Drivers of airline loyalty: Evidence from the business travelers in China

This paper examines the key factors that determine business traveler loyalty toward full-service airlines in China. Based on literature review and panel interview, ten airline attributes under three categories were derived: (a) operational factors: safety, punctuality, and aircraft; (b) competitive factors: frequency of flights, schedule, frequent flyer program, ticket price, and reputation; and (c) attractive factors: in flight food & drinks and in flight staff service. We surveyed 2000 Chinese business travelers on domestic flights, obtaining 462 usable questionnaires. Hierarchical regression analysis reveals that reputation, in-flight service, frequent flyer program, and aircraft have the greatest influence in driving airline loyalty.     

Continental Airlines and China Southern Airlines Announce Strategic Partnership

Frequent flyer reciprocity to start in Septem- ber;coclesharing to start in November. Continental Airlines and China Southern Airlines.the largest airline in the People's Repub- lic of China.announced on June 18.2007 that they have entered into a strategic partnership for     

Living “up in the air”: Meeting the frequent flyer passenger

This paper uses a large database of approximately 37,000 passengers and three different estimates to analyse the characteristics of the frequent flyer and the differences between frequent flyers and occasional flyers. The results show that frequent flyers are middle-aged men with a high level of education who take domestic flights for business reasons at both hub and regional airports, where they make a purchase and/or consume F&B. Frequent flyers fly on both low-cost and traditional airlines, are more likely to stay overnight at a relative's or friend's home and travel to the airport by private or rented car.     

Impact of Guest Reward Programs on the Firms' Performance

ABSTRACT

This study investigates the commonly important variables that characterizes the reward programs of airline and hotel firms and measures the impact of reward programs on the firms' overall performance. This study focuses on examining the reward programs of two service industries, namely, airlines and hotels. The findings of this study are as follows. First, ten significant variables of the reward programs that differentiate their own program from the other and ultimately make consumers choose a particular program among various programs are derived and evaluated. T-test is employed to examine significant differences between the two ROE means for each of the ten variables. The variables that were significant were elite level qualification, affinity credit card, and award threshold were significant at the 0.01, 0.05, and 0.10 level, respectively. Second, the impacts of those influential variables on the firms' performance are measured. The three variables, purchasing miles or point, enrollment bonus, and award threshold are statistically significant at the 0.05 level. Purchase miles or points and enrollment bonus contributed significantly to the firms' return on equity (ROE), while the award threshold seemingly reduced the firms' earned ROE. Both the airline and hotel firms should be sensitive when establishing reasonable and attainable threshold levels for their customers. Customers generally turn away from high barriers and are more likely to select a program with less restrictions and conditions.     

The impact of store flyers on store traffic and store sales: a geo-marketing approach

This paper analyzes the impact of the composition of a retailers’ weekly store flyer on store performance. The paper presents and tests propositions on how a store flyer’s size, its average discount size, and the allocation of store flyer space to category and brand types, affects store traffic and sales. The moderating impact of location variables—socio-demographics of trading area inhabitants, characteristics of the store and competition—is also discussed and empirically tested. The outcomes provide key insights for retailers with regard to the financial ramifications of store flyer competition.     

The effectiveness of flyer advertising employing TMS： Key to scientific automobile sales innovation at Toyota

In this paper, the author shows the effectiveness of flyer advertising utilizing as a core technology Toyota Marketing System （TMS）. TMS is part of new JIT, which contributes to constructing a Toyota Sales Marketing System （TSMS）. This new TSMS is key to scientific automobile sales innovation at Toyota group dealers in Japan. This study describes the ＂flyer advertising effect＂, the ＂day of the week effect＂, and the ＂new car effect＂. Employing the Science SQC approach, these effects are acknowledged among those on the front lines of automobile sales as having a high level of investment efficiency and resultant customer traffic.     

Integrating frequent flyer programs in multilateral airline alliances

Forming branded alliances has become a common strategy in the airline industry. These can be defined as ‘multilateral alliances’ as opposed to bilateral alliances. Limited attention has been paid to assessing the impact of multilateral alliances on complex sub-networks, such as distribution networks, cargo alliances and frequent flyer programs. These sub-networks are ‘derivative networks’ within multilateral alliances. These derivative networks create several dilemmas as they evolve causing airline managers to confront fundamental questions regarding harmonization, conflict resolution, and organizational structure.     

Potential cost savings of frequent flyer miles for business travel

The mileage redemption strategy is a procedure used by many business firms to reduce air travel costs, in which the frequent flyer miles of traveling employees accumulated during business trips are applied to their future business trips to obtain “free” air tickets. This paper presents a framework that investigates how the frequent flyer miles can be used in the most effective way to reduce air travel costs by those firms that are either using the mileage redemption strategy or considering the use of the strategy. The framework can be implemented quite easily by a spreadsheet software such as Microsoft Excel.