Archive for the ‘travel’ Category:
News Flash: Baggage Fees are Good for Passengers
The Economist magazine recently wrote an article in favor of airlines unbundling fees.
Ancillaries; You Know They Make Sense
Unfortunately, it seems that the benefits arise more from an accounting failure followed by a PR sleigh of hand than any actual rational corporate service improvement initiative.
By charging fees, once neglected baggage service departments have become star revenue performers for airlines. Department managers can now justify new technology and equipment. Where before, baggage service only represented a cost, it now provides millions in revenue.
It turns out that by charging money for baggage fees, those fees are entered into the revenue column of the accounting statement so they appear as an asset. In the past, baggage handling was in the cost column and appeared as a liability. From MBA 101, the function of a corporation is to collect all assets and unload all liabilities. But more than that, the once invisible baggage handling department can now SEE their value. The baggage handling manager can now grab some of that money to buy improved equipment, training, and qualified personell.
And The Carousel Spins
Of course the PR department will twist this into a statement of American Individuality by claiming that “freedom is all about having choices” and “our customers deserve a benevolent freedom fighter in the airlines to provide them with such choices”. If there is discontent, this is due to a fault of the passenger, not the airline:
Passengers will continue to complain about being nickel-and-dimed, but it may be that they are making false comparisons between the years when everything was included—but the ticket prices were higher—and these current, à-la-carte times. “When a la carte shopping is successfully implemented, it’s not an evil method. Quite to the contrary, it’s the ultimate compliment to the consumer—it acknowledges their right to choose.”
Now I have to ask, what is so hard about handling baggage? Why is this such a complicated accounting problem? How many other “material handling” problems, or account balancing problems do airline have difficult mastering? Seriously.
Fly to Nashville For A Taste of Country
Social Flights offers service into Nashville from Branson, Milwaukee, Austin. We also offer flights from any where your group or organization originates. Take advantage of the taste of country package or any of the exciting vacation packages below.
Country music fans get a taste of Nashville’s most popular attractions when they visit Gaylord Opryland Resort!
Availability: Select dates through October, 2012
(Note: This package is not available October 5-7, 2012, due to the Opry’s 87th Birthday Celebration)
Duration: 2 nights (extra nights may be available at prevailing rates)
To Book: Call 1-866-972-6779
Package includes:
- Two night room accommodations at Gaylord Opryland Resort
- Reserved seat ticket to the Grand Ole Opry – the show that made country music famous! Valid Tuesday, Friday or Saturday (plus special Wednesday performances July 18 & 25 and August 1 & 8 only)
-or-
Reserved seat ticket to Opry Country Classics at the Ryman Auditorium; this show shines a spotlight on the classic country songs that have defined country music for generations of fans (Thursdays, March 29 – May 24 and October 4 – 25)
-plus- - Grand Ole Opry House Backstage Tour
- Ryman Auditorium Museum Self-Guided Tour
- Voucher toward a meal at the Opry Backstage Grill ($20 per adult, $10 per child age 4-11)
- General Jackson Showboat lunch or dinner cruise and show
Package price:
With General Jackson lunch cruise: $280*
With General Jackson dinner cruise: $305*
*Rate is per person, based on double occupancy for traditional accommodations, plus applicable tax, resort fee and parking. Extra nights and atrium upgrades may be available at prevailing rates. Rate subject to change without notice. Restrictions apply.
Suggested Add-ons:
(per person, plus tax)
- Shuttle transportation to Ryman Auditorium; inquire about rates when making package reservation
- Enjoy lunch, dinner, or a concert at the Wildhorse Saloon®
- A relaxing spa treatment at Relâche – The Spa at Gaylord Opryland
- Gaylord Springs™ Golf Links – Tee times available 30 days out
- General Jackson® – Showboat luncheon cruise and show
- Enjoy a concert at the historic Ryman Auditorium
Current Nashville Vacation Packages and Specials at Gaylord Opryland
- A Night at the Opry – Our most popular vacation package!
- Summer Fun with Shrek & Friends
- The DreamWorks Birthday Celebration
- Taste of Country – 2-night Package!
- Gaylord Hotels’ Unforgettable Anniversary
- Remember Romance – 1 or 2 nights
- Gaylord Hotels’ Birthday Getaway
- Rooms for Good™ – Reward yourself by helping others
- Thank You Thursdays – Get 40%* savings on Thursdays. TN residents only.
