Eight interesting facts about North Korea’s airline

by Tom Johansmeyer on

What do you know about Air Koryo? Probably not much. The state-run airline for North Korea, it’s the only realistic way you can fly into the country, unless you have some sort of crazy commando resources at your disposal. Of course, there’s a lot you have to do before booking your ticket, and getting a visa can be quite difficult for Americans and other westerners. If you do make it through the red tape though, you’ll find yourself with more options than you realized.

So, ready to book your trip to Arirang and sample the beer and pizza of the most reclusive nation on the planet? Here’s what you need to know about the airline that will take you there:

%Gallery-105693%1. More destinations than you’d expect: the Beijing-Pyongyang route is the one for which Air Koryo is “famous,” but the state-sponsored airline actually connects to eight other cities: Moscow Khabarovsk, Vladivostok, Shenyang, Shanghai, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Kuwait City. Of course, if you want to use these cities to enter North Korea, you’ll still need to jump through the many hoops necessary to secure a visa.

2. Road warriors don’t get squat: are you a frequent flier to North Korea? Well, don’t expect much in exchange for your loyalty. While airlines around the world offer rewards programs, a mileage run on Air Koryo is worthless, as the carrier doesn’t have a program, according to a comment it made on its Facebook page.

3. A new home: as of July 15, 2011, the airline’s new terminal at Sunan International Airport in Pyongyang is open for business! The airline claims on Facebook, “The new terminal features modernised facilities for luggage, security, customs, border control and the list goes on to an extent.”

4. Mongolia may be next: it’s always hard to tell when Air Koryo is going to add a route, but this comment to a prospective customer offers some hope: “Flights to Uanbator have been tossed up for a while now, since there is a decent amount of DPRK citizens traveling to Mongolia for a number of reasons. Also vice versa. We havn’t [sic] heard of any flights for August, but we will make some inquiries.”

5. Kuwait’s on the map for a reason: it may not be as busy as the New York-to-London route, but Pyongyang and Kuwait City seem to comprise an important city-pair for Air Koryo. According to the person operating the Air Koryo Facebook page, “Between 5 and 10,000 North Korean workers currently reside in Kuwait. These numbers change weekly with the flights by Air Koryo now enabling the DPR Korean direct flights to Pyongyang.”

6. True dialogue in social media: social media marketers have always discussed the importance of “dialogue” via social media, rather than generating revenue. Well, Air Koryo is a fantastic model. A user responded to the above claim about North Koreans living in Kuwait, “‎between 5 and 10000″ … Wow, that is an accurate answer !” The airline’s intended range was probably “between 5,000 and 10,000,” but the fan appears to have a fetish for the exact. Showing a bit of style, Air Koryo replied, “We’re [not] exactly demographers here, so exact figures are beyond us. Sorry.” The missing word in the response makes the whole exchange even funnier.

7. Online check-in: okay, this is not in Air Koryo’s future, probably because the carrier has a different set of priorities. According to SFGate: “‘You kidding right?’ Air Koryo responded. “There are many things to do before even looking at ‘Online check-in’ such as actually creating a website.'”

8. Don’t expect much love from the cabin crew: in the United States, you only need to worry about bad service … and the occasional meltdown. In North Korea, the flight attendants will great you with such pleasantries as “I hate America!” But, they do follow it with, “What would you like to drink today, sir?”

Sir?! Now that’s service!

[photos via Wikipedia]

Airline fees are worth more than Facebook

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Outside the travel world, everyone’s marveling at the prospect of a Facebook IPO, which could be valued at as much as $100 billion. So, what are we missing while we fawn over Mark Zuckerberg’s creation? How about the slow, stodgy, ugly airline industry. Known for a painful user experience and a steady decline of free features, the likes of Delta and American Airlines are outdoing the hottest online property in the world simply by annoying their customers.

According to data from the U.S. Department of Transportation‘s Bureau of Transportation Statistics, baggage and reservation change fees brought the U.S. airline industry a whopping $5.7 billion last year. Delta picked up close to a billion dollars on baggage fees alone, which doesn’t include what they yanked from the wallets of soldiers returning home from combat. The largest airline in the country also brought in approximately $700 million from reservation change fees.

American Airlines, the fourth largest airline in the United States, came in second in both categories, with $580.7 million in baggage fees and $471.4 million in reservation change fees.The particular beauty of these fees is that they are basically found money. Some passengers need to check bags, and the airlines have to invest in the overhead required to meet this demand. It’s an expense that can’t be avoided. With this fee, they monetized what they’d have to pay anyway. The same is the case for reservation change fees.

