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INDUSTRY NEWS & PEOPLE  January 2004
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AirPlus Opens Hong Kong HQ
AirPlus International has opened a regional headquarters in Hong Kong, expanding the Asian presence of its international travel management and corporate payment systems and bringing the company closer to its goal of creating a global network. The key element of AirPlus’s corporate travel payment system is the AirPlus Company Account, lodged at the corporate customer’s travel agency. This invoicing system guarantees high quality data while maintaining transparency of travel expenses. The AirPlus Information Manager enables customers to create improved customized reports for analyzing their global travel expenses.
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AirTran Puts Itinerary Changes Online, Offers Some Fee Waivers
AirTran Airways has beefed up its web site with new customer-friendly capabilities that will allow its customers to retrieve, change or cancel their reservations via the Internet. Reservations may be canceled or changed up to one hour before departure time. Fees will be waived if they are made within four hours of the original booking.
To retrieve and view any reservation that was made using a credit card, customers log on and provide the confirmation number, passenger's first and last name, origin and destination of the flight, and credit card number. Changes can be made to the full flight itinerary or to a single segment, as well as to travel dates, fare class and seat assignments. The number of passengers or passenger names cannot be changed.
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American Express Unveils New Corporate Hotel Program
American Express Corporate Travel has unveiled plans for its new corporate hotel savings program, in which participating hotels will offer its customers discounted rates designed to fluctuate with the market and compete with other channels’ unrestricted rates. The new program, designed in response to travel managers’ growing difficulty in keeping travelers from making rogue bookings on random web sites, replaces the Worldwide Select Hotel program, and goes into effect Jan. 1.
It will offer consistently low rates, with no strings attached. In contrast, many web-only hotel rates require pre-payment, entail full or partial penalties, or are only valid with a minimum number of room nights. In most cases, participating hotels will offer additional amenities, such as free breakfast, parking, local calls or access to a fitness center.
The American Express rates will be updated as needed, in some cases daily, as market conditions change.
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American Express, Air Canada Co-brand Card, Loyalty Program
Air Canada and Amex Bank of Canada have agreed to a co-branded charge card and membership rewards plan, subsequent to receiving approval from the court overseeing Air Canada's restructuring. The co-branded cards will be come available in early 2004.
American Express will provide Air Canada with an $80 million cash advance, repaid as Aeroplan Miles are purchased. In addition, American Express committed to provide on-going marketing support throughout the term of the contract.
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At AirTran, It’s Out With The Old And In With The New
AirTran Airways’ last DC-9 made its final flight on Jan. 5, two days before the airline announced that XM Satellite Radio would be its new in-flight entertainment system. Installation of the new service, which will be free to all passengers, begins in the summer. Each seat in AirTran’s entire fleet of 717 and 737 aircraft is expect to be equipped with the system by the end of the year.
AirTran is the first airline to launch the digital satellite radio service, which offers up to 100 digital audio channels including live news, sports, weather, talk and music programming.
The end of the DC-9 fleet leaves AirTran with one of the youngest all-Boeing fleets worldwide. The 32-year old DC-9 rolled off the Douglas assembly line in Long Beach, Calif., on Dec. 1, 1971; it was acquired by AirTran in October 1996. AirTran now operates a fleet of 73 new Boeing 717s. Another 10 are on order, as are 100 Boeing 737s. Delivery of the first 737 is scheduled for June 2004.
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BA, Iberia Win EU Approval To Deepen Cooperation, With Strings
oneworld partners British Airways and Iberia Airlines have received approval by the European Commission to deepen their cooperation, gaining the European equivalent of anti-trust immunity. The approval exempts the two airlines from legislation to regulate joint selling and network planning, coordinating capacity and pricing, and profit-sharing or other economic cooperation in their passenger activities.
The ruling, which also applies to British Airways franchisee and oneworld affiliate GB Airways, follows three months of consultation. As is normal in these cases, it applies for an initial six years.
Among the conditions set for the approval, the airlines have undertaken to provide sufficient slots at London Gatwick and Madrid airports to allow a competitor to operate a maximum of four daily return services between the two airports; slots at London Gatwick for a competitor to operate one daily return service to Bilbao and, subject to growth demand, daily return services to both Seville and Valencia. They have also agreed to enter into an interline and frequent flyer agreement with a competitor, if requested, covering services between London and these four Spanish cities and to freeze their frequencies on these routes and on London-Barcelona for two seasons after any transfer of slots.
