OTA Seeks Comment on industry specification
Version 2001B of the OpenTravel Alliance's specification is available for public review until Dec. 12 at www.opentravel.org/opentravel/2001b.cfm. The OTA, using Extensible Markup Language, is developing specifications that harness the Internet for car and hotel availability searches and reservations, simplified airline bookings and travel insurance bookings (BTN, Sept. 4, 2000). An OTA statement said Version 2001B "also includes supporting XML schema documents that streamline the creation of OTA messages, sample XML instance documents and complete text description of the XML content." 2001B will be ready for industrywide implementation immediately following the public review period. OTA also will soon release for public review the 2001C specification, which will include the introduction of additional travel-specific messages.
Ticketing Alternatives Return For Northwest
At least one airline is enjoying a return to normal, if not better, e-ticketing and checkin usage. Northwest Airlines late last month said domestic enplanements using e-tickets recently hit the 74 percent level, while 22 percent of Pacific enplanements used e-tickets. "And, for the first time, we passed the 4,000 Internet checkin mark for a single day," said Al Lenza, vice president of distribution planning.
GetThere Offers Two-Way Sync
Sabre's GetThere corporate self-booking subsidiary this month made available to all clients the ability to import traveler profiles from other applications, complementing its existing export capability. Using an XML interface, GetThere's DirectData can import profiles in real time from, for example, travel agency profile management systems and expense reporting systems. The service saves changes to profiles regardless of whether users make them online or offline.
Travelocity Launches Airline Data Product
Travelocity last month launched a new online reporting product for airline suppliers that enables carriers to track their current Travelocity.com booking information, including reports on revenue, ticket sales and market details. The product offers airlines information which, in the GDS, is produced through MIDT reports (BTN, March 22, 1999). Sabre's GetThere subsidiary provides similar information to suppliers via its DirectObserver reporting product.
Extensity, Worldspan expand mktg. partners
Worldspan last month signed a marketing partnership that makes the Trip Manager corporate booking system the first solution of its kind offered to customers of Epicentric Inc., a San Francisco-based provider of enterprise portal solutions that claims more than 180 corporate clients. Meanwhile, Emeryville, Calif.-based Extensity Inc. last month said it teamed with systems integrator TechSpan of Sunnyvale, Calif., for implementation support on expense reporting and other tools.
TRX Signs Casto travel For EnCoRRe
Santa Clara, Calif.-based Casto Travel, a $254 million corporate agency, last month announced an agreement to implement TRX Inc.'s EnCoRRe service bureau, automating its transaction processing procedures for more than 300 corporate clients. TRX said EnCoRRe is on pace to process 30 million corporate bookings in 2002, an increase of more than 300 percent from 2000. "Casto's decision to employ EnCoRRe marks the beginning of a concerted effort to offer automated services to agencies outside the mega category," said Steve Reynolds, executive vice president of TRX. TRX is finalizing a new mid-office service platform targeted at corporate agencies with annual ARC volumes of $15 million to $350 million, which it hopes to launch this month.