- Nashville Nights – 1 and 2-night packages available
- 2012 CMA Music Festival / Fan Fair Package
- Opry’s 87th Birthday – 2-night Package!
- New Year’s Eve Celebration 2012 – A Southern Gospel Festival
Social Flights Solving for X
This morning we received a great comment from a reader named Peter. He posts a valid question and I had to think about it for a few minutes before I could bring up a response. Unfortunately, as with most questions, there is a simple answer and a complicated one.
Peter wrote:
I’ll be curious to see if eventually non-stop flights between these four cities will be established eliminating the need to connect through Branson. While this promises to be a great alternative to the airlines the current configuration is still a hub and spokes model. Here’s hoping we’ll see non-stop flights between these cities in the future.
Peter is referring to newly introduced air service between Nashville, Austin, Milwaukee, flying through Branson MO. Admittedly, this is a pretty strange arrangement, especially since Branson only has 20,000 people whereas the other three metro areas have over 500,000 people each.
Who in their right mind would put a hub in the smaller city?
Branson is the Live Entertainment Capital of the Midwest. The community of Branson came together to support these flights with a high level of civic involvement and passenger engagement with a high quality “service” model. Branson is safe, clean, and they even own the airport. The people of Branson are very proud of what they have built and want to share it with the world. They dare to be different.
Social Flights partnership with Branson demonstrates that air service can empower a community, not cowering to the whips and whims from the corporate boardroom of a publicly traded airline.
- Solving for X or solving for Eggs?
A hub airport is like a big egg sorter for people and planes (where people are the eggs and the planes are the cartons).
A big part of our business model is to integrate with what is happening on the ground. Imagine if Amazing places like Vail Colorado, or Chelan WA, or the Grand Canyon were easily accessible. Imagine your next industry conference at a resort in the Ozarks instead of downtown Newark.
***
Now, here’s the complicated answer
If nobody is going to Branson, the plane can just fly the hypotenuse. Try that with hub and spoke
Fly From Milwaukee To Branson MO For Under 100 Dollars
Beginning in June 2012, Branson Air in cooperation with CFM aviation and Social Flights, is offering a limited time 79 dollar special on air service between Milwaukee Wisconsin and Branson Missouri. This price will not last long since the route is filling fast. The next threshold special is 99 dollars…and there is no wonder why tickets are selling fast.
This announcement comes on the heels of air service between Nashville and Branson as well as Austin and Branson. All continuing flights connect all cities. This is a big deal for people who travel between secondary markets.
If you are asking yourself what you would do when you get to your final destination, just check out these posts:
Or, think of it this way:
Do a Google search on “Milwaukee Facebook” and you’ll received 183 Million returns. Next, perform a search on terms: “Branson MO Facebook” and you’ll receive 3.7 Million returns. Finally, do a search on the terms “Branson MO Milwaukee WI Facebook” and you’ll received 1.1 Million returns.
Next, search for airfare from Milwaukee to Branson you’ll find the following result:
NOW, look at the flight from Branson to Milwaukee !!
Hmmm … why does it cost 200 dollars more and take 4 more hours (stationary) to fly from Branson to Milwaukee than from Milwaukee to Branson???
A recipe for opportunity
While this is far from a scientific research study, there is little doubt that many people in Branson know somebody in Milwaukee and vice versa. There are many people in Milwaukee that can find a reason to hop a quick plane out to Branson with all of their friends. Look at the disadvantage that the smaller community has – small communities are SUBSIDIZING the larger community!! The distance is the same so the price should be the same.
By extension – look at all of the communities on the map above that social flight can connect for 1/2 the price and half the transit time of the airlines
Most importantly, there are many things that were never economically possible between these two cities, but now are. That is what opportunity is made of.
People who follow Social Flights know that our business model is hugely disruptive to the airlines. They know that Social Flights opens new frontiers of opportunity. They know that Social Flights liberates stranded communities from Airline Chess Masters. With air service between Branson and Austin for under 100 dollars – this is only the beginning.
So the choice is simple;
There are hundreds of things to do with millions of friends, colleagues, relatives, and business relationships for 200 dollars on a flight that lasts less than two hours. Or, spend close to 500 dollars on a 8 hour boondoggle losing two days of work and spending an two extra nights in a hotel with people you don’t know. The choice is obvious.
Who knew that having fun could be such serious business?