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British Airways Makes 3-year Commitment To Sabre
Sabre Travel Network has announced that British Airways has joined its Direct Connect Availability (DCA) three-year option. This program commits the carrier to a three-year term in the Sabre global distribution system (GDS) in exchange for a reduced booking fee, fixed for the term of the agreement. All BA’s published fares (i.e., excluding opaque fares and discount agreements) will be available through the Sabre GDS.
British Airways is the first major European carrier to participate in the program. Its decision brings to 24 the number of airlines participating in the DCA program, which also includes all six major U.S. carriers. The airline has also recently joined a similar program offered by the Galileo GDS.
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Business Travel Almanac Published
Que Publishing has released the Business Travel Almanac, a combination of travel advice, reference material, directory information, and city guides, presented in two sections. The first contains information about travel in general, including airline comparisons, hotel details and rental car options. The second section focuses on 15 major U.S. cities that are common destinations for business travelers. Each segment includes airport and city maps, restaurant reviews, stores that provide business services, convention center information, etc. The cities covered include: New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Detroit, Boston, Dallas, Washington DC, Houston, Atlanta, Miami, Seattle, Phoenix and Las Vegas.
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Cendant Launches RateManager For Fast, Accurate Rate Loading
Cendant's Travel Distribution Services Division has launched EasyAccess Plus - RateManager, designed to make hotels’ loading of negotiated rates faster and more accurate on all four GDSs. It also can be used to modify and delete rates across an entire portfolio of hotels in minutes.
The web-based application allows hotels to "mass transfer" their rate information simultaneously to multiple GDSs through one entry point. Clients are now able to create a profile of specific negotiated rate codes at the chain level, which can then be transferred and activated at the property level.
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Cendant Launches RateManager For Fast, Accurate Rate Loading
Cendant’s Travel Distribution Services Division has launched EasyAccess Plus - RateManager, designed to make hotels’ loading of negotiated rates faster and more accurate on all four GDSs. It also can be used to modify and delete rates across an entire portfolio of hotels in minutes.
The web-based application allows hotels to “mass transfer” their rate information simultaneously to multiple GDSs through one entry point. Clients are now able to create a profile of specific negotiated rate codes at the chain level, which can then be transferred and activated at the property level.
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Choice Extends Rate Guarantee To All Its Brands Worldwide
Choice Hotels International has extended its Best Choice e-Rate Guarantee to all hotels within its worldwide system, encompassing more than 4,700 properties in 42 nations. The guarantee states that any traveler who holds a confirmed reservation on the Choicehotels.com web site, then finds a better rate on a third party site, will receive the lower rate plus an additional 10 percent reduction. The reduced rate is claimed through submission of a Best Choice e-Rate Guarantee claim form, found on the Choice site.
Launched in March, the guarantee initially had applied to hotels in the U.S. and Caribbean. Brands under Choice Hotels International banner include Comfort Inn, Comfort Suites, Quality, Sleep Inn, Clarion, MainStay Suites, Econo Lodge and Rodeway Inn.
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Continental Eyes SkyTeam, Interlines With AeroMexico
AeroMexico and Continental Airlines have signed an alliance agreement for flights between the United States and Mexico beginning in the first quarter of 2004, subject to government approvals. The airlines will offer interline electronic ticketing enabling travelers to use a single e-ticket for itineraries that include travel on both carriers.
AeroMexico, a founding member of SkyTeam, has also renewed its membership in the SkyTeam alliance for another 10 years. Continental is anticipating joining SkyTeam in 2004.
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Continental, KLM Interlined
Continental Airlines has implemented interline electronic ticketing with KLM, allowing customers to use a single electronic ticket when their itineraries include travel on both carriers. KLM joins the growing list of successful interline electronic ticketing agreements Continental has with American, Delta, Northwest, United, US Airways, Alaska, COPA, America West and Aloha.
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Dolce Int’l Adds San Jose’s Hayes Mansion To Its Portfolio
Dolce International has been selected to manage the historic Hayes Mansion Conference Center in San Jose, Calif. The luxury property, repositioned as Dolce Hayes Mansion, becomes the 23rd property in the Dolce Conference and Resort Destinations brand.
