Hawaiian Airlines has unveiled a new website offering consumers “an unsurpassed level of personalised convenience to plan and book travel”. (3/27/2007)
The new features at HawaiianAirlines.com include a state-of-the-art vacation planning tool allowing travelers to quickly customise an entire itinerary -- a first in the airline industry; a new `dollar-mile toggle’ letting customers see a flight’s cost in dollars or miles in a single booking path; automatic application of special discounts for frequent flyers and a display of their current mileage balance on every page; an evocative design showcasing the beauty of Hawaii.
“Hawaiian has broken new ground with the website’s vibrant Trip Planner, which lets visitors create personalised itineraries to Hawaii or mainland gateway cities served by Hawaiian,” stated the airline.
Developed by Home&Abroad, the content rich, easy-to-use tool provides a comprehensive search and purchase function offering the leading hotels, rental car agencies, and activity providers alongside travel information from Frommer’s Travel Guides and Amazon.com.
Hawaiian’s president and chief executive officer Mark Dunkerley said “the new site’s intuitive interface, user feedback and interactivity make it the leading airline site in the current trend toward unprecedented levels of functionality known as `Web 2.0’.”
“We already had a highly rated website. This new launch and its next-generation features reaffirm Hawaiian’s leadership in airline e-commerce. We’re offering an entirely new approach to planning and booking travel that raises the bar for other airlines.”
He added that Hawaiian will be introducing other new features in the coming months, including:
- Single-screen view of the lowest fares or mileage awards over a three-month period.
- Purchasing roundtrip airfare by combining dollars and mileage awards.
- Booking hotel and car awards online using mileage awards.
- Purchasing upgrades online.
- Making reservation changes online.
- Customer content, ratings and reviews.
The site was created by frog design.
“By examining the needs of Hawaiian Airlines customers, we were able to redefine the way they book their vacation travel and create a truly immersive experience,” said Mark Rolston, senior vice president – creative, frog design. “Hawaii is such a unique and iconic destination, so it was crucial for us to incorporate a design language that could reflect this and leave a lasting impression both of the beauty of the islands and the quality of the Hawaiian Airlines brand.”
Hawaiian developed the site’s backbone in conjunction with Microsoft.
Chris Capossela, corporate vice president of Microsoft’s Business Division Product Management Group, said, “While many customers appreciate Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007’s personalisation capabilities for internal scenarios, Hawaiian uniquely draws on SharePoint Server’s strengths as an external web content management platform to customise their brand experience through their website, so that their customers experience Hawaiian’s brand in a unique and personal way.”
