FlightStats Builds Mobile Messaging System
already available, Tilden said, while the
second—traveler-initiated messages and
two-way communications—would be
enabled by year-end through a mobile
app it is developing with Mobiata.
However, the company is building the
system to go beyond agent-to-traveler
communications, enabling an agency to
broadcast itinerary-relevant information
to travelers from other sources, which
FlightStats said would include airports
BY JAY BOEHMER
TECH FIRM FLIGHTSTATS IS DEVELoping a mobile messaging system for
agents to send itinerary-relevant messages to travelers’ mobile devices from
the travel management company, as well
as airlines and airports. The Portland,
Ore., company said it plans to package
the offering as part of what it is dubbing
Agent Advantage, a suite of tools will
include the Trip Talk offering along with
such previously available offerings
as Trip Assist, which alerts agents
to traveler itineraries that face
cancellations, missed connections
or other travel interruptions, and
Itinerary Monitoring capabilities,
which offer cancellation and delay
trip alerts to travelers.
FlightStats calls Trip Talk a “
conversation engine” that ultimately
would enable bidirectional, itin-erary-specific communications
between a traveler and corporate
travel agent, through the traveler’s
mobile device. Through the offering, an agent can reach out “to
tell the traveler that I saw you have this
connection problem, we’ve taken care of
that for you, and here’s what we’ve done
to help you out,” said FlightStats owner
Mark Tilden. Conversely, a traveler—
perhaps one sitting in a business meeting running long—“can open his mobile
itinerary viewer, click on a segment to
say this is the one in trouble, fill out a
couple of check boxes and send it off to
the agent,” he said. The first capability is
Tilden said he expects to launch the
airport messaging system by the end of
September, free of charge to airports.
“We have about 30 airports in the U.S.
and abroad that plan to use the system,”
added FlightStats vice president of business development Meara McLaughlin,
noting about 100 worldwide airports use
the company for flight delay data. The
company also plans to enable airlines to
use the system to send similarly relevant
“A traveler can open his mobile
itinerary viewer, click on a segment to
say this is the one in trouble, fill out a
couple of check boxes and send it off
to the agent.”
—MARK TILDEN
and airlines.
“Airports have got information that
basically nobody else has—last-minute
gate changes, security problems, construction that’s affecting access or parking. Using the same infrastructure, we
can give the airport the ability to publish
information,” Tilden said, noting that
agents could push such messages to travelers passing through the airport in an
agency-branded message.
advisories to travelers, broadcasting to
passengers that a certain flight is in an
oversold situation, for example.
Still, all those messages from all those
sources could be a source of frustration
for travelers, who could experience alert
overload, FlightStats acknowledged.
However, TMCs will be able to police
and prioritize information sent to travelers, and travelers will be able to opt out
of certain message categories.
“Certain things are nice to know, but
you don’t want to get a message about
them. Others, you’ll want to know ASAP.
The infrastructure that we designed follows the idea of graded message classes,” McLaughlin said. “Even if a TMC
wants to do a broadcast, they don’t have
to worry about being in their travelers’
faces or being annoying with too much
information. But, in all cases, whether
it’s their information they’re broadcasting, something from an airport, an
irregular operations notice from an
airline or a security company that
wants to push out information, the
TMC always has the control.”
As initially developed, agents
would have to log in to FlightStats.
com to manage the Trip Talk experience, though the company said
it is working with third parties to
incorporate the system into other
user interfaces. For example, Amadeus said it is considering extending
FlightStats services in its upcoming
Amadeus One agent desktop.
McLaughlin said FlightStats already works with 70 agencies on Itinerary Monitoring and plans to extend the
Trip Talk capability to them. FlightStats
would not disclose specific pricing, but
expects to charge agencies a one-time
fee to load PNRs into the system in
addition to a fixed monthly fee for the
agency based on air transaction volume, not on use of the system. TMCs,
meanwhile, would determine their own
charges for corporate clients. ■
Sabre Integrating TRX Travel Trax Platform Into Its New Red Agent Workstation
BY JAY BOEHMER
SABRE TRAVEL NETWORK THIS MONTH SAID
it is partnering with TRX to incorporate its Travel Trax
data and reporting platform into its new Sabre Red
suite. The new reporting capabilities should be available to agencies in the coming months, Sabre said, and
include new benchmarking, agency performance and
other reporting options previously unavailable.
Sabre is in the midst of migrating agencies to its new
Sabre Red workstation, which it unveiled in June and
has thus far extended to more than 500 agency customers. Sabre plans to make the new Business Intelligence
reporting capabilities available to clients in the coming months, enhancing their reporting on agent and
agency performance as well as supplier and client management.
Sabre vice president of customer marketing Brian
Houser said Sabre is licensing TRX’s Travel Trax as the
basis for Business Intelligence. In addition to reporting inherent to TravelTrax—which is “a whole set of
reports and data feeds from other sources, like credit
card feeds,” Houser said—the firm will be building capabilities beyond the core product.
Clients would be able use the tool to mine the Sabre
data warehouse, Houser said, “where we capture real-
time transaction information—all the information
coming through the Sabre system—and also three-
year’s worth of historical data.” He said that would pro-
vide agencies with new data sets to evaluate their own
performance and productivity as well as build insight
into corporate client travel programs.
Concur Joins Others In Offering Amtrak Bookings
BY JAY BOEHMER
CONCUR NOW IS ENABLING BOOKING TOOL
clients to shop and book Amtrak though an integrated
air-rail display, taking advantage of a direct connection
to the railway provider’s reservations system. Concur
follows NuTravel Technology Solutions and Rearden
Commerce in offering Amtrak rail content through direct connect technology.
“The direct connection between Amtrak’s reserva-
tions system and the Concur Connect program will
not only provide easier access for Amtrak passengers
booking rail travel, it will also provide a side-by-side
comparison of a client’s rail and air travel options,” said
Amtrak senior director of travel industry sales Craig
White, noting that comparing rail with air options
is particularly attractive to corporate clients on the
Northwest Corridor. With this new direct connection
to Amtrak’s reservations system, Concur clients can
book point-to-point or multi-segment trips, cancel or
put reservations on hold and complete payment and
ticketing through the booking tool.
