Continental Targets Midmarket W/ Biz Booking Product

Continental Airlines is seeking to more aggressively sell to the midmarket its little-known Business Travel Manager product--a rebranded version of Worldspan's Trip Manager--in part by equipping it with "full access to Continental inventory," said managing director of distribution planning John Slater.

The product, which accesses other carriers and can book loaded negotiated car and hotel rates, is "something we're going to pay some more attention to," Slater said. "Initially, it was designed for the small business market related to our Reward One loyalty program, but the capabilities of the product now transcend those customers. So, we'll take a more aggressive position in getting information out to the midmarket. We put out a fax announcement to agencies prior to the holidays and there's another going out this week. We hope we'll be able to partner with travel management companies that would remain the agency of record for their clients."

Slater said the costs of Worldspan-facilitated bookings in Business Travel Manager compare favorably with Continental's new arrangement--made official today--for direct bookings with Orbitz via the latter's XML-based Supplier Link. He said a "significant percentage" of Continental's Orbitz bookings now are made directly, excluding paper tickets and those with interlining or sold outside of the United States. He said savings "can be" as high as 77 percent.