British Airways is to start the gradual roll-out of mobile boarding passes for routes across its network as part of the suite of tools for its upgraded smartphone apps.

The airline is celebrating the two-year birthday of its iPhone app by overhauling the existing service for Apple handsets and also launching the app for Android and Blackberry devices.

Mobile boarding passes will initially be available on the Heathrow to Edinburgh route, with the remainder of other domestic services added during August 2010.

Around half of BA’s international short haul routes will be added during the latter part of this year before attention turns to long haul destinations.

Head of digital Chris Davies says extending the mobile boarding card service is reliant on airports around the BA network accepting the process at security points and departure gates.

Functionality on the new version for iPhone (which will eventually be replicated for Android and Blackerry) includes integration with BA’s Executive Club system.

Users will be able to manage bookings, including mobile check-in, switching flights and amending passenger details, as well as access detailed information about services and airport information. BA’s Twitter feed of new and service updates will also be streamed into the app.

An alert system to notify users at airports when a departure gate opens will be added shortly, Davies says.

The Blackberry version of the app will include a sync mechanism with the device’s calendar to populate bookings into the user’s schedule.

Davies says the recently approved partnerships and mergers with American Airlines and Iberia respectively will see “a greater sharing of technology, expertise and experience” on projects such as mobile functionality.

British Airways is basking in the relative calm waters of reconvened talks with trade unions by launching upgraded in-flight web services on its business class-only route from London to New York.

The airline is hooking the announcement on giving passengers the ability to catch FIFA World Cup football and coverage of the Wimbledon tennis tournament, although with England and the USA both exiting the South African finals and the famous grass court competition almost over, perhaps the timing is slightly off.

Nevertheless, Airbus A318s flying the route from London City Airport to JFK have upgraded their entertainment systems to allow users to access information about the destination, book chauffeurs, access concierge services, monitor news and sport and view guides to local events.

The system works by allowing users to patch in to the on-board system powered by SITA’s OnAir platform on their own smartphones to access services via a British Airways-hosted portal.

Meanwhile, American Airlines is to allow passengers at London Heathrow to use mobile boarding cards to clear security and pass through boarding gates.

The move is the first time outside of the US (which has allowed mobile boarding cards at 41 airports with AA services since 2008) that passengers will be able to check-in online and receive a 2D barcode to use with airport officials.

The technology will also allow passengers to check bags in at the terminal using the same barcode on mobile handsets.

British Airways has quietly started testing a new map-based trip planning system this week giving users the ability to search for destinations based on holiday types.

The World Explorer product sits on a beta URL within BA.com, uses Google Maps for the interface and is the result of work carried out between BA and Adobe for their Flex web system.

Similar to the Amadeus Affinity Shopper project created in late-2009 and since adopted by Lufthansa, World Explorer allows users to discover routes on the BA network based on whether the destination is recommended for different holidays, including romantic, beach, culture, nightlife, food and family.

Users can select a single or combination of types and results are shown on the map. Routes can also be toggled by length of flying time and number of stopovers.

As well as showing where flight connections are required, BA’s codeshare and OneWorld routes are also included in the system.

Once a destination is selected, a pop-up content box appears with more information including a brief overview of things to do, events and suggested other cities.

Live fare prices are also included in the information with a link back to the BA booking engine to secure flights.

The system is still in its early stages and more content will be added to the destination pages over time. Photography used in the project was gathered from BA staff through a competition running on the company’s intranet.

Behind the now extremely bitter war between British Airways and the Unite trade union representing unhappy cabin crew is an increasingly fierce web campaign.

The saga took another twist today when the union managed to appeal against a previous ruling banning its latest series of strikes.

When the row between the pair started in late-2009 the trade union started feeding a number of social media channels including a Twitter account and YouTube page to post information to members, public and the media about its stance on the negotiations.

But with an already protracted stand-off between the pair now entering a very tense phase as next wave of strikes kick in, Unite has upped its digital battle against BA.

The rather amusingly titled (from a trade union perspective) Brutish-Airways.com website launched this week, including another video portraying a conversation between a cabin crew member and BA executive.

Now many would assume that a rather dull video clip going on about the intricacies of an industrial dispute wouldn’t be particularly popular -- but 53,000 views does appear to paint a different picture.

By all accounts British Airways CEO Willie Walsh is prepared to stand his ground in the dispute, so it is entirely unclear what the Unite union will do next with its web campaign.

The latest edition to the site, for example, is an automatic email which sends a pre-written letter to BA chairman Martin Broughton.

For its part, British Airways is regularly feeding its Twitter profile and YouTube channel with information and clips

UK carrier British Airways is not letting planned strike action thwart its ongoing mobile strategy and is gearing up for a significant ramping up of its efforts.

The airline will soon be celebrating almost two years since it became one of the first airlines to launch a mobile application for customers through the Apple iPhone, but is now preparing to unveil a raft of new functionality in a major upgrade of the app.

