Galileo Joins Wireless Whirlwind
<B>Galileo Joins Wireless Whirlwind</B>
By Jay Campbell
Galileo International earlier this month launched Galileo Wireless, a suite of services that allows road warriors at companies that use the Apollo reservations system to view full itineraries, cancel and rebook flights and get flight information and notification on digital wireless devices.
To use the services, travelers with digital one-way and two-way pagers, Wireless Application Protocol cell phones and Web-enabled personal digital assistants would subscribe through their corporate travel agency or travel manager.
Travelers are given unique identifiers assigned to their travel profiles that allow them to log in to Galileo's server via the Internet and also allows the agency to make changes to the reservation.
By the fourth quarter, said Galileo vice president of corporate and consumer sales and marketing John Hach, the system will accommodate seat selection, car/hotel rebooking, upgrades and limits established by corporate travel managers on how much extra money travelers can spend when rebooking.
Hach said subscriber agencies would market the product to travelers--and key in identification numbers to their global distribution system travel profiles as they do with frequent flyer numbers--in part because they will save money by reducing the rebooking burden on itineraries that are still accessible to them.
Corporate travel departments would enjoy the same benefits, Hach said, by getting data on the whole trip, not just what was reserved, and by saving on labor assigned to itinerary changes.
Suppliers also save, Galileo said, by having their reservation agents shoulder a smaller burden. But suppliers then would pay fees to Galileo for processing the transactions. Galileo gets nothing when travelers call suppliers directly to make changes.
In development for about a year, these new Galileo Wireless services are free to users, for now. After a "limited time," Hach said the company plans to charge a premium to travel agencies and corporate travel departments, along the lines of other premium services, such as Galileo's Private Fares function. Galileo Wireless will offer a basic and an optional package.
According to Galileo, this is the first wireless offering to allow travelers to cancel and rebook seats for all fare classes. Another innovation, the company said, is that when travelers rebook flights, they get back the actual confirmation number used by the airline or hotel.
While many companies are competing for "shelf space" on wireless devices, such as a listing among the Internet options on a mobile phone, Galileo's service is available by bookmarking its server on the device. That bookmark could be named after the traveler's company, such as "IBM Travel," Hach said.
"This is a way for Galileo to open up its closed system architecture," said Hach, "and put into travelers' hands the information they want, while keeping our agency subscribers in the loop.