Hayes Mansion offers 214 spacious guest rooms and suites, 33,000 square feet of meeting space, extensive and varied dining areas, and a full-service spa and fitness center. The company manages properties in the United States, Canada and Europe.
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Emirates Extends Leg-room In A330s’ First, Business Class
Emirates is refitting the first and business class cabins on its fleet of 29 Airbus A330-200s to provide more leg-room. Reconfiguration work continues through April.
In business class, seat pitch increases from 47/48 inches to 55/60, depending on two- or three-class aircraft configuration, respectively. On two-class A330s, which offer business and economy, one row of seven business seats will be removed; 27 will remain.
First class seat pitch on the three-class A330s will be extended to 71/73 inches. The removal of a row of seats will lower first class capacity to 12 seats. On these aircraft, the business cabin’s 42-seat capacity will not change.
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ePassengerCare Launches Luggage-protection Service
ePassengerCare has introduced a luggage-protection service that meets TSA procedures as well as protects against pilferage, manipulation and damage. TraveLeaders Group, based in Coral Gables, Fla., is the first authorized sales agent for the service.
The service provides a "Safety Pooch" tamper-resistant, disposable pouch plus 24-hour-a-day luggage tracking and retrieval assistance and a $1,200 lost-luggage insurance policy administered by AXA Assistance USA. Each kit contains two pouches for round-trip protection, a luggage tag with a tracking registration number, a permanent marker, plastic cutter, instruction manual and TSA information pamphlet. Suggested retail price is US$12.
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Eurostar Adds Non-stop Service Between London And Brussels
Eurostar is adding an additional departure in each direction on its London-Brussels route, bringing the total number of departures in each direction to nine. As a result of the additional departure and the rescheduling of late afternoon and evening service, there is a Eurostar departure at approximately hourly intervals during peak morning and afternoon/evening times.
Thanks to the recently opened section of high-speed track in the UK shaving 20 minutes off travel times, Eurostar can now make the nonstop journey in 2 hours 15 minutes (Brussels-London) or 2 hours 20 minutes (London-Brussels), reaching 186 mph. Nonstop service began on Jan. 5.
Round-trip fares between London-Brussels start at US$90/CAD$124 (standard class) and US$164 /CAD$226 (first class) and are available from Rail Europe.
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Flyte Tyme Adds Satellite Offices
Flyte Tyme Transportation Group, a provider of executive sedan, van, minibus and limousine services, has opened three new satellite offices in New York City and New Jersey. The New York location concentrates on Flyte Tyme’s new black car division, which currently has a fleet of 120 vehicles. The second satellite office serves clients from Philadelphia to Princeton, through a location in Plainsboro, N.J. The third,, in Franklin Lakes, N.J, allows the company to fill gaps between its Mahwah base and Plainsboro office.
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Galileo Adds American, BA To Its Three-year Program
American Airlines and British Airways have each signed three-year agreements with Galileo International. The agreements give Galileo complete access to all published fares, including web fares, for a three-year term in exchange for a reduced booking fee rate.
The addition of American gives Galileo’s affiliate travel agencies, as well as its Travelport corporate booking tool, full content from all six to the top U.S. carriers., including Delta, United, Northwest, Continental and US Airways.
The new agreement with British Airways goes into effect March 1. The airline has also joined a similar program offered by the Sabre GDS.
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Geac’s New Tool Coordinates Operations With Strategy
Geac has launched Geac Performance Management, an integrated product line aimed at helping companies tighten the links between their business strategy and operations. Available immediately throughout North America, the launch line involves 10 distinct modules, including enhanced financial consolidation, expense management functionality and a new module called Strategy Management. It also integrates with various Geac and non-Geac enterprise financial, HR and ERP applications. The complete line also comprises planning, budgeting, forecasting, reporting and analysis, travel plans, payments requests and time sheets.
The Strategy Management module is designed to support the creation, communication, monitoring and management of strategic plans. It offers a mechanism for linking strategic plans to operational plans and performance measures, giving users “an intuitive, transparent method” for visualizing and reporting on how the actions of operating units and individuals contribute to strategic goals.
