Deals: CheapOair Flights Deals

Posted by Gudrun Helga Hamar - 25/11/08 at 10:11:35 am

New fares for US travelers from CheapOair:

• Cheap fare to Las Vegas starting at $91
• San Francisco airfare starting at $98
• Atlanta deals starting at $118
• Low air ticket to Ft. Lauderdale starting at $126
• Airfare sale to Miami starting at $158
• Guadalajara airfare starting at $219
• Airfare sale to London starting at $396
• Low air ticket to Amsterdam starting at $506
• Rio De Janeiro airfare starting at $674
• Low air ticket to Shanghai starting at $846

Read more at: cheapoair.com

The birth of Meta Search Optimization – MSO –

Posted by Frosti Sigurjonsson, CEO - 17/11/08 at 12:11:38 am

Meta Search Optimization (MSO) is a brand new term used to describe actions that travel vendors can undertake to get more leads from meta search sites and improve conversion rates of the leads. SEO was the focus of my talk at the World Travel Market in London last week.

Travel comparison sites or travel meta search engines have already grown to become a significant source of qualified leads for online travel businesses. Every month, travel meta search sites like Kayak, Dohop and Skyscanner help more than ten million people find travel services. Meta search sites are growing fast and some expect them to reach 100 million monthly users in just a few years from now.

Travel meta search has only been around for a few years and the technology is still being improved. The next challenge for these sites is to take in more product features and help consumers compare products based on quality.

Until now, travel comparison sites have focused on price and a few basic product features. They can easily find the cheapest flight between Paris and Tokyo leaving around noon on a given date. But as of now, they don’t have enough information about the quality of the flights. A traveler may be ready to pay a bit more for a ticket if it includes 2 luggage pieces, a meal and legroom of at least 40 inches.

It is in the interest of both suppliers and consumers that meta search engines start including more product features in their comparison. But, if this is to happen, suppliers must make product details available to meta search engines. Today, most suppliers rely on meta search engines “scraping” their website for prices and basic product features, only a few suppliers have set up APIs or web services for meta searchers to use. Unfortunately, these web services offer simply price and very basic product information. This has to change.

As soon as suppliers make more detailed product information available in web services, meta search engines will quickly adapt their comparison systems to include the extra information. Suppliers that start doing this early will benefit longer, attract more leads and be able to sell their product at higher prices.

In time, standards will emerge for publishing of product features. Until then, my advice to suppliers is simply to start publishing product features their own way. Meta searchers will adapt. 

There is one more thing travel suppliers can do to get more business out of meta search and that is to optimize the reception of leads transferred from meta search engines.

Just a few years ago, most visitors to an e-commerce website would enter through its home page and start shopping. Today, a large and growing proportion of visitors arrive having already selected a product and are ready to complete the purchase. Many travel sites ignore this and make the visitor wade through material and choices that detains him from completing his purchase. This will reduce his chances of completing the purchase.

Travel e-commerce sites differ greatly in their ability to convert a qualified lead. At Dohop, we see some airlines consistently attain 20% conversion rates while others barely convert 2%. A factor of ten! Much of it has to do with the way these airline sites handle their incoming leads. 

To sum up, Meta Search Optimization (MSO) is about making product details and quality available to meta search engines and handle leads that are ready to complete a purchase properly.

Deals: KLM’s special global deals for November

Posted by Marcus - 05/11/08 at 07:11:35 am

Selling: 01 November 08 – 30 November 08 (USA up to 11November 08)
All fares are inclusive of taxes and charges. Terms and Conditions apply.

Deals from London

• Nairobi     From £402 Return
• Cairo       From £325 Return
• Shanghai    From £408 Return
• Seoul       From £512 Return
• Sao Paolo   From £552 Return
• Dubai       From £305 Return

London Direct Routes

• Detroit     From £442 Return
• Minneapolis From £409 Return
• Seattle     From £352 Return

Other Offers

• Manchester – Hong Kong       From £428 Return
• Birmingham – Mumbai          From £425 Return
• Glasgow – Beijing            From £459 Return
• Durham Tees Valley – Osaka   From £552 Return
• Leeds Bradford – Aruba       From £667 Return
• Edinburgh – Abu Dhabi        From £316 Return
• Humberside – Muscat          From £358 Return
• Bristol –  Johannesburg      From £501 Return
• Cardiff – Saint Maarten      From £675 Return
• Aberdeen – Houston           From £384 Return
• Newcastle – Cape town        From £548 Return
• Norwich – Dar es Salaam      From £514 Return

Christmas Markets in Europe:
Berlin, Brussels, Cologne, Copenhagen, Munich, Nuremberg,
Prague, Tallinn, Vienna

Prices to all the above destinations;

• Return From London/Bristol Cardiff – £149
• Return From Birmingham Manchester – £159
• Return From Newcastle Leeds/Glasgow Edinburgh – £169
• From Aberdeen/Durham Tees/Humberside/Norwich – £179

Read more at KLM

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