Galileo Guarantees UA FaresGalileo International last month claimed to be the first global distribution system to guarantee quoted airfares—until midnight local time the next day—protecting travelers unable immediately to buy tickets against increases. Available thus far on United Airlines reservations made in the Apollo system for single-carrier North American fares, the new service does not supercede any ticketing or advance purchase restrictions. While Worldspan and Sabre do not have a similar service, Amadeus challenged Galileo. "Galileo's announcement states that they guarantee the fare until midnight the following day," said Bob Lowry, vice president of product management and customer support for North America. "This works as long as the fare did not expire the day of the quote. If it did, a debit memo would occur and I don't think Galileo is taking responsibility for handling those." Galileo does not guarantee fares that expire the day of the quote beyond midnight that day.
SAP Expands GDS PartnershipsGerman e-business software provider SAP signed a global agreement with Galileo International to connect users of SAP's mySAP Financials corporate booking tool with the Galileo GDS using Galileo's XML Select application programming interface. The deal calls for the companies to co-develop the interface for that tool, which SAP said will be available in the second quarter of next year as part of its SAP R/3 Enterprise Extension 2.0. Asked why SAP is hooking into Galileo through XML Select when Galileo is touting its Web services as a better alternative
(BTN, Aug. 12), a Galileo spokesperson said: "SAP was engaged with Galileo and our current XML Select product for several months prior to the introduction of our Web services. Thus, it was more economical for them to continue with our current XML Select product than to change to the Web service XML Select product while that was still in its beta stage." A spokesperson for SAP said: "The relationship does not affect any prior agreements with Amadeus and Sabre, which remain strong partners with SAP."
Expedia Corp. Board To Convene This WeekExpedia this week will hold the first meeting of its new corporate travel advisory board, a panel of buyers and suppliers asked by the online travel agency to guide the development of its corporate travel initiative due later this year. Expedia already is soliciting clients in the Northwest, presumably because of the regional strength of Seattle's Metropolitan Travel, which Expedia acquired in July. Buyers from such companies as Avanade Inc.—a Seattle-based joint venture of Accenture and Microsoft—Nordstrom Inc. and Washington Mutual Inc. join reps from Delta Air Lines, and Hyatt, Starwood and Wyndham hotels on the board.
Navigant Partners With Extensity, Outtask Navigant International earlier this month lined up two new travel and expense management software partners in Extensity Inc. and Outtask Inc. "Navigant is officially endorsing the product and the relationship," said a spokesperson for Outtask, which sells the Cliqbook self-booking tool. Asked whether Navigant-Cliqbook clients enjoy a price break thanks to the relationship, the rep said, "As far as incentives go, the customers looking or buying warrant the relationship in itself and any of the financial terms are not disclosed." WorldTravel BTI last month said preferred pricing is a major component of the client benefits derived from a new partnership with Sabre's GetThere subsidiary.
TMC Tech Cos. See Branding In E-DocsCornerstone Information Systems earlier this month signed its first client to a new service from Toronto-based Infotriever that allows Cornerstone's ResMAIL agency and CTD clients to deliver automatically travel information to personal organizers, including Act 2000, Lotus Notes, Microsoft Outlook and Palm Desktop. Just days before the July announcement, Trondent Development Corp. said it would acquire the assets of Infuzer and integrate the latter's technology with its AirMAIL and AirWEB products to populate automatically calendars in personal organizers. Both Cornerstone and Trondent said users click a hyperlink to add itineraries to their electronic calendars, and emphasized branding and marketing opportunities for the agency or CTD that arranges travel or the suppliers that provide it. According to TRX Inc., a chief competitor of Cornerstone and Trondent, "We've implemented a solution that took an e-mail and pushed the itinerary into the calendar applications," said executive vice president and general manager of TRX technology services Steve Reynolds. "Unfortunately, it was costly—clients wouldn't pay much for it—and under-utilized, so we no longer promote it. It had a lot of sizzle, though."