In more traditional times, booking an airline ticket involved one of three basic options. First, a customer could call the airline directly to speak to a customer service representative. The second option involved speaking to a travel agent over the phone or visiting with a travel agent at the local travel agent’s office. The third option required traveling to the local airport to purchase the ticket from a ticketing agent. All three of these options still exist today; however, many customers have opted to purchase their airline tickets from web-based services such as Expedia, orbitz, and Travelocity. In addition, the airline’s own websites such as united.com, singaporeair.com, and lufthansa.com have become popular methods to purchase airline tickets.There are many benefits for offering and purchasing tickets for sale via the web. From the company’s perspective, the web offers an additional distribution outlet that not only makes tickets more available to the public but also provides an additional means to communicate the firm’s promotional messages. Given the web’s self-service nature, additional ticket sales are obtained without the aid of customer service representatives, which in turn lowers the firm’s overall labor cost. For those customers that use the web for purely informational purposes, but still prefer to transact business with a “live” customer service representative, the web facilitates the efficiency of the purchase. After reviewing potential options on the web and conferring with family members and/or business associates, customers are more specific regarding their ticketing requests, increasing the speed in which the transaction can be completed.Customers also enjoy a number of benefits from using web-based services to purchase airline tickets. First, web-based services are typically readily available. There are no busy signals, no being placed on “hold” or waiting in line for one’s turn. Second, web-based services such as Expedia, Orbitz, and Travelocity all display a number of competing options in terms of price, schedule, and number of layovers for the same destination. In fact, new travel sites such as Kayak.com will display the search results from as many as five travel search engines simultaneously. Consequently, the customer’s information search abilities are greatly enhanced. Customers can also easily obtain information regarding the type of aircraft to be flown, select seat locations, and redeem frequent flyer miles if desired. Moreover, many of these services also provide ancillary services such as opportunities to purchase flight insurance, hotel and rental car accommodations, and even show tickets to select locations.

Discussion 

Questions1. Does the service characteristic of intangibility change once a service is placed on the web? Please explain. How can a service provider “tangibilize’ their service on the web?

2. Does the service characteristic of inseparability change once a service is placed on the web ?

3. Does the service characteristic of heterogeneity change once a service is placed on the web? Please explain.

4. Does the service characteristic of perishability change once a service is placed on the web? Please explain.