Officials say the new version will have a new services such as electronic boarding card facilities as well as a method of linking an account to the airline’s Executive Club loyalty points, a move it claims will be a first for a major airline.

Most importantly, perhaps, British Airways is also considering a fully functioning booking system through the app, although this has yet to confirmed for the planned upgrade of the existing system.

Mobile has become a major part of the wider BA.com digital strategy since its launched a mobile version of its site and the mobile app.

Around 20,000 users a day are using BA.com on a mobile device, officials say.

The BA.com iPhone app is currently in thirteenth position in the iTunes of free travel apps.

There has been a lot of talk lately about charging for additional service content by airlines. However I think the discussion somewhat misses the point.

There are very today a wide number of costs associated with content access. Let’s just examine what costs are charged out to an intermediary, highlighting three possible scenarios:

Scenario One – Conventional offline agency

• If I am a conventional travel agency with nothing of my own technology in place – then the traditional GDS model of no charges is largely in place. But (except for a few notable exceptions) all contracts have some kind of threshold cost associated with them. So to say there is totally “free” distribution even in this increasingly rare model is clearly not true.

Scenario Two – Consolidator offering B2B services (mostly Europe)

• A consolidator or any agency offering a re-distribution service is paying for technology to “facilitate” access to the content for themselves and their user community. These charges are now rising rapidly driven by two parameters – GDS transaction or technology costs and IT provider costs.

Scenario Three – Agency offering B2C services (including OTA)

• An OTA or any agency offering a booking engine is paying for technology to facilitate access to the content. These charges are now rising rapidly driven by two parameters – GDS transaction or technology costs and IT provider costs. Some of these costs can be quite high – Euro 4 per booking or Euro 2 per segment. These are not uncommon charges.

In addition to these three scenarios, I would also like to point out that all GDSs are now charging developers for “access and certification” type fees. Some of these fees are quite onerous. In turn this fee is charged out to users who are agents and consolidators.

The technology – call them “below the line” costs – are rising fast. This is a worrying trend for any intermediary. Let’s not kid ourselves – the GDSs are searching for ways to increase net revenues to compensate for increasingly high incentive fees and lowered/capped airline revenues.

We cannot ignore that access to content is often charged by intermediaries for content that is specific to some airlines. For example BA’s preferred distributer (Lime Management) in the UK charges a very high per transaction fee for issuing deep discounted tickets.

Finally some airlines – like Norwegian – openly charge for GDS-based sales. There are several airlines who are charging for access to their content via selected contents. Different models abound in different markets some within the same airline. We can all see the impact of the Lufthansa PFP program.

Therefore to say that this is a new phenomenon would be untrue. To say that it wont exist in many areas would be to deny a basic truth.

Ultimately we need to acknowledge that the days of homogenous one size fits all commercial models are dead. Anyone who states or even desires this needs to probably exit the business fast.

There are clearly owners of content charging (or offering a negative incentive) for access to this content. And in my opinion there is nothing wrong with this.

I might not like it, but it is the realistic way of the world. If you have a scarce resource you with raise the price or charge a premium for access to it.

As Cory Gartner said in The Beat last month (no open link available):

“We have agreements in place with agencies today where they do pay us for unique content that gives them a leg up on their competition.”

I do have a request which is for a manner of the charging. To any supplier or content owner – do not take all the value for yourself and be greedy.

Share the benefit of reduced cost and increased revenue with your business partners. As ancillary revenues are rolled out – it would behove the airlines to share in that nice revenue windfall. But agencies should also not be greedy!

On the surface, a partnership between Sabre and British Airways this week indicated that the airline would be handing over much of its airport customer handling technology to a new provider.

The deal sees BA use a product from Sabre Airline Solutions known as Qik Develop Tool which will allow airport employees to gather information about booked passengers and assist with terminal-to-aircraft workflow.

In short: rather helpful technology, it appears, to handle the multi-channel/platform systems now used by both people on the ground as well as customers.

Qik is already used by Lufthansa, South Africa Airways, Air New Zealand, Southwest Airlines and Thai Airways.

Kicking about behind the scenes, however, is Amadeus.

British Airways uses the Amadeus Altea Reservation and Inventory system as well as other technology to handle the airline’s existing Departure Control process.

The partnership, which has been in place as part of a wider IT agreement signed in March 2008 for ten years, will also see BA migrate its Departure Control and customer management technology to the Altea system.

Confused about how the Sabre system fits in, then?

It turns out that being developed alongside the existing Altea system is additional technology, namely the Qik system, to run “airport and ramp interfaces” – in other words: the passenger recognition system.

For its part, Sabre says:

“Sabre Qik Solution is one of many solutions we have developed to help airlines increase productivity, reduce costs and increase revenues. We are pleased that we can drive significant incremental value above what the airline uses today. It’s such flexible technology that it will adapt to any reservations system to create a custom point of sale and service for airlines.”

