Flight Centre
Travel Group bought a 25 percent stake in Upside, the travel rewards and
booking platform started in 2017 by Priceline founder Jay Walker. Flight Centre
is now Upside's largest shareholder and gains access to Upside's technology,
which focuses on unmanaged travelers and lightly managed travel programs.
Flight Centre has
been gulping down artificial intelligence/chatbot tech this year. Last month,
it acquired the outstanding shares of the Sam chatbot and took a larger stake
in 30SecondsToFly's Claire chatbot. And on Feb. 1, it acquired
TMC Casto, which has been active
in the artificial intelligence space.
Flight Centre
plans to use Upside's AI and machine learning technology for its SME-focused Corporate
Traveler brand, which last summer launched
CTGO to offer businesses with unmanaged travel access to Flight
Centre rates. Upside's "use of machine learning models to dynamically
price business travel packages in real-time to save clients money while
increasing traveler options is just one example of Upside's best in class
technology," said Flight Centre Americas president Dean Smith.
The deal provides
Upside access to Flight Centre's supplier relationships. Flight Centre "is
the perfect partner for Upside as we get aggressive in serving small corporate
clients," Walker said, citing the TMC's global scale, content and
experience.
The deal also lays
out terms for the two companies to cooperate on distribution, and Upside will
leverage the capital from Flight Centre's investment to incorporate ATPCO's
Next Generation Storefront airfare-display standards into its booking interface
by June. TripActions
and TravelBank
also have adopted the standards.