Travel suppliers want to provide personalized offers to travelers. Some travel managers want to customize travel policies to better fit individual travelers and the specifics of a trip. The problem is, some online booking tools can’t or don’t easily handle the nuances. OBTs connect with traveler profiles. Those often include basic data like an employee’s level in the… Read More »
Amadeus and Sabre are taking a new approach to developing corporate booking tools for small and medium businesses. In some smaller markets around the globe, they’re hooking up with tech partners. Sabre in August announced a deal with Serko to serve SMEs Down Under. The New Zealand-based company will replace proprietary booking software in the Sabre Online service. As… Read More »
Company veteran Yannis Karmis left Sabre in January as the firm reorganized its approach to the corporate market. Led by newcomer Clinton Anderson, the ambitious strategy includes a new path for GetThere but ditches TruTrip. It seeks to solve the tricky issue of out-of-program spend. It aims to deliver heretofore untapped potential in payments and mobile. It’s benefiting from a 40 percent… Read More »
JetBlue last week began selling bundled fares in a new three-tier structure. The content is accessible in global distribution systems, but most corporate self-booking tools don’t yet fully display the options. AmTrav last week claimed its homegrown booking tool was first. Hooking up the new content isn’t about connecting to an API or building an alternative mechanism, said AmTrav CEO… Read More »
Twenty of the past 22 U.S. federal agencies to select a vendor in the E-Gov Travel Service end-to-end program chose CWTSatoTravel, a spokesperson said. CWTSatoTravel has implemented 16 agencies on its E2 Solutions end-to-end desktop product. Four more are due this year. The company had already serviced 11 clients under the first E-Gov Travel Service program (see list below). In the current program, also called… Read More »
[UPDATE, Oct. 1: In late September, Sabre GetThere made available bookings for United’s Economy Plus seating. Users without elite status on the airline have the option to split payment for the product upgrade by charging the added cost to a personal credit card if corporate policies disallow such purchases. Travel managers can decide whether the capability should be… Read More »
Most companies don’t have a homegrown business travel booking system, but NetJets Aviation is a bit unique. Its business is scheduling travel and moving people around. The company in the mid-1990s spent $20 million to build proprietary logistics software to handle requests from clients. NetJets then layered on corporate travel components for its own pilots and flight attendants. Hotel booking… Read More »
[UPDATE, Dec. 2, 2016: Sabre announced that it added a virtual payment option for airline bookings within the Sabre Red Workspace, furnished with payment firm Conferma. Sabre described the new “standard form of payment” at the agent point of sale as an industry first. The integration “eliminates the need for mid/back-office providers and online corporate booking tools such… Read More »