2009 News - Flights - Monarch’s new Travel Buddy – don’t leave home without it
15 12 2010
Award winning low fares airline, Monarch continues to enhance and streamline its customer offering by signing a three year partnership deal with market leading mobile travel content supplier Travel Buddy and launching Monarch Mobile.
Customers booking Monarch flights will now be able to sign up via www.monarch.co.uk and purchase a selection of mobile services from Travel Buddy which will be tailored to their specific destination and travel plans*. Services will include SMS flight alerts as well as pre-packaged destination content, which will ensure that a customer is always in the know as to what’s happening in their destination - where they should go, what they should do, where they should eat and even what the weather forecast is whilst they are away. Depending on the Monarch Mobile package chosen by the customer, this information will also be available on a personalised mobile internetsite, so details can be downloaded at any time prior to travel.
The service has been developed to integrate into monarch.co.uk, and within the customer booking process, and will enable customers to ‘opt-in’ to receive a selection of relevant pre-flight text messages and specifically designed Mobile Destination Guides. Travel Buddy’s ‘Broadcast System’ will also be used widely for administrative, marketing and operational purposes, such as notifying customers of rescheduled flight times due to weather problems ie snow-closure of airports.
Commenting on the introduction of Monarch Mobile, managing director of Monarch Flights and Holidays, Liz Savage said, “Monarch is committed to providing an exemplary level of care and service to all its customers, right from the first time a customer makes contact with us through until their travel is complete. Throughout a customer’s experience with Monarch we aim to maintain contact with them and make their journey as seamless as possible. The addition of Monarch Mobile will assist us in doing this and will enable us to contact customers with relevant, tailored communications at appropriate times throughout their journey”.
Also commenting on the partnership, Jason Rivolta, Commercial Director at Travel Buddy said “Mobile is the future of communication in travel. In the same way that the internet has become integral to the communication process over the past fifteen years, mobile will become as important over the next fifteen and more importantly, it is available now. Signing up to the Travel Buddy service will enable Monarch to offer an enhanced level of customer service and start to generate new ‘Offboard’ revenue opportunities for those passengers using the Monarch Mobile Destination Guide.
Monarch operates scheduled flights to Spain, Gibraltar, Portugal and Cyprus from Birmingham, London Gatwick, London Luton and Manchester airports. In addition to year-round low fares, Monarch also offers a unique range of tasty hot and cold food onboard with prices from £2.00. To enable customers to select where in the cabin they sit and ensure that families and groups sit together, seats can be pre-booked at £7.50 per one-way flight, or from only £15, extra-legroom seats are available, which offer up to six inches of extra space.
Passengers travelling on scheduled flights can also avoid the queues at the airport and take advantage of online check-in which is available between seven days and 4.5 hours prior to departure.
In addition to flights, Monarch also now offers a huge range of great value holidays, accommodation options, car hire and travel insurance.
For further information or to book Monarch flights, Monarch Holidays or Monarch Hotels, please visit www.monarch.co.uk.
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* Monarch Mobile is available to all customers travelling on a scheduled Monarch flight,
Notes to editor
Three Monarch Mobile packages are available to purchase –
· Mini- mobile – flight related messages received on the day of departure relating to their flight – check-in details, departure times, delay information etc. Priced at £2.
· Maxi- mobile – as above but also includes travel tips, emergency numbers, weather and key information specific to their destination. Priced at £3.
· My-mobile – as per Mini-mobile plus a personalised mobile web link which provides all of the content available via Maxi-mobile but enables the customer to store information and create their own itinerary which can be referred back to at any time whilst away. Priced at £4.
· Monarch Mobile (Mini-mobile) will be available free to all Monarch Vantage Club members for one week after launch.
· Monarch Mobile is purchased on a per-trip basis, so a customer will need to sign up each time they travel.
· Mobiletrails Ltd is the owner of Travel Buddy and is a privately held limited company.
· Travel Buddy is a mobile communication company set up in 2006 to provide an interface for tour operators, airlines, travel agents, TMC’s OTC’s and tourist organisations to communicate with their customers for operational, promotional, sales, marketing and service requirements.