The recent economic downturn, saw an increase in complaints towards budget airlines. Last year, CASE (Singapore) received 281 complaints against airlines, of this, 157 were for low-cost carriers. Most of the complaints were centered around the travelers’ inability to contact the airline, being overcharged, not informed of flight changes, last minute cancellations and refunds being promised but not given.
Recently my brother, decided to book a flight on a budget airline to Thailand. Unfortunately, due to work commitments he had to change the date of the flight. This should not have been a problem as he had adequate time to inform them before a penalty would be imposed. However, no matter how often he called the airline’s hotline, he was unable to reach them. After many a failed attempt, he had no option but to pay the penalty for not informing the airline within the specified number of days about any change in flight details. This would be funny, except for the fact that he was being penalized for the airline’s inefficiency and not his own.
Some folk may argue that this is what one expects with a budget airline. And I do agree with this up to an extent. Yes I do not expect to get an unlimited flow of alcohol on a budget airline, but bottled water would be greatly appreciated. Yes I understand that prettily wrapped hot meals are not practical, but surely a bread roll or two wouldn’t break the bank? I realize that the whole point of a budget airline is to fly at the lowest possible cost, but surely passengers still deserve some form of comfort and courtesy, or is that asking for too much when one travels on a budget carrier?
The horror stories about delayed and cancelled flights, luggage restrictions (more on this another time) make me glad that mobile services such as ArrivedOK exist. With ArrivedOK, my hotel, my host and my family will not panic if they don’t hear from me. I can be rest assured that my host in the country I am heading to, wont have to wait in the airport for a flight that has no intention of arriving, and instead, will only head out to pick me up when he receives my arrival message courtesy from ArrivedOK. This is just one reason, why I am glad such technological innovations exist. Another interesting thing I just discovered is aircomplaints.mobi a nifty service that allows you to rant about bad airline service as soon as the offending action takes place, using your mobile phone.
So the next time you fly, be it on a budget airline or not, register for ArrivedOK and be assured that your family and friends will know when you arrive at your destination.

AUSTIN, Texas, November 30 /PRNewswire/ –

- www.arrivedOK.mobi Offers Monetization to Travel Social Networks, Provides Air Companies With New Ancillary Revenue Service and Customer Loyalty Tool.

ArrivedOK (http://www.arrivedok.mobi/hello), the personal flight arrival tracker finishes the phase of public beta and goes commercial now. ArrivedOK tracks air travelers’ cell phones in a mobile network when it is turned on after landing and instantly sends those tailored ‘Arrived OK’ messages to the designated recipients via SMS, email, and social media.

Logo: http://www.arrivedok.mobi/img/logo_arrivedok_full_01.png

The automated flight plan systems do not provide accurate reporting about flight arrivals all the time, which was demonstrated on November 19, 2009 when the glitch in US air traffic control network caused flight delays across the nation. Unlike other tracking services that use centralized flight status data, ArrivedOK tracks one’s actual appearance in the destination airport using individual mobile phone status.

“Even as a paid service, ArrivedOK SMS alerts allow the subscribers bypassing the heavy international roaming charges.” – says Andrey Deriabin, Director Business Development at arrivedOK.mobi Inc. “However, we’d like to make it completely free for the end users. So we are working on B2B partnerships that would allow subsidizing the mobile traffic generated by our subscribers. During the public beta phase we received very promising responses from air companies, which look for new opportunities in a time of economic hardship. While discount airlines primarily see ArrivedOK as a source of ancillary revenue, “majors” also consider it as customer loyalty tool, willing to subsidize the service to their frequent flyers.”

ArrivedOK also provides monetization opportunity to travel websites and startups. “There are a lot of travel-related social networking projects seeking monetization.” – says Andrey Deriabin. “ArrivedOK perfectly matches their audience. We’re currently doing test integration with selected sites, and will make ArrivedOK API publicly available until the end of the year via http://partners.arrivedok.mobi”

ArrivedOK has been selected as a Webby Awards 2009 Official Honoree in two categories: Best Use of GPS or Location Technology and Experimental & Innovation. The service is currently available worldwide except for the subscribers of the US and Chinese mobile networks.

    Contact: Andrey Deriabin
    arrivedOK.mobi Inc.
    Tel: +73833630139
    Cell: +79139859722
    Email: andrey.deriabin @ arrivedok.mobi
    Web http://arrivedok.mobi
    Mobile http://m.arrivedok.mobi

Distributed by PR Newswire on behalf of arrivedOK.mobi Inc.

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Tel : +44 (0)20 7490 8111
Fax : +44 (0)20 7490 1255
E-mail : info@prnewswire.co.uk

Do you know what those abbreviations mean? I didn’t until I went to a conference in LA last month. I enjoyed it, in part because it was sunny and warm and I got my share of summer that I didn’t have this summer. I mean there was summer but it wasn’t summery, it was rainy.

Anyway, global warming aside, I wanted to make these abbreviations clear to all of you who don’t know but are curious:

ARAC = well, this one I actually don’t know, but ancillary revenue is the AR here. It was the name of the conference which was organized by AI or Airline Information (group of people) who did a GREAT JOB. And are doing a great job. It was actually the best thing that I brought back home — the relationship with the guys from AI – Michael, Roger and Chris. And then there was also lovely Gill whose accent I admired probably the most.

Yes, the conference had two parts, one of which was dedicated to FFP or frequent flyer programs which is also called “loyalty”. A lot of attention was paid to keeping people as well as making money from all of them. As to making money the most publicity undoubtedly went to… RyanAir. Because anyone talking about LCC or low cost carriers would say: “Well, but not like RyanAir — did you hear they charge you for going to the toilet?” Thus everyone remotely thinking of business thought: “Hey these guys are really in the know of how to make MONEY not just preserve the image.”

In any case, the biggest success and the savor of me not carrying a lot of junk paper was the invention of our business cards by Andrey Deryabin whom we can only applaud. Really. Check those cuties out:

Aren’t they GREAT? What else do you need to say about ArrivedOK? It says it all: memorable, cute, innovative, created by those who actually THINK.

Because, as my favorite quote goes:

“Few people think more than two or three times a year; I have made an international reputation for myself by thinking once or twice a week.”

– Bernard Shaw