American Airlines yesterday unveiled CorporateAAccess, an online portal for corporate clients that includes booking, tracking and data aggregation functions. American is the latest carrier to provide an online distribution channel designed specifically for the corporate travel community that saves the airline money.
Once their company registers, corporate travelers directly can access published fares, Web fares and any negotiated corporate rates available for any domestic AA flight, and shop by schedule, price or ticket type. Travel management companies also can execute transactions on behalf of corporate clients and collect data. Credit for all corporate bookings made on the site are tracked and applied toward contract goals. Travel managers also can access monthly online reports and set "limited travel controls." Additional details were not immediately available.
Other features include access to corporate rates with hotels and car rental companies, traveler profiles, tickets exchanges and refunds, seat assignments, electronic upgrade requests and links to other customer service features, such as flight status notification and Internet checkin.
CorporateAAccess is powered by Navitaire's DirectNet technology, which already is in use by Carlson Wagonlit Travel for direct connections with American, Continental, Delta and United airlines. AMR executive vice president of marketing Dan Garton, in an interview this month with
BTN(BTN, Aug. 25), called Navitaire a "modern technology" but questioned its scalability. Navitaire offers other products to the airline industry, including revenue management, flight information and seat assignment modules and the Open Skies reservation system.
Corporate portals similar to American's CorporateAAccess include Northwest's CorpNet Direct
(BTN, Aug. 25), Delta's Exclusive Discount Program and Southwest's Swabiz. Unlike those no-cost programs, CorporateAAccess users will be subjected to "minimal transaction and implementation fees."