LCCs grow internationally in South America, Hotels struggle with data mining, National and Enterprise rank highest

Jetblue, Southwest and Spirit are increasing Latin American flights
JetBlue, Southwest and Spirit are flying where the major airlines have weak alliances; that means South America. But the going isn’t always easy, especially in Mexico City, where Delta and Aeromexico have an alliance that is effectively shutting out competitors from good slots with good flight times.
But, in other areas of South America, low-cost carriers offer more of a chance at competition.

On Thursday, Southwest Airlines opened a brand new international hub in Houston & said that they were going to double the number of destinations on offer from there to 12 by the end of this year. The airline has also planned to increase the number of destinations further by 2016.
Southwest is not the only airline that is doing this currently. In the last 5 years, JetBlue has nearly doubled the number of destinations they are calling from this region to 35. Even Spirit Airlines is considering increasing its flights from here.
An airline analyst, Jim Corridore, said Latin America was among the biggest growing areas for airlines currently.

Hotels will need to master digital user experience if they want to catch up to OTAs
Giving travelers what they want isn’t as easy as one might think. With so many different segments of travelers, hotels have a tough time working through the data. Online travel agencies (OTAs) have far more experience with computer data and sifting through it to offer customers what they want. That doesn’t make it easy for marketers at hotel chains.

OTAs see user experience as something that requires constant refinement. Currently, Expedia spends upwards of $650 million in technology and runs about 1,500 A/B tests per year. They’re also planning to invest billions in personalized web graphs.
These efforts to perfect user experience are being matched by close rival Booking.com, whose use of design has been held up as a shining example of “best practice” by Econsultancy. It has also dedicated an entire blog to coding and programming, which offers valuable insights on product design, software development and usability tests. No question, they take user experience seriously.
The OTAs’ consistent investment in technology and user experience is partially driven by consumers’ preference to book direct. To win the booking, OTAs need to offer a price that is cheaper or the same as the hotels’, while making the booking experience easy.

Corporate travel buyers rank National and Enterprise brands highest in car rental satisfaction
Between having one of the youngest rental car fleets in the industry and a focus on keeping customers happy, these two companies are leading polling results of a recent business traveler survey. The former No.1s and No.2s have been supplanted.

[A Business Travel News survey] asked corporate travel buyers about their perceptions and satisfaction levels with their travel suppliers. Respondents only evaluated those brands with which they had done a significant amount of business in the past year, and did so in seven categories: price flexibility; amenity and service flexibility; vehicle condition; complaint resolution; communication; and the relationship between account managers and sales representatives.
Among their responses, corporate travel buyers highlighted National’s Emerald Aisle and both brands’ commitment to customer service as differentiators. In fact, Business Travel News reported that one survey respondent said of National, “They are truly a partner that looks out for our best interest.”
Enterprise Holdings is the largest car rental service provider in the world as measured by revenue, employees and fleet. Through its regional subsidiaries, Enterprise Holdings operates the largest fleet of vehicles in the world – more than 1.7 million…