November 2008
8 posts
TravelFli's Big Move
Travelfli’s blogs have been sporadic as of late because we have been busy MOVING into our new digs on The Hill in Boulder, Colorado. For those of you who are not familiar with Boulder, The Hill is a neighborhood across the street from C.U. campus that quite possibly has the largest concentration of pizza parlors, sandwich places, and drunken college students in the entire state of Colorado....
Corporate Travel Managers Tighten The Belt
It’s interesting to observe how the economy is affecting travel, and in particular, the frequent flyer industry. Travelfli feels pretty lucky that our company is arguably recession resistant, in that our product becomes more valuable as beleaguered and cash-tight travelers look for ways to save money. That being said, it’s also worth taking a look at how corporations are tightening their belts as...
A Lesson in Analytics with Starwood
Travelfli met with Starwood Resorts on the second day of our trip to NYC. Starwood is one of the largest hotel and leisure companies in the world with over 897 hotels with approximately 275,000 rooms in approximately 100 different countries (according to their site). They’ve recently launched SPG flights, which in my opinion, revolutionizes hotel-based frequent flyer programs. With SPG flights,...
Guy Kawasaki Talks About TravelFli on Vator.tv
Travelfli was one of the featured companies on Vator.tv, a social network for technology start-up companies which gives entrepreneurs a platform to connect with Investors, Acquirers and Media. The Vator Box show was moderated by Bambi Francisco, Vator.tv co-founder and CEO. Travelfli was evaluated by Guy Kawasaki, author of newly-published Reality Check, venture capitalist and founder of...
Lunch with Jet Blue
JetBlue was founded in 1999 by several Southwest Airlines employees that sought to provide a low-cost carrier with high-value amenities such as Satellite Radio and in-flight entertainment. Today JetBlue flies to 52 destinations in 7 different countries. Each carrier is built out with individual TV’s at every seat offering 36 channels of DirectTV, 100 channels of XM satellite Radio, Fox TV programs...
Lots of News for Frequent Flyers
I am still playing catch up from taking a week off (not a good idea if you’re starting a company) to spend my 30th birthday deep in the Amazon! At some point, perhaps I’ll deflect from my normal banter about airlines and frequent flyer programs to talk about how I am a master piranha fisherman or how I caught a sloth and a caymen on the Amazon river!
Alas, we’re going to stay on...
Meeting with Hyatt
Boulder is the best place to start a company! I repeat these words every so often when somebody in the Boulder entrepreneurial community goes out of their way to lend a helping hand or make an introduction. It happens a lot, and it often occurs with no preemptive outreach on my part. This was the case a few weeks ago when John Ives emailed David Cohen with an introduction for the Travelfli Team....
Where The Travel Industry’s Going
Guest Blogger (Dan Vorlage)
There was an article a few months ago where a well-known journalist asked 4 or 5 airline marketing executives if they were considering charging a fee to use the lavatories on their planes. It’s ridiculous enough that the question was asked but it’s even more ridiculous that the executives humored the question. The travel industry’s changing quickly. Here are my...