Viewing the Northern Lights is an Awe-Inspiring Experience. See “Travel Aspirations” at the bottom of this post.
Photo Credit: Jerry MagnuM Porsbjer
New Delta Safety Videos Break Through Frequent Flyers’ Filters
I used to teach university marketing communications classes. In one of the early lectures we would discuss a human communications model. The model includes perceptual filters that we humans use to tune out most of the routine data coming in through our sense organs. These filters are necessary for us function normally, without sensory overload, in our typical environments. The creative agencies that produce advertising know that they must break through those filters to get their message across. They use tools like novelty and humor to get and hold our attention.
Look around during airline safety briefings and you will see that large numbers of your fellow passengers are ignoring the presentation. It is in the airlines’ best interest to get passengers to pay attention to and remember safety information. To break through frequent flyers’ filters, airlines are turning to creative production companies.
Delta commissioned ad agency Wieden+Kennedy to produce a rotating series of new safety videos that use humor and novelty. I viewed the first two of these videos on a round-trip flight last weekend. They’re pretty effective. I paid attention to both videos from beginning to end and so did most of my fellow passengers.
Some of my favorite bits to watch for: strange carry-on items, “no cartwheels” and “no chainsaw juggling” placards, a man with two left feet, and a cameo by Abraham Lincoln in video 1.
Video 1
Video 2
Travel Briefs
Industry, Online and Trends
- A very cool new website can tell you how to get TO anywhere, FROM anywhere AND it includes all the air, ground and water transportation modes necessary to get you from door to door. Rome2Rio
- Airlines aren’t the only travel industry making their profit from ancillary fees. Skift
- Hipmunk Relaunches an improved Hotel Search built on MapBox. MapBox
- US travel booking site ranking: CheapOAir moves ahead of Travelocity.Tnooz
- 3 Web apps that make Google Street View seem amazing again. Tnooz
- Initially optimistic about taking its Flight Search global, Google is now more cautious. Tnooz
- Clip the Trip reaches out to the local crowd for travel guides. Tnooz
Airlines
- What are the germiest places on an airplane? Ummm…Just travel with hand sanitizer. Your body will thank you. USAToday
- Like a frugal car owners who save money by buying used vehicles, Delta saves money by buying used planes. Wall Street Journal
- U.S. airline mergers have resulted in decreased competition, near capacity flights and higher fares. An op-ed piece in the New York Times advocates allowing foreign carriers to fly within the U.S. to restore some competitiveness to the market. New York Times
- Priceline-Kayak deal: Airlines are the winners (again). Tnooz
- Airlines’ on-time performance rises to best level since 2003. New York Times
- RyanAir’s CEO insists that airplane seatbelts “don’t matter”… IndependentTraveler
Hotels
- Why staying at a hostel is a better experience than staying at a hotel- no matter what kind of traveler you are. ExtraPackOfPeanuts
- Yangon, Myanmar is one the fastest growing hotel markets in the world. Skift
- Study finds that nearly half of all online hotel reviews are bogus. Skift
- Forget flights, Google is quietly adding new features to Hotel Finder as rivals look on (and advertise). Tnooz
- LobbyFriend app enables hotel guests to socialize. Tnooz
Analyses
- Mobile boarding passes taking hold for planes, trains and automobiles. Skift
- Social travel by numbers [INFOGRAPHIC]. Tnooz
Travel Advice
- Bag fees got you down? Hate carrying all your baggage? Learn to travel with just one bag, and make your trip so much simpler! OneBag
- Don’t be one of these people! The average American ends the year with 9 unused vacation days! Skift
- Top iPhone and iPad travel apps for the busiest travel week in U.S. Skift
- 3 Travel Apps You Should Never Leave Town Without: TripIt, Hotel Tonight and Dark Sky. Huffington Post UK
- Beware Two-Ticket Air Trips. SmarterTravel
Experiences
- Love to travel by train? Here are the world’s most fantastic train journeys… Departures
- The top least-visited countries on the planet: Which ones have you been to? Skift
- Now that Washington legalized pot, can we look forward to “pot tourism”? NBCNews
- The Top 10 “Weirdest” restaurants in the world. Want to eat in a toilet? Here you go… Cheapflights
Travel Aspirations:
Amazing 16 Gigapixel View of Machu Picchu. Be sure to zoom and pan.
See the Northern Lights in Alaska. From personal experience, I can say that viewing an evolving aurora borealis is an awe-inspiring experience.
Shout out
A big shout out to new TCTReview collaborator Denise Jones, who helped curate the links for this post.
TravelTekker 