Other new features include:
• Enhanced financial consolidation functionality to accommodate globalization and regulatory requirements such as Sarbanes-Oxley, IFRS, GAAP, etc.
• An automated expense report process that allows users to save and reuse names that they regularly entertain, and also incorporate guest databases from other systems such as CRM.
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Hotel Participants In Galileo’s Inside Shopper Link Tops 19,000
Galileo International has signed multiple agreements to implement Inside Shopper, its next generation seamless capability, with a number of leading global hotel chains, including Kimpton Hotels, UniRez, ReservHotels and NH Hotels.
Inside Shopper provides a direct, real-time connection between a hotels’ central reservation systems and Galileo's 47,000 agencies worldwide. The interface facilitates users’ timely access to last room availability and other up-to-the-minute information. Inside Shopper participants now number 98 brands (54 implemented, 44 under contract) and 19,285 properties worldwide.
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iJET Enhancement Gives Travelers Instant Access To Help
iJET Travel Risk Management has added one-button mobile access to its 24-hour emergency response center through an enhancement to its WorldLink communications service.
The service offers cellular and satellite telephones that are preprogrammed to receive iJET's real-time, itinerary-specific travel alerts and to open up a direct channel to the center at a moment’s notice. Experts in the fields of security, travel and health are available to respond at the center.
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KDS Adds WebEx Option To Travel Management Tool
KDS has integrated the web meeting services of WebEx Communications with its own online business travel solutions, naming the resulting combination KDS Corporate.
During the travel planning and booking process, business travelers using KDS Corporate will be prompted to consider WebEx as an alternative to certain business trips. A WebEx meeting will be offered based upon customer-defined contextual criteria including destinations, costs, corporate travel policies and other business rules. The solution enables businesses to decrease travel expenditures while keeping communications and customer contact at a productive level.
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LimoLiner Adds Sunday Service
LimoLiner is adding Sunday service to its Boston-New York schedule, allowing travelers to extend their stay in either city, or get settled in at their destination city before a busy week. The company has also added a loyalty program that will reward frequent travelers with "LimoMiles" redeemable for free LimoLiner tickets.
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Park Plaza Adds 6th UK Hotel
Park Plaza Hotels Europe has raised its flag over a new property in Cardiff, Wales, just two weeks after announcing plans to build a new hotel in London. The hotel, to be renamed Park Plaza Cardiff, is the 6th Park Plaza hotel to open in the UK. Victoria Park Plaza and the Sherlock Holmes Hotel opened in London in 2001; the Park Plaza Nottingham, in 2002, Park Plaza Leeds in 2003. The Riverbank Park Plaza will open in London in 2005.
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Pegasus Unveils Shopping Engine
Pegasus Solutions has unveiled RAVE, a "shopping engine" technology to enhance its RezView central reservations service (CRS). RAVE (an acronym for Rate and Availability Engine) facilitates efficient browsing for hotels that are available during a traveler’s desired dates without taxing CRS capacity.
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Qatar Accesses Japanese Market
The Infini global reservation company has contracted to book travelers in Japan for seats on Qatar Airways flights through more than 6,000 travel agencies.
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SilkAir’s Net Fares On Abacus
Regional carrier SilkAir has signed on to Abacus FareX, which will make its net fares available directly on the Abacus International reservation system.
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Southwest Reveals Philly Schedule
Southwest Airlines has announced that its Philadelphia service, scheduled to begin May 9, will feature daily nonstop service to Chicago Midway, Las Vegas, Orlando, Phoenix, Providence and Tampa Bay.
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Starwood Adds Crete Resort
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide has added the Blue Palace Resort & Spa, located on the Greek island of Crete, to its Luxury Collection. The 204-room hotel features low-rise bungalows, suites and villas, over half of them with their own private swimming pools. The resort also has a 21,500 square-foot state-of-the-art thalasso therapy spa. The Luxury Collection is comprised of 77 hotels and resorts in 28 countries; Blue Palace is its fourth property in Greece.
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Thistle Joins Third Party Sites
Thistle Hotels has selected Travelweb to distribute its discount inventory online. Thistle's 55 hotels in England, Scotland and Wales, and its 24 hotels in London, will soon be available to consumers on Travelweb.com and through a network of third-party distribution partners including Continental.com, PleasantHolidays.com, Onetravel.com, bookmytravel.com, and AAVacations.com.