The top five earners of baggage fees in 2010 are:

1. Delta: $952.3 million

2. American: $580.7 million

3. US Airways: $513.6 million

4. Continental: $341.6 million

5. United: $313.2 million

Unsurprisingly, the top five earners of reservation change fees don’t look much different:

1. Delta: $698.6 million

2. American: $471.4 million

3. United: $321.5 million

4. US Airways: $253.1 million

5. Continental: $237.4 million

No doubt, activist groups will be up in arms shortly. And airline employees will lament the fact that their executives are so richly compensated while they have endured round after round of pay cuts and layoffs for years upon years.

Frankly, I offer my congratulations to the airline industry. Yes, they are soaking us. Passengers are a captive audience, particularly on routes with limited coverage, and we sometimes have no choice but to pay. The airlines are using this to generate profitable growth for their shareholders, which is their primary responsibility.

So, what about Facebook? The company is estimated to pull in revenues of somewhere above $4 billion this year, most of it from advertising. It is pretty interesting that the popular social network is annoying its customers as a way to generate revenue, just like the airlines!

Who knew that pissing off your target market was an awesome business model?

[photo by Tobin Black via Flickr]

Orbitz to use Facebook Send button … will you? [POLL]

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Is traveling about to get more social? Orbitz has just announced that it’s using the new “Facebook Send” button on its hotel pages, which should make it easier to brainstorm travel ideas. To me, it seems like a natural fit for family vacations and trips with friends. Using the button, you can pop a link off to a limited group of people – instead of sharing it with the world – and make plans more easily.

I’ve been watching travel and social media for a while, and to be honest, I haven’t been blown away. For all the talk of travel being a natural space for social media sharing, the marketing execution hasn’t knocked my socks off. The new move from Orbitz, however, strikes me as a step in the right direction. By taking advantage of a new Facebook feature early in the process and allowing users to self-target, the online travel agency has put itself ahead of the curve.

“Orbitz is continuing its tradition of innovation by integrating with Facebook to make the search and book experience for travel more like the actual experience of travel – social, interactive and fun,” notes Sam Fulton, Senior Vice President, Retail, Orbitz Worldwide. “With the new Facebook Send button, travelers can easily share and solicit feedback on hotels from relevant friends or groups, which ultimately leads to making a more confident and informed choice.”The Facebook Send button, of course, is applicable to more than just travel, but the Orbitz announcement indicates an early lead for the company … in a space that’s becoming increasingly competitive. With the ability to send messages and links – for specific hotels, especially – to individual friends, several friends, Facebook message inboxes and email, collaborative travel is set to become much easier.

Unsurprisingly, Orbitz already has a user dynamic in mind:

Here is an example of how the Facebook Send button works on Orbitz: Travelers planning a summer getaway to Las Vegas with a group of friends can look at individual properties, hit the Facebook Send button to message or post those options to an individual or group via Facebook or send to their friend’s email. Friends can then view a full description of the hotel property on Orbitz – including room rates, photos, maps and reviews — and discuss as a group on Facebook before selecting a hotel.

So, do you plan to use this tool to plan your next trip? Or, is it more your style to pick up the phone? Take the poll below to let us know your thoughts on this!

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Win an iPad 2 with Gadling and AViiQ on Facebook

by Scott Carmichael on

Looking for a quick way to get your hands on the new iPad 2? Head on over to our Facebook page, click on contest (on the left column) and follow the instructions.

We’ve teamed up with the folks behind AViiQ to give away an iPad 2 (WiFi+3G), 5000 Elevate points for Virgin America and a variety of awesome AViiQ products.

Entering is as simple as pushing two buttons and “liking” our sites. The contest runs till April 30. Good luck!

Delta Air Lines announces Delta Assist for Facebook

by Justin Delaney on

Delta Assist on Twitter has been a winning investment for the nation’s largest carrier. By utilizing the social networking site, Delta has been able to cater a niche customer service product to a vociferous audience — a product well lauded by the travel community.

Now, they’re taking that success to Facebook. With the program that launches today, Delta plans to be the world’s first mover in what could one day be a standard in customer service – completely comprehensive customer support without having to leave the social networking site. A special tab will be used within Facebook to allow for customers to communicate their service issues with Delta representatives.

Reached for comment, Allison Ausband, the VP of sales, reservations, and customer service for Delta, said:

“Our Facebook community told us that in addition to listening, we also needed to offer a way for customers to give feedback and get help with any travel issue. This feedback challenged us to reshape our online customer support strategy to establish Delta Assist as a comprehensive social media customer support program operating beyond just Twitter and into other social media channels where our customers are engaged.”

On the surface, this is a small change to a moderately comprehensive customer service approach being pioneered by Delta. But it’s an indicator of the industry movement. More and more people online are using social media as a means to communicate as consumers, and if Delta can see this demand quickly and respond to it then they’re going to quickly have an advantage over the competition.

flickr image via eisenbahner