Announcing Air Service Between Branson and Nashville for 79 Dollars
Branson Air, in cooperation with CFM aviation and Social Flights, is offering a special on air service between Branson Missouri and Nashville Tennessee. This limited time price may not last long since the route is filling fast – both of these cities are world recognized for their entertainment and cultural attributes. Now Social Flights brings them together at an astonishing low price.
To put things in perspective, simply perform a search for airline pricing between these cities:
You’ll find that major airlines are willing to give you the privilege of paying 500 dollars and waiting 8 hours (including security and check in) to take the same trip. These cities are only 435 miles apart – you can drive in less time than that. Seriously, who is watching these numbers?
Social Flights will get you there in 1/3 the time and 1/3 the cost of flying commercial airlines. When you fly Social Flights you can often avoid extra overnights, hotel fees, and days off work. You wouldn’t even need to carry all that extra baggage in the first place!
If you are wondering how you can spend all that extra time check out these two lists that we’ve compiled with our friends in each city.
102 things to do in Branson 102 things to do in Nashville
You will find some of friendliest, hard working, and talented people in the United States in these two cities. Now you can experience all the magic and none of the harassment for 1/3 rd the price.
A recipe for opportunity
Most importantly, there are many things that were never economically possible between these two cities, but now are. That is what opportunity is made of.
People who follow Social Flights know that our business model is hugely disruptive to the airlines. They know that Social Flights opens new frontiers of opportunity. They know that Social Flights liberates stranded communities from Airline Chess Masters. With air service between Branson and Nashville for under 100 dollars – this is only the beginning.
Who knew that having fun could be such serious business?
Air Service Between Branson MO and Austin ONLY 99 Dollars
Branson Air, in cooperation with CFM aviation and Social Flights, is offering a special on air service between Austin Texas and Branson Missouri. This price may not last long since the route is filling fast and there is no wonder why.
If you are asking yourself what you would do when you get to your final destination, just check out these two posts:
102 Things to do in Branson 101 Things to do in Austin
Or, think of it this way:
Do a Google search on “Austin Tx Facebook” and you’ll received 134 Million returns. Next, perform a search on terms: “Branson MO Facebook” and you’ll receive 3.7 Million returns. Finally, do a search on the terms “Branson MO Austin TX Facebook” and you’ll received 1.1 Million returns.
Next search for airfare between Branson to Austin and you’ll find the following result:
A recipe for opportunity
While this is far from a scientific research study, there is little doubt that many people in Branson know somebody in Austin and vice versa. There are many people in Austin that can find a reason to hop a quick plane out to Branson with all of their friends.
Most importantly, there are many things that were never economically possible between these two cities, but now are. That is what opportunity is made of.
People who follow Social Flights know that our business model is hugely disruptive to the airlines. They know that Social Flights opens new frontiers of opportunity. They know that Social Flights liberates stranded communities from Airline Chess Masters. With air service between Branson and Austin for under 100 dollars – this is only the beginning.
So the choice is simple;
There are hundreds of things to do with millions of friends, colleagues, relatives, and business relationships for 200 dollars on a flight that lasts less than two hours. Or, spend close to 500 dollars on a 15 hour boondoggle losing two days of work and spending an two extra nights in a hotel with people you don’t know. The choice is obvious.
Who knew that having fun could be such serious business?
102 Things To Do In Nashville Tennessee
Social Flights is introducing air service between Nashville Tennessee, Austin Texas, Milwaukee Wisconsin and Branson Missouri beginning in May 2012. The opportunities for travelers to access business opportunities, recreational experiences, family connections, and entertainment value has never been better.
Say Goodbye to the Hassle
The social experience of travel has finally been liberated from the boardrooms of the airlines and no longer subject to the fragile and abusive hub and spoke system. No more long lines, luggage searches or irradiation machines. Social Flights takes you where you want to go.
Visit all the Capitals
Nashville is the music capital of the world – without rival. For publishing, recording, and production Nashville has few peers. Nashville is located in the population center of the United States and perfectly accessible to many locations of magnificent beauty, culture, and business opportunities.
