JetBlue Airways is starting off 2012 with a new web and mobile strategy. The Forest Hills, N.Y.-based low-cost carrier just debuted its native iPhone app, along with redesigned web and mobile sites.

JetBlue is late to the game, but it has rolled out an app with high functionality despite its clean design. The airline developed its new digital strategy with the help of digital agency Rokkan, app developer DoubleEncore and the input of more than 15,000 customers.

The new app, available for download at the iTunes store, offers all the basics—booking, check-in and flight-status monitoring. Other features include weather reports for destination cities, and easy organization of past and upcoming trips. It also includes a virtual postcard tool and connectivity to social networks so users can share their travel experiences. In addition, travelers can scout in-flight amenities like snacks, beverages, movies and DIRECTV schedules.

JetBlue aimed for more personalization in designing its new platforms—what a user sees will depend on geo-targeting, booking history and any preferences they have entered into the TrueBlue rewards program. The website also includes a feature called “Pick Me Up” that allows users to not only share their itinerary with a friend in their destination city, but also to send that friend maps and traffic reports.

Travelers can expect to see better apps soon from other airlines, predicts Colleen Taylor writing at Gigaom.com. She points to a CNN story from last fall highlighting an Airline IT Trends Survey that found that more than 90 percent of carriers plan to increase their investment in mobile.

Photo: JetBlue

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Anyone with a few Facebook friends knows what a magnet the site is for vacation photos, updates gushing about newly discovered restaurants and gripes about poor service. It turns out that all of that sharing is much more than gloating—it is becoming a trusted trove of tips for other travelers, according to recent research by trip-insurance provider Mondial Assistance.

When it comes to deciding where to go and what to do, 60 percent of consumers rely on online word of mouth from travel review and social media sites, say results from Mondial’s Access America Vacation Confidence Index. Not surprisingly, the young and affluent are the most likely to look to the social web before booking. Three in four travelers under 35 use social media in their trip planning, compared to 44 percent in the over-55 demographic. And 79 percent of travelers with household income above $75,000 factor in online reviews, while just 46 percent of travelers making less than $25,000 do the same.

Uptake.com's Travel Q&A: using social media for travel planning

Lack of accountability on the web remains a turn-off for some, especially travelers over 35—just 54 percent say they trust other travelers’ reviews. And even among the under-35 set, there is room for improvement—70 percent say they find others’ online reviews trustworthy.

As for who is sharing about their travel experiences online, the Mondial survey says that about one in four travelers do so, with 18 percent favoring social networks and 8 percent posting on travel-review sites. And again, affluence and age are strong indicators of someone’s likelihood to take to the web when they take off on a trip. Thirty-five percent of under-35 travelers share their travel experiences online, compared to 20 percent of those 35 and older, while those with a household income over $75,000 are more than twice as likely to share as those making under $25,000 (36 percent vs. 15 percent).

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About half a year after offering its loyalty program members the chance to earn rewards by checking in on Foursquare, Starwood Hotels and Resorts has launched a similar program through
Chinese location-based clone site Jiepang.com.

Starwood's St. Regis Lhasa

By linking their Jiepang accounts to their Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) accounts, travelers can earn bonus points for check-ins at more than 200 hotels in the Asia-Pacific region. Every month, Jiepang’s SPG Mayor, the person with the most check-ins, will earn special program perks and a moment in the spotlight in the form of an interview running on the SPG Jiepang landing page.

Jiepang, founded in 2010, has 1.4 million users, making it much smaller than its U.S.-based counterpart, Foursquare (more than 10 million) or Chinese microblog service Weibo (over 300 million).

Starwood’s partnership with this year-old Chinese social media start-up accompanies big development moves in the country. About a dozen Sheratons opened in China in 2011, and Starwood hopes to operate 100 properties there by the end of 2012. The Sheraton brand should account for about half of those, and Starwood and other Western hotel companies are turning their development focus from China’s biggest coastal cities to second- and third-tier inland locations.

The move also follows a recent trend toward more careful consideration of Chinese travelers beyond the Asia-Pacific region. This summer, “Starwood Personalized Travel” and “Hilton Huanying” were launched to better cater to the needs of Chinese guests at select hotels within the Starwood and Hilton families. Mandarin-speaking staff, tea kettles in the rooms and congee at the breakfast buffet are some of the amenities, standard at mainland hotels, now increasingly available in places like New York, London and Mexico City.

Photo: Starwood, St. Regis Lhasa

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San Francisco’s Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system has had a very bad week. From August 11 to 15, it went from being a model for an efficient and responsible local transportation network to one that has been hacked and threatened with multiple civil-liberty lawsuits, and it faces an FCC investigation over public safety, among other things.

It began with a rumored protest planned for August 11 over the July 3 shooting of a man by transit police. The organizers of said protest were allegedly planning to co-ordinate their protests using mobile devices.

So BART decided to cut off cellphone service at some BART stations.

Per a BART-released statement on the wireless service interruption: “A civil disturbance during commute times at busy downtown San Francisco stations could lead to platform overcrowding and unsafe conditions for BART customers, employees and demonstrators. BART temporarily interrupted service at select BART stations as one of many tactics to ensure the safety of everyone on the platform.”

But that didn’t stop lawyers for the ACLU and Electronic Frontier Foundation from threatening BART with lawsuits for illegally disrupting cellphone service. BART was publicly being compared to Hosni Mubarak for shutting down communications and social networks.

The hacker group Anonymous decided to weigh in and show its disapproval of BART’s strong-arm tactics by hacking the myBART.org website and leaking the names, passwords and personal data of more than 2,000 BART customers.

The kicker, however, was that the original rumored protest on August 11 never happened. But after all the controversy over the cellphone shutdown, BART did get a real three-hour protest on Monday, Aug. 15, 2011.

Protesters marched from the Civic Center BART Station to the Port of San Francisco building. BART had to shut down four stations for about an hour. This time, it did not disrupt cellphone service.

As the icing on BART’s week from hell, the FCC stepped in and is investigating what effect BART’s decision to shut down cellphone service might have had on public safety.

To add to BART’s pain, its own workers’ union pitched in with a call to the California Public Utilities Commission, BART’s regulator, to investigate software glitches, public and employee safety, and working conditions.

An Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU 1555) statement notes that in the past three months, BART’s computer system has crashed and station agents and transit operators have been repeatedly put at risk during security emergencies.

“We don’t have the solutions, but we definitely know something is wrong right now,” said Antonette Bryant, president and business agent, ATU 1555. “The people who run BART have lost our confidence and are putting rider and employee safety at risk. We need a thorough investigation by an outside, independent regulatory agency to find answers.”

It’s ironic that none of this would have happened if BART hadn’t tried to put rider and employee safety above the protesters’ rights.

Photo – mcmees24

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