American Airlines: No Fees For Agent Access To Sales Support Team
American Airlines will not charge fees when travel counselors call sales support for help, a press official confirmed. This was an open question when AA in February described NDC-specific support capabilities it intended to offer travel management companies. AA does charge $50 to travelers who are not AAdvantage…
Elevance Applies Traxo To ‘Tame’ Real-Time Hotel Rate Audits
Traxo made a name for itself as a fix for program leakage using email parsing. But when Elevance director of travel and events Cindy Heston brought in Traxo, she had a different sort of data-capture use case in mind: real-time hotel rate audits. Elevance, a $157 billion health…
Brex, Spotnana Launch Budget-Driven Travel Tool For Startups And ‘Scaled Companies’
The venture capital-backed startup basket of the economy is a bit unsettled at the moment but that’s where card and business software firm Brex puts most of its eggs. It’s now competing for that market with a business travel service backed by Spotnana. Available to users of Brex’s…
Dispatch 3
We broke the news on December 1 but it’s still sinking in. After hearing no mention of it on investor calls, we tried to contact the loquacious JPMorgan Chase analyst Jamie Baker to talk about it. We didn’t get a hold of him. This week, Baker told AA,…
Notebook: Empathy On Fumes As Airfare Fragmentation Bears Down In America
Boston – With its plan to phase out traditional, EDIFACT-based indirect sales by the end of 2025, Finnair’s alternative distribution vision is among the world’s most ambitious. During a panel discussion at a UATP event here last week, its head of strategy admitted to a lack of familiarity…
At Travel Incorporated, Amgine’s AI Platform Pushes Agent Productivity
Under pressure to improve efficiency, travel management companies are working to automate responses to travel planning requests from travelers sent by email. Contacts of this type make up a significant portion of incoming requests for many TMCs. That figure is 60 percent at Atlanta-based Travel Inc., one of…
Travelport Buys Deem
Travelport acquired corporate travel booking and ground tech firm Deem from Enterprise Holdings for an undisclosed sum. Travelport plans to integrate Deem’s travel solution with its Travelport+ platform in the coming months and enable access to NDC offers, products and services. Travelport CEO Greg Webb in 2021 said…