Your way, not the highway
There are many great things to do in Nashville and dozens of websites that will help you find the getaway of your dreams. Social Flights now makes these opportunities to a wider market of people than ever before. Fly to Nashville today with Social Flights – lose the hassle. (list compiled by: 365Nashville.com)
7. The Melrose Spring Beer Tasting
9. Glass Night at Flying Saucer
10. Train for the Country Music Marathon or 1/2 Marathon
11. Mulligan’s Pub and Restaurant
12. Frist Center For the Visual Arts
13. Radnor Lake
14. Art By the Glass
16. NashVegas Casino Night at Cannery Ballroom
17. Nuvo Burrito
18. Bluebird Café
19. Warner Parks
21. “8 off 8th” at Mercy Lounge
22. Two for Tuesdays
23. Climb Nashville
24. Nashville Lawn & Garden Show
25. Nashville Haunted Pub Crawl
27. Las Paletas
29. The Billy Block Show from 12th and Porter
30. The Pie Wagon
32. Belmont Mansion
35. Jacks BBQ
36. Volunteer at 2nd Harvest Food Bank
38. Disc Golf at Seven Oaks Park
40. Zumi Sushi
41. Musica Sculpture
42. Bongo Java Roasting Company
43. The Station Inn
45. Crow’s Nest
49. Hatch Show Print
50. Nashville Predators
51. Whiskey Kitchen
52. Love Circle
53. Dozen – A Nashville Sweet Shop
54. Laser Quest
55. Dragon Park
57. Eco-Adventure Canopy Zip Tour
58. Loveless Café
59. Commodore Grille
61. Nashville Zoo
62. Brunch at the Copper Kettle
63. Sweet CeCe’s
64. All Fired Up
65. Downtown Nashville Home Tour
65. Rajin’ Cajun Crawfish Boil
66. Taco Mamacita
67. Nashville Sounds
71. Donut Den
72. Dove Awards
74. South Street
75. Country Music Hall of Fame
79. Exit/In
80. Allium
83. Southern Bred
84. Franklin Rodeo
87. Tuesdays at the French Quarters
88. Music City Roots
89. Burger Up
90. We ART Nashville
91. Nashville Shores
92. Fido
95. Brown Bag Lunch Concert Series
96. Tennessee Renaissance Festival
99. Grassmere Bicentennial Picnic Celebration
100. Memorial Day Blues Festival
101. Movies in the Park
Social Flights Beats Airlines; Case Study
Few people realize the extraordinary opportunity that exists for some communities to literally fly under the radar of the commercial airlines. Far too often, people are trained to believe that the airlines are the only game in town and if they quote a price, flight time, and wait time, then that must be the best deal out there. Nothing gives us more pleasure than to demonstrate quite the opposite.
Branson and Nashville
There are no nonstop flights between Nashville and Branson Missouri. Frontier charges $507.00 and the flight – with connections – takes 8 hours. Social Flights can fulfill this route for around 260 dollars for a non-stop flight that lasts only one hour – this is an astonishing 50% cheaper and 80% faster that flying commercial.
Branson and Milwaukee
There are no nonstop flights between these cities. Commercial carriers can provide access but it cost you $335.00 to travel 6 hours. Social Flights provides non-stop service for $290 dollars in only 2 hours.
Branson and Austin
There are no non-stop flights between Branson and Austin. However, Frontier will charge you $523 dollars to leave you in Denver and take an amazing 23 hours! Clearly, it would be faster to drive. Social Flights provides this flight for $290.00 non-stop and will have you there is 2 hours.
The Functionally Stranded
Thousands of communities across the United States are functionally stranded when they need to pay more in real cost than twice the airfare to reach their destination. This creates a substantial friction to a local economy since both outbound and inbound passengers suffer the friction loss.
Keeping it Real
OK, so who cares about places like Branson MO, Tri-Cities TN, Somerset KY, Arlington WA, and Danbury CT? The answer is that millions of people are functionally and economically stranded without global air transportation options – they care deeply.
It does not take long to realize that there are thousands upon thousands of routes and millions of people in our great country where Social Flights can thoroughly and without question outperform the major airlines in the simple task of connecting real people to the real places that they really want to go.
Social Flights Offers Marketing Services to Operators
Social media marketing and search engine optimization (SEO) are no longer just the shiny new soapbox for advertisers, they have become powerful tools for organizing communities.
We all know that social media campaigns have become the PR machine of the modern airline, but they still fail to understand the difference between community awareness and harnessing the power of community engagement.
Who has time to Twitter?
Many private operators are too focused on the day-to-day business of keeping their fleet in top readiness to start the long haul learning curve of social media marketing and SEO.
