Travel – Predictably Unpredictable
So, rather than providing ad-hoc reviews of hotels, airlines and places to eat, I thought I’d start bundling it into a short Travelogue.
Travelling in Australia is well predictably unpredictable these days. Predictable stratospheric pricing for hotels and flights with unpredictable service levels appears to be the strategy pursued by the big brands.
Another trip with Qantas Melbourne to Sydney and back, another cancelled flight. Predictably, if you book a flight between 1 pm and 4 pm, you won’t be flying on at least one of the legs. In my case, 57% predictability. So, another day with hours lost and plans that needed to be reshaped and 58 minutes on the phone while Qantas attempted to move me to a more convenient flight and failed.
Rather than offering us all $50, how about Qantas simply eliminating a few more flights? Today it feels like a classic “book and switch” scheme – they lock you in knowing the flight won’t likely happen and switch you indiscriminately to another flight when it is too late to book with another carrier. This would also increase competition on routes – clearly not something Qantas would be a big fan of.
Hotels remain a mixed bag. The Star is clean, modern and well put together. Reflecting that it’s a casino hotel, my room was without a desk and with plenty of room for one – and a balcony. OK, value for money. I’m still stumped on why so many Hotels aren’t putting desks into rooms.
My go-to in Sydney – Spicers Potts Point – was sadly fully booked, so I tried the Hotel Challis around the corner. Another hotel pitching itself in the boutique category but nothing like one in reality. Tiny rooms, half a desk, no vibe to speak of, disinterested staff, and average amenities. Let’s call it a slightly above standard budget hotel. Not worth the money despite the location.
Not much dining out on this trip. Not sure what is going on in Barangaroo, but to say it was a ghost town on a Wednesday night would be an understatement. Give CHI by Lotus Dining a shot – great food, and you might get the whole place to yourself. They take Liven, so clock up your rewards and enjoy.
Reads & Feeds
- We know creativity matters; doing it well is another thing. Creativity is one of the hardest things to nail as a B2B marketer. Agencies that understand B2B and are willing to work within B2B budgets are near impossible to find. A great read on the lack of creativity in most B2B marketing and a terrific interview with the DocuSign CMO on how they nailed it with Hard Hat.
- 60:40 Rule debunked by Prof Byron Sharp. Well said and argued.
You can’t buy love
Qantas’ move to give all us frequent flyers $50 as an apology is a nice gesture to compensate for the hours lost due to delayed flights and hunting for misplaced baggage.
Will it buy any of the love lost since returning to the skies? Unlikely. What the frequent fliers – yours included – want is an idea of what improvement looks like and when it will happen.
For many of us zipping between Melbourne and Sydney, we know the probability of a flight being cancelled is extraordinarily high. Book a 2.30 or one of its past-the-hour cousins, and there is a good chance (based on my experience) that the flight will be cancelled and consolidated with another. It’s not hard to figure out when this is due to a real issue as your new flight will now be inconveniently later. In the main, it’s 30 minutes later.
How about Tile or Apple Tags for our bags – so at least we know where they are and don’t have to suffer painful wait times tracking them down?
Or some certainty on the cost of fares coming down on international routes. $50 doesn’t cover the incredible increases in the cost of travel – especially for small businesses?
At least Alan Joyce – a CEO that should be regarded as one of Australia’s best – has acknowledged the pain many of us experience every week.
Will it make up for lost love for the brand? Not so much. But the gesture matters.
And hopefully, for the exceptional staff, he has in the lounges and onboard, it will relieve some of the grief I see them getting every week from angry and frustrated passengers.
Still Subscribed?
The subscription economy continues to boom.
For many, driving subscriptions has become the core of their businesses, fueled by platforms like Substack.
There is a lot to love. Recurring revenue. A lower pricing decision point. The ability to make money from micro transactions with little capital outlay.
But at what point does it become easier for the consumer to end a subscription? Ideally, this could be done from anywhere. Say, the account credit card screen of your bank. A simple API connection would notify the provider of your decision.
Having just spent more time than I’d like trying to unravel a recurring subscription from Peloton (still not resolved) that AMEX won’t cancel or block for me, there has to be a better way than simply cancelling the credit card.
I’m always surprised how many don’t do a thorough review of their credit cards. For many, it’s a treasure trove of lost cash on unused or unutilised subscriptions. But cancelling them is going to be interesting.
This could be made easier – every subscription should be cancelled from the financial account it is attached to.
