Spot the difference between the following two statements:

December 4, 2013:  “The Best Flights brand and operation are highly valued and integral to Helloworld. Helloworld can confirm it is not losing or closing the Best Flights brand.”

January 23, 2014:  “Farewell Bestflights.com.au and Bestcruises.com.au. From February 1 Bestflights.com.au and Bestcruises.com.au will direct you to helloworld.com.au. Like the last day of a nice long holiday we feel that little sense of passing history.”

A bigger contrast between two announcements, issued just seven weeks apart, you’ll be hard pressed to find.

No sooner had Helloworld insisted it was not closing Best Flights, after declaring it was “highly valued and integral” to the wider business, than a message appeared on the Best Flights website informing customers that it was, indeed, the end of the road.

From February 1 – tomorrow – Bestflights.com.au and Bestcruises.com.au will be swallowed by Helloworld.com.au with all traffic redirected to the new site.

It’s an extraordinary about turn, and a decision that has left many in the industry, including managers within Helloworld, more than a little perplexed.

One former travel executive I spoke to branded it the oddest decision they have witnessed in their lengthy career in the industry, while Webjet non-executive chairman David Clarke probably spoke on behalf of all Australia’s online travel businesses, when he said: “We’re absolutely delighted.”

As well he might be.

Another executive said there was “widespread surprise” in the online industry.

Best Flights has been around for 13 years having been founded by Gary Elliott back in 2001. During that time it has become well established in the online space and built strong consumer awareness, a loyal following and respected technology. 

It generates revenues of around $180 million, has been consistently profitable and is the fifth most visited online travel retailer in Australia. According to its website it handles 400,000 calls each year, has 75,000 Facebook fans and 5000 Twitter followers.

And it’s being shut down. Go figure.

It's a high risk strategy. Helloworld will be clinging to the hope that Best Flights customers will immediately take to the new website when they are redirected, starting tomorrow. It must hope the public are convinced by the technology, the site layout, functionality and service levels of the new platform.

Second chances in the online world are rare. If the consumer suffers a bad experience, the chances are you will lose their business. In Best Flights’ case, $180 million worth of business.

Yet according to one veteran of the online industry, redirects “just don’t work”, particularly to a site and company the consumer is unlikely to have heard of. Let’s not forget, Helloworld is in its infancy and has next to no public awareness, at least not yet.

“Consumers will tap in Best Flights and be taken somewhere completely alien to them. Quite simply, you are not dealing with the brand you have been dealing with for years and the brand that you have come to trust,” he said. “It’s a habit breaker. Traffic will be scattered to the wind.”

Consumers become familiar with a site, they know what they are dealing with, they know where to find what they are looking for. To all intents and purposes, despite all the rhetoric about ‘same great company, same great staff, same great deals’, consumers who have been loyal to Best Flights, or Best Cruises for that matter, will be faced with a completely different proposition.

It is almost inconceivable that Helloworld was not contemplating the closure of Best Flights when it issued that unequivocal statement of December 4 in which it stressed the brand would not be closing.

Be that as it may. Helloworld is not the first company, and it won’t be the last, to disseminate disingenuous information. And people wonder why journalists are so cynical?

What must staff be thinking? A glimpse at comments posted on the Travel Weekly website will give you the answer. If statements issued to Travel Today did not present an entirely accurate picture, then remarks apparently made to staff were also misleading.

Of course, Travel Today was not privy to discussions and meetings held between senior Helloworld management and staff. To that end, it is hard to know precisely what employees were told in the confines of Best Flights’ Leederville offices.

But furious comments on our website suggest a significant disparity between what was promised and the dead-end position in which the brand now finds itself.

Best Flights would be run in parallel with Helloworld, staff were allegedly told, and given “all the opportunity and support it needs”. Some support that turned out to be.

Clearly there was a re-think somewhere down the line – assuming Helloworld ever had the intention of retaining Best Flights – and clearly staff feel let down. And who can blame them?

Business leaders are paid huge salaries and bumper bonuses to make tough decisions, and some of those will be criticised. Not that chief executives are in business to win popularity contests, which is just as well.

But ditching Best Flights must go down as one of the more curious business decisions of recent times.