

Dear Continental Airlines, you have a broken funnel - csavage
http://savagethoughts.com/post/3942020844/dear-continental-airlines

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markitechtMA
A great example of why the funnel is often a completely incorrect, inadequate,
and even misleading metaphor for measuring conversion.

Example: "I'm having trouble optimizing the last step of my funnel." Did the
first four steps of your funnel consist of showing pictures of naked women
while the last step prompted the user to refinance his house?

Unless the steps of your funnel are real, meaning they actually represent
bounded, uni-directional escalations of qualification and purchase intent
(think a 3-step shopping cart checkout), then thinking of the 'flow' that way
is defeating.

What Chris is talking about here makes a lot of sense, and to my mind boils
down to something like this: the airline's win comes through offering the
greatest perceived value to the customer, so tread carefully as you unbundle
low-cost, high-perceived-value features for a small (unguaranteed) marginal
gain.

Setting false expectations is pretty egregious as well, and in addition to
losing the good will that would have been generating by offering the DirecTV
for "free," the airline generates ill will that could, of course
hypothetically, result in angry blog posts being written and shared.

Here's the funnel for an airline: be amazing, underpromise and OVERdeliver,
and book flights like a mofo.

Loyalty is no longer post-purchase.

The next time I fly across the Atlantic I will fly Virgin, the next time I
make a restaurant reservation it will be Bondir, the next CSS I write will be
in Sass, the next phone I buy will be a Samsung, the next vehicle I buy will
be a Toyota, the next time I go to NYC I will take a Bolt bus.

I am 100% sure about these purchase decisions, and I have never flown Virgin,
never eaten at Bondir, written in Sass, used a Samsung phone, bought a Toyota
or taken a Bolt bus.

How do I know these are the right purchase decisions? Because I trust my
friends' experience, and a delighted customer turns into a priceless
evangelist faster than we often realize.

------
nostromo
As much as I'd like this to happen, I bet they would sell fewer tickets. A
certain number of travelers sort ticket results based on price. If they added
even just a few dollars to each leg to pay for perks, they would push
themselves down on the results page and sell fewer tickets.

~~~
awa
yes! Wanted to say exactly that. Esp. with aggregate sites like kayak,
priceline etc. this will push them lower in the results

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isleyaardvark
Or sell tickets $3 cheaper than your competitors, advertise "Watch DirecTV on
our flights (quiet voice: for a small fee)", differentiating on ticket prices
versus in-flight amenities.

I may be mistaken, but I was under the impression that's what lead to airlines
charging for drinks, meals, etc: it allowed them to lower ticket prices.

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pauldino
My understanding of TV-on-Continental is that it's mostly a venture of LiveTV
(unit of JetBlue), the company that installs the equipment.

"We're providing most of the capital and we're retaining most of the revenue,"
Nate Quigley, chief executive of LiveTV, told Reuters.
[http://www.reuters.com/article/2008/01/29/continental-tv-
idU...](http://www.reuters.com/article/2008/01/29/continental-tv-
idUSN2959189520080129)

------
jrockway
Flight search engines rank by price, not by amenities. Add $3 to your fare,
and you are instantly at the bottom of the search results.

I think airlines should just let you use frequent flyer miles for this. "Watch
DirecTV in flight and earn 700 miles instead of 1400 miles." But this, I
imagine, would be bad for load factors.

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quandrum
I think the telling thing in this article is the author doesn't mentioned how
he chose that flight. From his narrative, it seems he only learned about the
DirecTV as he boarded.

If he went to a travel site and chose the cheapest one, then he already knows
why this is a bad idea.

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presto8
As much as I hate the nickel-and-diming that the airlines are doing right now,
I can't see any alternative. The aggregator web sites (such as kayak.com)
don't indicate to the buyer that the higher price comes with added value.

Until that happens, price will be the only criterion, and it will be in the
airlines' best interests to make it as low as possible.

I believe this very issue was the reason that American Airlines pulled its
fares from Orbitz. AA is trying to escape from the race-to-the-bottom price
war and focus on delivering different value offerings to buyers at ticket
purchase time.

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duvander
I don't know of a travel site that presents pricing the way The Economist did
in the example from the TED talk. As a traveler I've never seen mention of TV
options (paid, free, or otherwise) before booking.

The only way this works is if I already know about amenities. For example, I
know Jet Blue has free TV, even though I've never flown on a Jet Blue flight.
But that has more to do with word of mouth marketing than it does funnels or
pricing pages.

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city41
For many people (sometimes myself included) the choice for keeping yourself
occupied on the plane is to buy some magazines, books or games before getting
on the flight. This not only costs more than $6, it's often not as satisfying
as watching TV to boot. In the realm of "last ditch get something to keep
yourself occupied for 4 hours", $6 for TV is a great deal.

------
ffffruit
A similar approach is being piloted in the UK on certain train lines - on
demand media streaming called Volo (<http://www.volo.tv/>). Its expensive, you
have to pay for headphones and their content is mediocre. Train prices have
consistently raised from year to year.

~~~
pbhjpbhj
From volo.tv:

"travellers in the FGW entertainment carriage"

"We've also made it easier to pay. No need to login, simply buy your ticket
for £1.75 from the ticket office, by telephone or from the comfort of your
seat!"

It says you pay £1.75 for a ticket. So this sounds like a way to get a seat if
you're on board a busy train even if you've not booked in advance. Last I
looked you paid £1 each way for a seat reservation which makes the marginal
cost 75p, cheaper than buying a newspaper.

------
edw519
The problem wasn't the $6 for Direct TV.

The problem was that it was presented in such a way that it seemed like a
hustle. People would rather do without than think they've been taken advantage
of.

Just announce the price _before_ passing out the headphones. That's all.
Conversion will increase without spending another nickel.

~~~
notahacker
Continental could have already tested this, of course.

Most people will take free headphones, including those who initially have no
intention of _paying_ for TV. Most people will be too embarrassed to ask for
headphones when bored during mid flight, especially if they've already refused
them and told the air hostess they have absolutely no intention of paying such
an outrageous fee.

Not telling people the price until they've decided they want something is just
savvy marketing.

It's a hustle when you have to pay more than $6 to print your boarding pass
for the flight you've already paid for
[http://www.ryanair.com/en/questions/how-much-does-it-cost-
to...](http://www.ryanair.com/en/questions/how-much-does-it-cost-to-use-the-
online-check-in)

------
mcritz
TV? How quaint. Can I hook my iPad up to it?

