<B>TechTalk</B>
<B>BA Begins Testing Wireless Corp. Booking</B>
British Airways earlier this month announced a partnership with Atlanta-based Equant to enable BA's corporate travelers to buy tickets with negotiated rates via Nokia mobile phones. The service, now testing in Stockholm with BA's "major" Scandinavian accounts, will tie in with BA's self-service checkin kiosks at airports. "Our corporate customers approached us to work with them in validating the benefits of this technology for their traveling executives," said Ben Leon, BA's global distribution manager. "We now have the service in place and are equipping travel managers with the necessary administration tools, including pre-configured mobile phones for users. By integrating wireless tech with our existing distribution and fulfillment systems, including Pay As You Fly, our partners have enabled us to begin to validate the technology in a live environment." Testing of wireless booking will continue for the next few months, expanding to other European countries. SAS and Swissair also announced wireless booking and checkin tests for European customers.
<A NAME="2"><B>Sabre Partners To Deliver Wireless Checkin</B>
Sabre partnered with Impulsity Inc. to deliver wireless checkin and boarding capability, something it called an industry first. Travelers using cell phones or personal digital assistants, "soon" will be able to contact their airlines to check in. "After validating the passenger's identity using voice biometrics, the new system will transmit a bar-coded boarding pass image to the traveler's wireless device. This image then can be read at the boarding gate, allowing the passenger to board the flight without stopping anywhere else to check in," stated Sabre. Dallas-based Impulsity specializes in mobile data, speech and location technologies.
<A NAME="3"><B>Corp. Booking Tool on Datalex's Horizon</B>
A spokesperson for Dublin-based Datalex, part-owned by Worldspan, said a corporate product "is an important offering that we will make available early next year to our current and future customers."
<A NAME="4"><B>E-Travel Appoints Gutz Interim CEO</B>
E-Travel appointed Scott Gutz, current vice president and CFO, to acting CEO, following the departure of president and CEO John Ackermann. Gutz was vice president and assistant corporate controller for E-Travel parent Oracle Corp. in Redwood Shores, Calif. E-Travel spokesman Rob Wald said the company's board of directors is "still actively looking" for a new CEO. E-Travel, meanwhile, will get a big boost from Oracle when it mandates usage of the E-Traveler online booking system, expected in January. "We're looking to add a lot to the product," in advance of the mandate, which Wald said would be the biggest in corporate travel.
<A NAME="5"><B>Expedia To Announce Biz Travel Offering</B>
Expedia at the end of this month will unveil a business travel section on its Web site that allows a single travel arranger and a single credit card to handle travel needs for multiple employees. Travelocity recently opened a similar page. The Expedia site will include the Expedia To Go feature that allows travelers to download itineraries onto handheld PDAs. Expedia said about a quarter of its current customers are traveling for business, and as such it has altered its flight search to focus on such business traveler needs as nonstop flights and penalty-free fares. Travelers and arrangers also will be allowed to save trip templates and populate such calendar programs as Microsoft's Outlook. Expedia said it may explore such functions as quarterly reporting.
<A NAME="6"><B>Diners Offers Web Statements</B>
Diners Club this month gave cardmembers Web access to account information, including transactions, payments, check balances and due dates. The company also promoted 11-year Diners veteran Walter Sanders to vice president of industry relations from vice president of corporate affairs.