Uniglobe Ups Fare Access

Uniglobe Travel International and TelMe Farebase, an airfare distribution and management company based in the United Kingdom, this month signed an agreement to launch Uniglobe Total Faresearch, a multi-country fare-search software system based on TelMe Farebase's E-WorldShopper product.

The software—which first rolled out to the United Kingdom and will be followed by Europe and the United States later this year—allows every Uniglobe agency to display and sell locally negotiated airfares.

The software also allows users to compare fares from the four major global distribution systems and such other sources as low-cost carriers and third-party consolidators, enabling Uniglobe to maneuver pricing differentials from published airfares and promote its own deals.

Total Faresearch may seem similar to an international rate desk, but a Uniglobe spokesman dismissed that comparison.

"The international rate desk was designed to assist travel consultants in determining the best routing and calculation of best tariff fare value of complex, multi-segment international flights that typically they would need to work with a specific airline on," said Brian Dahl, director of communications of the Vancouver, B.C.-based travel management network. "Nowadays, with the assistance of technology, most agencies perform this task internally. TelMe is a system that searches for the best fares via all GDSs, the Internet, consolidators and special negotiated fares."

TelMe managing director Peter Muller said in a statement, "This is groundbreaking technology which gives global travel management companies like Uniglobe the opportunity to harness their purchasing power. As more agencies come online, the product offering will get better at creating ongoing benefits for customers."