Vol. 2: The Detail

ravel Research Case Study
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The School of Mobile Vol. 2 - The Detail Chapter 1 - The Travel Buying Cycle
Bri�sh Airways -

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Mobile takes off
rules, and created the messages. However an external party was
used to send the message. This is not a hugely different or more
complicated process than that associated with sending a context-
sensi�ve emails. BA have used the Txt no�fica�on system a lot
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for disrup�on no�fica�ons i.e. flight delays this was how the txt
no�fica�ons system started and the check in reminder has been
a fairly recent addi�on.
The usable net portal went live in September 08 and was
trialled with staff, some corporate customers and opened to
the flyertalk forum. This trial ran during October and the system
went officially live from November 1st 2008. BA have seen 200%
month on month growth through the portal since its opening.
In its first month it had around 12,000 visitors. In February 2009
this was nearer 98,000 visitors.
On choosing a partner
“We knew the market was there and we
BA are able to track what visitors are actually doing on the site. were convinced by the proposi�on but
Interes�ngly most people are not in fact checking in via mobile we were not happy with the technology
but are using it for flight informa�on. i.e. arrivals and departures.
approach taken up un�l that point. So
The biggest spike was in February when there was a heavy snow
we went back to the market and that
day at Heathrow. On that day there was a huge surge of people
is where we came across our current
looking at arrivals and departures.
supplier, Usablenet. We went through
a proposal process and they were the
winning firm. They have a web based
Internal innova�on: The iPhone applica�on process which scrapes your exis�ng site
and repurposes it on the fly and that
The BA iPhone applica�on allows you to check flight �mes, flight
seems to be working very well. This
statuses and lets you save favourite flights. This was rolled out
approach clearly gets around a lot of
while the Usablenet system was being built. However the app
the integra�on challenges faced. They
does link back to the BA.com systems.
talk mobile to the handset and online
to BA.com and sit in the middle and do
the transla�on. They do clever stuff with
The Apple app store launched in July and BA had their iPhone
JAVA and AJAX as well as basic HTML and
app ready to launch onto the store when it opened. This is due
this seems to work quite smoothly.”
to the work of two talented developers at BA. They thought
that the sound of the iPhone app store sounded quite cool and
started learning the technology. They had access to the BA web
BA’s mobile recommenda�ons
services and built an arrivals and departure app based on BA’s
• Make sure your target market is on
real �me upda�ng web service. In addi�on they built a �metable
mobile withregards to development,
app based on live �metable web service.
handsets and pla�orms.
This was all done before presen�ng the idea to management.
• Don’t expect mobile to be your primary
Once the demo was presented they were given the support they
channel, people will use mobile when
and as it is right for them.
needed, including access to equipment and a design team to
help them enhance the concept.
• Design for mobile, don’t just shrink
what you have to the small screen.
The App started using the internal web service but a recent
• It is not that expensive and not that
update added mobile online check-in. For this BA are re-using complicated. These are not valid
the Usablenet service and plugging the Usablenet programme
excuses for not engaging.
into the exis�ng iPhone app. To date the iPhone app has been
• Make sure you use a system that
downloaded around 170,000 �mes from iTunes.
is adaptable to your business and
products.
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