Hotwire is amazing! (check out their email)

Posted on September 10, 2009 by Rishi Shah

My buddy Karan at PrepMe – told me Hotwire is the best place to book flights. I was a little skeptical until I tried out their Flexible Date Search. I am hooked. Hotwire is simply amazing and the best place to get cheap tickets.

Anyway I just got an email from them and love how they use my data.

THE SUBJECT IS BRILLIANT
I like how they say “For You, Rishi”. “For You” sounds personal. They capitalized the first letter in my name. Even though I always register as “rishi”. I like how they remembered that the last place I traveled to is “Chicago” and they mention it. They also mention the price right in the subject. $231 is a good deal.

The Subject does everything right. It totally got me to open the email.

Nice job on the personalized-yet-mass-produced-emails Hotwire!

Southwest Kiosks Get it – Is it a 0 or a O?

Posted on August 25, 2009 by Rishi Shah

I flew Southwest for the first time today. My confirmation number was N78O3A – I wasn’t sure if it was the letter O or the number 0. Lucky for me Southwest doesn’t even have the number 0 listed as an option to click on.

Good for them! They just saved me a few seconds of confusion. My guess is they had it and they took it out based on user studies.

We have been constantly making these types of improvements on Flying Cart

– Removing un required fields at the point of sign up
– Cutting out decisions you don’t have to take
– Giving less options and more “Just Do This!”