I read an interesting piece of news today about how Alaskan Airlines and Horizon Air are resorting to mobile services, in an effort to retain customer loyalty. The mobile services that these two airlines are currently offering are designed for the iPhone, BlackBerry and Microsoft Windows Mobile users and are hoped to improve their passengers travel experience and convenience.

These new services will enable passengers to make changes to their reservations, access airport information and potentially purchase tickets. Passengers can also check their flight status information, flight schedules, flight alerts and check-in 1 to 24 hours prior to their scheduled departure. Furthermore, passengers can use their “My Trips” feature to view their itinerary, change their seats, check their upgrade status and add an Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan number to their reservation. (for more information check out www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/database-crm/5632.html)

I believe that the more savvy Airlines are finally beginning to realize that with so many carriers and options available to travelers, retaining loyalty and repeated visits are becoming harder to achieve. Brand loyalty has been replaced by price consciousness thanks to the proliferation of budget carriers.

At last years WIT conference an ‘expert’ in the travel industry said that to retain customers, airlines and hotels need to offer more than just refurbished toilets and renovated rooms. What is missing is that little extra service that makes passengers and guests feel special and cared for. Being an ArrivedOK subscriber, I think the expert hit the nail on the head. Its no longer enough to offer the superficial trimmings that most hotels and airlines think us travelers require.

Instead, what we are actually looking for is convenience, and the knowledge that you care about how we feel. If an airline or hotel offered me the use of ArrivedOK FOC for flying or staying with them, I would consider traveling and staying with them during my next trip. Its those little extras, the intangibles that make us feel cared for, and that is what retains loyalty.

We all know that calling and sending SMSes while in roaming is expensive. But just how expensive is it? Whenever I travel, I instinctively call or SMS home or office on my mobile phone, simply not registering the fact that call charges are quite different when one is not on home soil. Its only when I get back to Singapore and receive my monthly bill do I get a heart attack at the cost.

A good example would be my husband’s recent trip to Thailand. He made a few calls and sent several SMSes to me during the three weeks he was away. I am still reeling from the SGD1,400 bill he received and I am yet to recover from the shock and make payment for it, even though I have already received one reminder in the mail so far. Since then, I no longer freely use my mobile phone while in roaming, unless it is a matter of life and death, really.

I first heard about ArrivedOK from my friend who travels several times a month. She insisted that this service was a fantastic way to inform ones loved ones when overseas without busting the bank. Not being an early adaptor of new technology I was a bit skeptical, but after the shocking bill I received from Singtel, I decided to explore just how much I can save on roaming charges by switching to ArrivedOK.

First of all it is important to understand what ArrivedOK is and how it works. ArrivedOK is a flight arrival tracker and not an alternative sms service. What’s unique about ArrivedOK is that it tracks you as an individual, so its only when you reach your destination airport that your messages are sent out to your family and friends. You can check out their website at www.arrivedok.mobi for more info. Even for a technologically inept person such as myself, using the service was not a problem. It involves just three basic steps. Log onto the ArrivedOk site and register, enter the mobile numbers or address of your recipients, type out your message, switch off your phone, fly and when you switch it back on upon landing, ArrivedOK tracks your number, verifies that you have in fact landed at your destination, and sends out your messages to your list of family and friends. Its as simple as that.

With an initial investment of USD 9.90, you can start off with ArrivedOK’s Economy Class Package which would give you 30 credits, making each credit USD 0.33. With this package, I would receive free blog posts, free emails and 29 arrivals or text messages, which is honestly a huge saving.

Now if we were to do a brief price comparison, it would cost me SGD 0.61 to send an SMS when roaming using Singtel from Thailand, and if I was on a Thai SIM (AIS Thailand) SMS messaging while roaming would cost me Baht 10.77 or SGD 0.46 per message. But if I was subscribed to ArrivedOK’s Economy Class Package, it would only cost me SGD 14.00 to send out 29 SMS messages and free emails and blog posts!

I could go on and on comparing the outrageous roaming rates that many of us end up paying without realizing. This is why, from now on, whenever I do travel, I am most definitely going to sign up with ArrivedOK and save myself a bundle on roaming charges!

The best news is that currently, if you display a link to ArrivedOk on your website or blog, and direct your friends and other travel loving people to register for the service, you will earn credits. These credits can be used like currency to pay for your ArrivedOK smses, so all in all, you save a 100% when you use ArrivedOK if you have adequate credits, so invite your friends to register for the service (www.arrivedok.mobi) and fan page (www.facebook.com/arrivedok) and stay tuned for more interesting travel tips and tricks :)

ArrivedOK introduces invites and badges.

Invite your friends and earn free credits when they subscribe to ArrivedOK and make a purchase. Got a blog or webpage? Place our badge on your website and earn free credits too.

If you’re a registered user of ArrivedOK, you can now earn bonus credits and use the service for free. You don’t even have to purchase a service package to make it happen – if any user comes to ArrivedOK from your webpage or via your invitation and buys a package, you receive free credits. Its as simple as that. The more users you attract, the more credits you get.

We are giving away 3 credits for a package purchase. This is worth 3 arrivals tracking, or 3 SMS alerts, or 1 arrival with 2 alerts, and so on. The formula is simple: 3=1+1+1.

Choose, whichever work best for you: invites or badges. If you’re a prominent blogger with a large following and heavy traffic, we would recommend badges as your best option. If you just want to share info about ArrivedOK with your fellow travelers, we recommend using the invites.

If anyone buys our (competitively priced) Economy Class or Frequent Flyer package, you get your free credits, which you can use to notify your friends and family about your arrivals anywhere. This is particularly good news for those of you who were not too pleased when ArrivedOK went commercial (yes we do read your emails and feedback).

And one more thing (attention Twitter and Facebook users!). All badges are linked to ArrivedOK with your user ID in the URL so we know which users come from you. You can actually use your unique URL wherever you like (even without a badge – in your tweets, emails, posts, etc.) to attract more subscribers and earn your free credits.

Not subscribed to ArrivedOK yet? You can do it here.

So, share and enjoy. Merry Xmas and…
Happy Landings!

As probably many people out there, we at ArrivedOK are waiting for the premiere of Up in the Air -- a movie about “an emotionally disconnected air traveler’s pursuit of 1 million frequent flier miles”, as someone put it.

Release date: 25 February 2010 (Russia).

There’s another funny trailer here at YouTube, where the characters are sitting at an airport lounge, tossing their frequent flyer cards and asking intimate questions about each other’s air miles balance. Very romantic :)

Ryan Bingham/George Clooney: How much does your life weigh? Imagine for a second that you’re carrying a backpack. I want you to pack it with all the stuff that you have in your life… you start with the little things. The shelves, the drawers, the knickknacks, then you start adding larger stuff. Clothes, tabletop appliances, lamps, your TV… the backpack should be getting pretty heavy now. You go bigger. Your couch, your car, your home… I want you to stuff it all into that backpack. Now I want you to fill it with people. Start with casual acquaintances, friends of friends, folks around the office… and then you move into the people you trust with your most intimate secrets. Your brothers, your sisters, your children, your parents and finally your husband, your wife, your boyfriend, your girlfriend. You get them into that backpack, feel the weight of that bag. Make no mistake your relationships are the heaviest components in your life. All those negotiations and arguments and secrets, the compromises. The slower we move the faster we die. Make no mistake, moving is living…

Hello
ArrivedOK will be offline for a couple hours on 17th November 2009, starting at 4:00 am GMT. There will be a planned maintenance. This includes the ArrivedOK.mobi website, SMS and API interaction. Thank you for your patience.