This week’s Update begins with an interesting story detailing how evolving consumer trends of the past few years (e.g., sustainability) are making their way into travel and online travel in particular. Enjoy.
Travelport Continues Improvements to Travelport Plus
(“Travelport Launches Update to Unified Travelport Plus Platform,” January 19, 2022 via Business Travel News)
Launched last year by Travelport as the ultimate successor to its other global distributions system (GDS) platforms (Apollo, Galileo and Worldspan), Travelport Plus continues to improve. Last week, Travelport launched its latest iteration of the platform, an iteration that leverages the platform’s growing access to NDC (New Distribution Capability) content from many of the major airlines and improved connectivity with Hilton as well as adding its new traveler facing portal, Trip Manager.
Speaking of Travelport, Hawaiian Airlines Elects To Go a Different Direction
(“Hawaiian Airlines Surprises With Breakaway Distribution Strategy,” January 18, 2022 via Skift) (subscription may be required)
In a surprise move, Hawaiian Airlines has elected to join many of its European counterparts in discouraging (penalizing) agents’ use of legacy GDS platforms, including Travelport. According to its announcement last week, beginning April 1, Hawaiian Airlines will no longer display fares for travel within the Hawaiian Islands on the legacy platforms and will assess a surcharge on all other bookings made through the platforms. In an effort to convince agents to support the move away from the legacy platforms, Hawaiian Airlines is offering its historically web-only discounted fares to agents who use Hawaiian Airlines’ API, extranet portal or other approved aggregators. With this change, Hawaiian Airlines intends to implement dynamic pricing on its premium class seats while offering travelers new ancillary products and loyalty benefits. It will be interesting to watch whether this dramatic shift by the largely leisure airline leads other more traditional airlines to make similar changes. More to come.
Other news:
The Consumer Trends Seeping Into the Travel Industry
January 20, 2022 via Phocus Wire
Travel restrictions and outright lockdowns drove many consumers to rethink their priorities over the past two years. The spotlight was put on serious issues such as ongoing damage to the environment as well as softer challenges including the need for more flexible terms and conditions in travel bookings.
Host Agency Departure Lounge Launches New Booking Platform
January 18, 2022 via travelweekly.com
Austin, Texas-based host agency Departure Lounge has launched a new booking platform for its travel advisors, featuring the agency's preferred hotels, hotels from agency consortium Virtuoso and Valerie Wilson Travel's air inventory.
HotelRez to Offer Cvent Transient RFP Platform
January 18, 2022 via Business Travel News
U.K.-based hotel distribution and representation company HotelRez on Tuesday (January 18) announced a new partnership with meetings management firm Cvent to use Cvent’s transient sourcing platform.