As a result, those same few brokers and agents (you know who they are) appear on the top of the search engine listing even in your city search! While paid search placement may buy some brand awareness for the brokers, only active blogging, worthy cross linking and strategic partnerships produce the powerful engagements that bring you customers who bring you customers who bring you customers, and so on.
Building these relationships can be difficult, time consuming, and expensive.
Social Flights has trained and experienced account managers that can efficiently carry out the most productive social media presence for private operators and their respective traveler community, economic development agencies, and hospitality partners.
Social Flights offers:
- Syndication of Social Flights blog articles
- Unique blog contents specific to your operation and community.
- Cross linkages with other operators, tourism boards, hospitality, and corporate business centers
- Strategic Twitter campaigns, Facebook pages, G+, press release support, and cross posting with sister cities
- Package formation with festivals, recreation, conventions, and events; locally and across North America
- Cooperative marketing with sister city operators.
Social Flights draws on our unique experience in ride sharing systems and yield management for private aircraft inventory. Social Flights uses up-to-the-minute social media techniques to organize communities around available private aircraft capacity, public charter opportunities, and empty leg fulfillment.
Social Flights draws from our national databases of event organizers, universities, corporate clusters, and diverse industries allowing us to help you identify, influence, and match supply and demand for private air service priced on a per-seat basis. This allows travelers to form a true comparison of the “time-value” of private air service versus commercial air service.
Finally, we also provide you with ways to spot opportunities that commercial airlines simply cannot serve at any price.
Please consider adding Social Flights Services to your marketing mix. Give us a call for a free strategy session and let’s see where we can integrate your air service operation with the entire national travel services industry.
Social Flights Discovers A New Class Of Entrepreneur
Social media is such an amazing tool – what was once just a shiny new soapbox for marketing to the masses, has now evolved into an entirely different way for people to coordinate, organize, and produce the things that society needs. And, when the economy slows down, people don’t sit around waiting for Wall Street to bail them out, they come up with the great ideas that change the world forever.
A New Class of Entrepreneur
Cassandra Harris is the CEO of Black Diamond Sanctuary, a boutique travel company that caters specifically to exclusive ladies leisure and recreation. From their Website:
“The Black Diamond Sanctuary specializes in fostering friendship and sisterhood through luxury retreat excursions. Our retreats are especially designed to give you a rich cultural travel experience that is sure to be tantalizing to all of your senses. We provide an environment where you can relax and revive, all while indulging in social enjoyment with others like yourself.”
Black Diamond Sanctuary has offered vacation packages to such places as the Caribbean, Antigua, South Africa, Dominican Republic, and Grenada. Domestic packages have landed in Santa Barbara, Niagara Falls, New York City, etc. Next year, Black Diamond is planning excursions to Abu Dhabi and Oman, among several other locales.
Keep in mind, these are not typical tourist traps, Black Diamond locations appeal to the adventurous, curious, educated, and even the politically intrigued. Once at the destination, the activities that Black Diamond Sanctuary plans include everything from casual relaxation to serious high-wired adventure.
At Social Flights, we see our partnership with Black Diamond Sanctuary as a natural fit with our business model. Currently, Black Diamond clients fly in on commercial airlines from all over the states. Social Flights can offer point-to-point service allowing Cassandra to focus on plugging into pre-existing social networks and seasonal opportunities.
Then the Magic Started
As I continued to speak with Cassandra, something magic started to happen – it was as if I could hear her brain jump into overdrive. She started rattling off all sorts of new business opportunities could be accomplished with her expertise combined with our national network of private air service operations.
We jumped all over each other’s thoughts, even finished each other’s sentences discussing weekend getaways, special events, and serial events where one group would fly in while the other group flies out. All of these scenarios would either be impossible with the dysfunctional commercial airlines or truly competitive in price, time, luxury, and convenience – yet superlative in the experience using our vast network of private jet service.
A Cast of Thousands
Soon I learned that Cassandra has a diverse background in many entertainment and hospitality verticals. It dawned on me that there must be hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs like Cassandra who have no intention of depending on anyone for their success and prosperity. I imagine legions of smart and motivated people like Cassandra Harris who can look at the data and see “supply = demand” where the rest of the world sees “recession = depression”.
Cassandra Harris is the New Class of Entrepreneur. We are proud to be a part of the her emerging revolution in social capitalism.