Airline will participate in industry-leading technology solutions including Rich Content and Branding
ATLANTA, 2014-6-27 — /Travel PR News/ — Travelport, a leading travel commerce marketplace providing distribution, technology, payment and other solutions for the $7 trillion global travel and tourism industry, today announces a new long-term agreement with United Airlines. This will add to the availability of United’s best inventory and prices, and provide access to ancillary products through the state of the art airline merchandising technology offered under the Travelport Merchandising Platform umbrella, including the adoption of Travelport’s Rich Content and Branding.
Rich Content and Branding enables airlines to more effectively present the value proposition for their products through detailing their offers, including services and/or ancillary services available for purchase, as well as options to upgrade to alternative products via the Travelport travel commerce platform and travel agencies in a manner more similar to the airline’s own consumer-focused website experience. United joins well over 40 other carriers around the globe — ranging from full-service, network carriers, to smaller regional airlines, to low-cost airlines — that have already signed up to use this solution which goes live in the next version of the Travelport Smartpoint agency desktop due this year.
Travelport was the first global distribution system to re-launch the capability for travel agents to sell the additional space and comfort of United’s Economy Plus seating. Travelport-connected agents have the ability to access Economy Plus seat availability and prices within the Travelport travel commerce platform with real-time booking and automated integration into the trip built for the travelling leisure or corporate consumer who has elected to use the services of a travel agency. This includes United’s complimentary Economy Plus seats for qualified MileagePlus customers and their companions.
“United’s array of travel offerings continues to expand and evolve into dynamic products tailored to our customers,” said Tom O’Toole, United’s senior vice president of marketing and loyalty and president of MileagePlus. “United is pleased this agreement enables us to offer the choices our customers value through additional shopping channels. We look forward to continuing to improve the shopping experience for our customers and their agencies through Travelport’s solutions.”
“United is one of the world’s leading airlines and we are delighted to expand our longstanding partnership with them and see them take advantage of the investments we have made in our pioneering merchandising technology, which has been designed to meet the changing needs of the global travel distribution chain,” said Derek Sharp, managing director, Global Distribution Services and Sales, Travelport. “United will be able to leverage Travelport’s leading technology to grow their global reach, promote their brand to travelers all over the world and most importantly maximize the revenues they are able to generate per seat sold.”
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Notes to editors:
The Travelport Merchandising Platform was unveiled last year and includes three components:
- Travelport Aggregated Shopping, an industry first, consolidates, within the same screen, shopping results from traditional carriers who connect through ATPCO with those from other no-frills carriers who prefer to connect with Travelport via an API connection. The new technology negates the need to shop and compare across several screens and allows travel agents to compare efficiently in the same booking flow.
- Travelport Ancillary Services allows travel agents to sell airline ancillaries such as pre-allocated seating, meals and bags, within their existing workflow rather than by booking on an airline website.
- Travelport Rich Content and Branding enables airlines to market and retail their products more effectively through customization of product display and content.
For more information on Travelport Merchandising Platform, visit: http://www.travelportmerchandisingsolutions.com/
About Travelport
Travelport is a travel commerce marketplace providing distribution, technology, payment and other solutions for the $7 trillion global travel and tourism industry. With a presence in over 170 countries, approximately 3,600 employees and 2013 net revenue of $2.1 billion, Travelport is a privately owned company comprised of:
- Our travel commerce platform through which we facilitate travel commerce by connecting the world’s leading travel providers with online and offline travel buyers in our proprietary business to business (“B2B”) travel commerce marketplace. As travel industry demands evolve, we are utilizing our travel commerce platform to redefine the electronic distribution and merchandising of airline core and ancillary products, as well as extending our reach into the growing world of travel commerce beyond air, including to hotel, car rental, rail, cruise-line and tour operators. In addition, we have leveraged our domain expertise in the travel industry to design a pioneering B2B payment solution that addresses the needs of travel intermediaries to efficiently and securely settle travel transactions. We also utilize the extensive data managed by our platform to provide an array of additional services, such as advertising solutions, subscription services, business intelligence data services, and marketing-oriented analytical tools to travel agencies, travel providers and other travel data users.
- Our Technology Services, through which we provide critical IT services to airlines, such as shopping, ticketing, departure control and other solutions, enabling them to focus on their core business competencies and reduce costs.
Travelport Media Contact
Jill Brenner
Senior Director, Corporate Communications
+1 (973) 753 3110
jill.brenner@travelport.com