircrafts from Boeing. It then took four years for the airline to figure out how to reconfigure the seats and make them work within the confines of an airplane. The airline began the project by tinkering with different furniture concepts and designs in a warehouse. Then, over time, several seat manufacturers built mock-ups for the airline to test with customers and staff. One of the problems encountered by the airline was a design that would pass airline safety standards. The airline also had to make ensure that the concept would not cannibalize first class. Not to mention how to put this new class of service into computer reservation systems for themselves and their airline partners. However, the company resolved all of those issues over time before putting it on the market for customers.
Air New Zealand appears to be winning over customers with their service and their new Skycouch seating in economy coach. In particular, they recently took fifth place overall for best foreign airline in the 2011 Conde Nast readers’ poll. I think this is one great example of how a company showed, that even within the confines of an airplane, innovation can be achieved by thinking outside of the box. And that is a great lesson for anyone working within any box. Now I just need to figure out how to think outside of the box to take two weeks off from work and to pay for the airfare to New Zealand…
‘Chat Downs’ Are The New ‘Pat Downs’
The TSA has been using Boston’s Logan Airport as part of the testing phase of a new pilot program aimed at improving the airport security screening process. Prior to getting to the conveyer-belt portion of the security line, select passengers were chosen to have a ‘chat’ with airport security personnel. Questions included ‘where are you going?,’ ‘How long will you be there?,’ ‘What is the purpose of your trip?’ Officers are not only judging the passengers’ answers, but also their behavior or any other clues that might indicate they are not being entirely truthful. I think this will feel somewhat similar to the many friendly (or not so friendly) conversations I’ve had at customs coming back into the United States before.
The tactic is mirrored after Israel’s interview process for air travel, which has proven successful for many years now. According to an article in Businessweek, TSA Administrator John Pistole says it means “moving further away from what may have seemed like a one-size-fits-all approach to security.” The optimal outcome would be if these types of questions can successfully weed out potentially harmful people, while the rest of the traveling population can breeze through the scanners without untying shoes and pulling out laptops and liquids. A similar article in USA Today quoted George Naccara, TSA’s federal security director for Logan Airport as saying “we’re looking at moving away from such heavy reliance on technology, and now we’re looking at the human interaction. That is a very powerful tool.”
Some critics are already complaining that this is another invasion of privacy, but there is still the option to opt-out of the chat and have your bags searched instead. As this testing phase continues, it makes me think I should plan to tack at least another 15-20 minutes to my travel time and plan to arrive to the airport even earlier than usual. It might not be the best conversation of my life, but I am ok with it if it means air travel is that much safer.
There Is No Such Thing As A Free Lunch
The free lunch may be a relic of the past, but the free snack box isn’t. For a specific promotion on US Airways, about 100,000 passengers received a free snack box due to an innovative advertising idea. The free snack boxes, with printed advertising on them, were distributed for a few weeks on the shuttle flights between Boston, New York, and Washington D.C. These airline routes were chosen for their targeted and captive demographic audience of high-income business professionals. To me, the concept was an innovative idea noticed by customers and one that was not overly intrusive to consumers.
The ad concept was thought up by Ryan Matway, who founded Air Advertainment LLC to commercialize and to patent the idea. His thoughts were: “Why not bring the snack back on-board for free, and give the advertisers this captive audience?’’ The agency conducted the free snack box campaign in July 2011 with Gilt Group, which is a members-only luxury shopping service. The ads on the boxes featured products from Gilt Group, such as shoes and shirts, as well as a discounted deal. Gilt’s senior director of marketing, Ayesha Ahmad, said, “we’ve seen a promising return’’ from the advertising and she added that the company received some repeat business from previous customers who also responded positively to the airline campaign.
This is not the first free promotional giveaway on airlines, nor likely the last. For example, Google Chrome offered passengers free Wi-Fi during the holiday season in 2010 on select airline carriers. The free Wi-Fi was provided to everyone on-board the aircraft and it did not target a specific demographic. However, the free snack box promotion was unique in its targeting. The company went after high-income business professionals on select shuttle routes, which was a perfect fit with advertiser’s target audience.
The concept was innovative to me as a new way to advertise to your targeted audience and a new way to advertise outside of “the (snack) box,” rather than thinking inside of it. The idea allowed an advertiser to exclusively segment a targeted audience and not fight another company for competing ad space. However, if the promotional vehicle is overused, like a subway car littered with numerous advertisements, the consumer will ultimately ignore the ads. Could this idea be applied to other demographics? Absolutely. For example, a financial services company could exclusively market a credit card offer on a snack box that targeted college students on Spring Break charter flights to Cancun. Likewise, I know I always have a few free hours on-board a flight. Give me some free snacks while on-board and I will definitely listen to your pitch.
Theme Cruising
Theme cruising is at an all-time high, according to a recent USA Today article and travel agency owner Howard Moses. The concept of theme cruising has come a long way since Rosie O’Donnell’s maiden voyage, a cruise specifically geared toward gay families, back in 2004. Now, theme cruising covers a range of themes and concepts so wide, there’s something to float everyone’s boat! (What? Too much?) As mentioned in USA Today, Howard Moses began tracking theme cruises less than ten years ago when there was only a handful to choose from. Now, Moses’ website themecruisefinder.com lists 400 to 700 different cruises at any given time. Some of the more popular themes include food and wine, specific music genres or artists, fitness, and even politics. I found this so fascinating, that I did a little more digging and found some of the wackiest, wildest, and truly inspiring cruise themes on the market today.
I’m sure you’re all aware of the growing vampire craze thanks to books like True Blood and TV shows like Twilight and The Vampire Diaries. Well for all those vamp fans out there, Holland America is offering a Vamps at Sea cruise on its 1,916-passenger Zuiderdam in Alaska’s Inside Passage. Vampire experts such as Dacre Stoker, a great-nephew of Dracula author Bram Stoker, and scholar John Edgar Browning are scheduled to take part in this week-long cruise departing from Vancouver.
Do you like Rum? Well rum aficionados of the world can come together on the Rum Renaissance Caribbean Cruise where rum experts and authors will joins fellow enthusiasts for informative talks, networking, and tasting on this week-long cruise beginning in Puerto Rico.
I will admit I’ve always thought that cruises were meant to be indulgent ways to vacation where eating and drinking were the day’s only requirements and physical activity was almost non-existent, so I was impressed to read about the Caribbean Islands Marathon Cruise. Considered a “staged maritime marathon,” this cruise promises a new distance every day, new terrain and new racing experiences, so that by the end, participants will have run the full marathon distance, spread out among some of the world’s most beautiful settings.
The list goes on and on including Harley Davidson themed cruises, The Smooth Jazz Cruise (which is now in its 10th year), scrapbooking cruises, and even nudist cruises. Whatever your flavor may be, there’s a cruise for you, and to find it check out themecruisefinder.com. I think I’m going to go find a blogging cruise!