Routehappy has announced that it will introduce pay-as-you-go subscriptions for its Scores & Amenities (S&A) API product in a move designed to give flight search applications greater flexibility on integration, testing, and payments.
It also believes pay-as-you-go will appeal to smaller sites wanting to try out S&A.
Routehappy will also give larger, established sites an easier way to deploy large-scale applications, while only paying for the data they use. Specifically, the pay-as-you-go subscription option will be billed monthly and is priced at US $0.01 per query with up to 150 legs/query and a $100 monthly minimum. Customers will be billed monthly and can pay by credit card.
Robert Albert, CEO at RouteHappy, said:
“Since we started distributing Scores & Amenities, both smaller and larger sites have asked us for smaller-scale API access than we were able to accommodate, given the high demand.
"Differentiation content should be accessible to everyone in flight shopping, so we’re proud to extend our Scores & Amenities API to users of all sizes and use cases.”
S&A was recently upgraded to include: amenities by specific flight and cabin; data-driven flight ratings; onboard experience data such as aircraft seat, layout, wifi, entertainment, power, and fresh food. It has stats for more than 260 airlines, equivalent to 85% of all global flights, and is available in 24 languages.
Ratings, reviews and airlines- new best friends?
Routehappy has been growing its scope and services this year, partnering with Farelogix on systems integration of Routehappy's Hub product to satisfy the requests of mutual customers. The company works with distributors and platforms including Expedia, Google, Kayak, Skyscanner and Sabre; and has also enjoyed success by powering content-rich brand platforms for airlines including Cathay Pacific, Delta, Emirates, Etihad, Icelandair, Lufthansa, Qantas, United and Virgin Australia.
But Routehappy is not alone in the experiential metrics space.
TripAdvisor has expanded its TripAdvisor flights reviews platform and is working to promote its use by airlines. Some have embraced the platform including: Air New Zealand, All Nippon Airways, Cebu Pacific, HK Express, Air Canada, Aer Lingus, AeroMexico, SWISS, Transavia and Virgin Australia.
Transavia has said it views the opportunity to engage with reviewers as a benefit of being active on the platform, an ideal complement to its social media strategy.
TripAdvisor also announced a new ‘Flyscore’ rating released as beta which is calculated based on itinerary and experiential factors, as well as an enhanced amenities listing on flight searches.
Your Objective is Rather Subjective
For TripAdvisor, the tricky bit is the screening of reviewers to ensure they’re legitimate. TripAdvisor as ever argues in favour of its contributor guidelines. Transavia, for one, plans to invite passengers to visit TripAdvisor and leave reviews and says that review-based engagement is core to its brand strategy.
Paul de Raad, head of marketing and eCommerce at Transavia, said:
“The airline review platform is consistent with the ambition of Transavia to become the most affordable, digital and accessible airline in Europe. Open and transparent communication plays an important role in this and this option allows our customers to write a review in an easy way while helping us to improve our product continuously.”
For Routehappy the challenge is the metrics themselves. The company promotes the service as wholly objective and algorithm based, a happy contrast to subjective and anonymous reviewers. But while Routehappy’s metrics are algorithm-sorted, they are fed by the data-gathering efforts of individuals trying to measure an abstract and subjective holistic experience with a ruler, albeit a supercharged digital slide rule.
The Long and Winding Route
Airlines may focus on maximising their ratings metrics and reviews while consumers inevitably use them as part of the purchasing process. But the role of ratings and reviews is not constant.
A Deloitte Democracy survey of consumer purchasing habits found that personal recommendations account for 81% of consumer purchasing decisions, including those from within social media circles (61%).
This might explain why Airbus made social shares the key recommendation focus of its new A380 booking engine.
The path to purchase is still a long and winding road and airlines and other travel suppliers can benefit from giving customers as many road signs as possible. Knowing about legroom and seat pitch, or what's on the IFE, might make the difference between a passenger choosing airline A over airline B.
Related reading from Tnooz:
TripAdvisor revamps its flights metasearch, adds Flyscore ratings (July 2016)
Farelogix and Routehappy will integrate their platforms for airlines (April 2016)