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TQ3 Expands Latin American Presence With 11 New Centers
TQ3 Travel Solutions has expanded its presence in Latin America with corporate travel business centers in 11 countries throughout the region. In addition to having full access to TQ3's entire spectrum of resources, the centers operate according to TQ3 standards for consistent quality service, innovative technology and knowledgeable account management.
TQ3 also operates two regional service centers in Latin America, with one in Costa Rica to serve Central America and the other in Puerto Rico to serve the Caribbean.
In addition to access to its global resources, TQ3 also provides Latin America customers with local services that are not typically part of a business travel program in other parts of the world. These include visa and passport processing by TQ3 employees, 24-hour local emergency service in addition to 24-hour international service, extensive leisure travel services, "meet and greet" services, and service centers at airports for last minute ticketing.
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Travelmedia Unveils Radio Station
Travelmedia Communications has dubbed its new 24-hour Internet-based radio station "Connected Traveler Radio, The Sound of the World," broadcast from the WorldVibrations Radio Station (WVRS). The station’s format will include news items and music around the world plus destination stories and vignettes about culture, music, the environment, science and food.
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Travelocity Adds Trip Insurance
Travelocity has added travel insurance protection as another benefit of its "book together and save" TotalTrip experience. Customers buy the insurance by choosing the "Protect Your Trip" option following a TotalTrip flight + hotel booking. Starting at $26.95 per person, the policy provides a broad range of coverage, including coverage up to the total cost of a traveler's trip ($2,000 maximum) in the event that a trip is canceled for a covered reason. Other benefits include:
• Trip Delay ($500);
• Flight Accident Protection ($50,000);
• Medical Expense ($10,000);
• Lost/Stolen Baggage or Personal Effects ($1,500/$500)/
• Emergency Evacuation/Repatriation ($25,000);
• 24-hour Worldwide Emergency Travelers Assistance.
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TravelStoreMaker Booking Engine Adds Japanese To Repertoire
The new Japanese version of TravelStoreMaker.com’s multilingual Internet booking engine has become generally available after its launch in November on Alitalia’s web site for Japan’s travel market. Able to handle air, car and hotel sectors, the engine is available to travel agencies, airlines, affiliates and portals.
Other languages available in TravelStoreMaker’s booking engine are English, French, Bulgarian, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Dutch, Russian, Romanian, Polish, Hungarian and Greek.
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US Air, Spanair Begin Codeshare
US Airways and Spanair have announced the first phase of their new marketing relationship, with 32 codeshare flights to destinations throughout the U.S. and Spain. US Airways’ code has been added to Spanair flights between Madrid and Barcelona, Màlaga, and Palma de Mallorca, Spain. Spanair customers will have access to 13 destinations via transatlantic flights between Madrid and Philadelphia. From Philadelphia, Spanair also codeshares on US Airways flights to Boston, Baltimore/Washington (BWI), Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, New Orleans, New York LaGuardia, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, San Diego, Seattle and Reagan National Airport in Washington, DC.
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US Airways, Expedia Settle Spat
US Airways and Expedia Inc. have reached an agreement that will allow travelers to purchase US Airways tickets through all Expedia worldwide points of sale, including Expedia.com, Expedia Corporate Travel and Expedia.ca. Details of the partnership are confidential.
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Utell Adopts Inside Shopper
Pegasus Solutions’ Utell member hotels are among the first to use Galileo International’s new Inside Shopper technology via an integration with the RezView CRS.
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Virgin Atlantic Ends Commissions
Virgin Atlantic Ends Commissions
Virgin Atlantic is replacing its agency commissions with a flat fee incentive program, beginning on Jan. 5. The new program will be supported by a travel agent web site, also to be launched on Jan. 5, that keep agents abreast of what’s happening at the airline.
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Worldspan Adds Cruise Booking
Worldspan has introduced Worldspan Cruise, its new web-based booking solution for cruise line information and complete reservations capabilities. The new agency tool provides pricing, negotiated rates, cruise itinerary, cabin and deck plans, port and itinerary information, posting of payments and automated PNR creation.
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