Amadeus adds:

“This agreement is the continuation of the strategic arrangement which started in 2000 between the two companies, designed to provide British Airways with a next generation technology platform for the management of passenger services.”

Who ever said technology simplifies the travel industry…

Much is made of how press trips have typically focused on traditional print and broadcast media journalists when showing off a new destination or product.

But in recent years travel bloggers have started to enter the minds of travel companies, especially as they often have tremendous influence through various social networks as well as their own sites.

Well, it appears that even British Airways is changing colours with its first ever press trip targeting travel bloggers this week on a jaunt to New York on its relatively new London City to JFK business-only route.

The airline is whisking away a handful of UK bloggers for two nights at the stylish Soho Grand in Manhattan, all expenses paid, including the journey from LCY to JFK (a service which stops in Shannon, Ireland, on the way).

When the route launched in 2009, BA made much of the technological prowess of the aircraft being used, an Airbus 318, which was retrofitted to include in-air web connection, email and SMS facilities.

So inviting a group of bloggers along on a trip (with two BA representatives to guide them) is a logical but fair undertaking, especially as many of them will be blogging and tweeting on the flight.

Mark Hodson of 101Holidays is one of bloggers on the trip. He says:

“A number of tourist boards and hotels have run group facility trips for bloggers – or included a blogger on a press trip – but this is significant because British Airways is a big player with – up to now – a traditional approach to PR.

“It’s a good fit because the new OnAir inflight communications system allows bloggers can broadcast their reactions live on Twitter. This kind of instant coverage doesn’t come so naturally to old-school journalists.”

Nevertheless, the issue of bloggers going on press trips has been a thorny one to address over recent years.

Some consider their craft, dare we say it, purer than that of those who attend regular trips throughout the year – namely, print and broadcast reporters – and want to stay away, suggesting that their writing should not be influenced by the charms of an expensive trip (a ticket on the BA flight to NYC, for example, costs in the region of £4,000 return).

Such has been the ire on some blogs when the subject has come up that it has polarised not only the blogging community but also mainstream journalists, triggering wider discussions about the merits of press trips.

No doubt BA doesn’t really care too much about the controversies such trips can lead to (although it will be interesting to see how much additional TLC will be afforded the attendees).

So, finding out who else in on the trip was difficult, with the editor of TravelRants, Darren Cronian, who tweeted his involvement last week, the only other writer alongside Hodson admitting their presence.

Disclosure: This author was invited at the last minute… but declined the offer.

Just when flights were getting back to normal following the European volcanic ash drama, British Airways has been forced to defend complicated methods used to get passengers home.

Some passengers have called into question the airline’s practice of hiking up prices of empty seats on flights despite thousands of passengers remaining overseas and still unsure as to when they can get home.

It turns out that the BA reservation system used to sell and allocate seats is to blame, forcing the airline to use a convoluted process to ensure it can re-assign places to stranded customers in places as widespread as Antigua/St Kitts, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Dubai, Delhi, The Maldives, New York and Sharm el Sheikh.

BA is unable to remove available seats from the system and hand them out to those stuck around the world.

This is because it has agreements with various intermediaries -- namely, travel agents in the business and leisure sector and other airlines -- to keep empty seats open on the system.

To get around this the airline has simply put up the price of each seat to (hopefully) put off agents from re-selling the fare.

A BA official is unable to confirm how much tickets were raised, but says it was “substantial”. Reports have suggested some fares were increased to as high as £4,700.

The airline has denied the inevitable accusations of profiteering.

An official continues:

This was the only technical solution we had available to us to help rebook as many of our own customers as we possibly could onto each flight.

But fearing a PR backlash -- on top of the countless other problems the airline has faced in recent months -- chief executive Willie Walsh even posted a video to YouTube last night to explain the issue.

Consumers looking to redeem sometimes-wasting away airline miles are finding a few more options on Points.com these days.

Points International, which operates the reward-program management website, upped its 2010 revenue guidance and pointed to new or pending agreements with British Airways, Delta SkyMiles, Alaska Airlines and AirTran Airways as contributing to the strengthened forecast.

Points.com enables consumers to track their loyalty programs, transfer points in some instances and redeem airline miles.

Points International, based in Toronto, says transaction activity climbed 33% in the first quarter of 2010 compared with the year-earlier period, leading to a buffed up 2010 revenue forecast of $85 to $95 million. The prior forecast for 2010 was $75 to $85 million.

The company cites the following new, enhanced or pending agreements with airlines as contributing to its rosier portrayal of the business.

• Points.com recently launched transfer functionality for British Airways. This means consumers can transfer loyalty currency to another Points.com member, usually to a family member or friend.
• In April, Points.com implemented new functionality for Delta SkyMiles, enabling the sale of miles.
• Points.com says it is working on bringing two new partners, AirTran Airways and Alaska Airlines, into the fold.

Points International says it also is readying the relaunch of Points.com, another factor contributing to its increased revenue outlook.