Review of Wotif's new flight tool Wotflight.com.

I was excited to see the launch of the wotflight.com site yesterday because it’s great to see some innovation coming into the online sector from large companies.

Often big players that are really good at one thing are reluctant to move out of their comfort zone and risk trying something new.

So well done to Wotif for not becoming a staid and boring big company.

The issues i see now facing the company are two-fold:

1. the risks that come with brand extension
2. the challenge to become as good at flight comparison as it is at hotel comparison.

Let’s start with the risks brand extension brings.

If someone doesn’t like Wotflight will that reflect negatively on the Wotif brand?

Wotnews is ok because it’s a different category (i.e. not travel) and Wotif.com users are not being asked nor necessarily likely to use Wotnews.

Richard Branson was very careful to have his various businesses in non-related categories i.e. music, airline, credit cards, mobile, trains, finance etc. So if Virgin Mobile fails I don’t give a rats, because I don’t associate the Virgin Blue brand because they are different categories.

Another good example is Toyota. Instead of line extending into luxury cars, it created a new brand called Lexus.

Compare that to VB, which extended its brand into VB light. So now when I go into a bar and ask for a VB, I get asked “is that normal or light” and the company’s sales have suffered as a result.

So is Wotif line extending? I think it is.

Will it backfire on the Wotif.com brand? I dont think so, given the lack of innovation in the online travel sector, consumers are on the look out for something new. Provided the same principles are applied that made Wotif successful, then it should work, but will not become a brand champion, rather a handy tool and likely profitable line extention. But this is really new territory for the company and its brand.

Personally after reviewing the Wotflight.com comparison site, I love the simple look and feel and like the results screen design. But there are two areas I think need immediate attention:

1. the luggage option drop down menu lacks Velocity Silver and Gold 

• Solve this and Wotif opens the site up to an extra 8 million frequent flyer members (including me).
• It also means I get 23kg checked baggage for free, as I do if I book direct with Virgin Blue. Instead, Wotflight forces me to pay $20 extra. (It’s the same deal with Qantas frequent flyer on QF and Jetstar).
• In the booking below, for example, I should pay $163.95 ($20 less than quoted). Of course if I book direct with Virgin Blue I only pay $147 in total because I avoid the $16.95 booking fee (admittedly Wotif is offering a $10 Wotif voucher to offset some of the fee).

Virgin Velocity Silver and Gold members get charged $20 extra for luggage.

No booking fee on Virgin Blue and 23kg free checked baggage for Velocity Silver

2.     I applaud the innovation, though I think they’ve tried to be a little too clever with the results screen.

• Do I compare by time, price or airline?
• Personally I look at price first, then time range, then airline. Finally I make a selection based on a balance between all three. (for example: I’ll pay a little more for Virgin than Jetstar and leave a little earlier to pay less)
• There is way too much blank space, for my liking.
• A price needs to be tied to a date/time and then brands (ideally side-by-side). The Wotif matrix allows for price, date, and hotel brand to be easily cross referenced.
• The Wotflight matrix doesn’t allow simple cross reference of price, time and airline comparison, given i need to scroll down to see the other airlines in a price range. 
• I’m guessing they’ll tweak it. I moched up a slightly changed alternative, that bunched brands side-by-side based on fare categories.  
• This way I can instantly see a comparison of the lowest prices from all airlines and see if the times suit me.  If times suit me, i select and I’m done.
• If times dont suit me then I work my way up to higher fare categories and better fitting times. (but im sure there would be issues with this approach too, but my point is that i think it can be improved)

Wotflight results screen. Brave and innovative, cool. More work on brand comparison needed.