NEW YORK -- In December and again in January, AAA Travel will take
major steps forward in an ongoing project to deliver to member
clubs an integrated desktop that seamlessly accesses a range of
inventory sources for booking purposes and gives customers access
to the same sources for self-booking via AAA.com.
In addition, that desktop would link the agent to back-office
billing and accounting data collected from all booking sources,
including bookings initiated by clients.
The project is part way there, said Lee Granger, managing
director of travel technology.
Currently, she said, the AAA agent's desktop -- called Travel
Connect -- accesses the same data as AAA.com. Both are powered by
Galileo (except in those few AAA clubs that have not opted into the
AAA Galileo master contract).
The front end for this system, from the customer's standpoint,
is AAA.com, where the prospect enters his ZIP code. This delivers
him to the Web site of the AAA club for his location, and this
determines the agent of record if a booking results -- and
identifies the resource the customer can call or visit for help and
advice.
Clients can book air, car and hotel, but the ability to
integrate totally the results of these AAA.com bookings with the
in-house system of the AAA agency will be finished in December,
Granger said.
The cruise-booking capability, to be beta-tested in December, is
slated for a January launch, she added. The booking engine in this
case is the Florida-based Cruise Path Network, and it will be used
by agents as well as customers, under a AAA-trademarked front end
called Travel Match.
After a booking, Cruise Path Network will send a passive PNR to
the GDS and send the accounting information to the agency's back
office.
AAA plans to create a similar tour-booking engine, but the
project will be more difficult because there is no vendor with the
requisite capability, Granger said, and because the system will
have to link to many different operator inventory systems.
The AAA desktop includes some direct connections for booking
preferred suppliers -- American Tours International, Hertz,
National Parks Passes and Pleasant Holidays -- with plans to add
others. Disneyland's resorts will be next, in December, to be
followed in 2003 by Disney World's resorts, Grand Canyon Railway
& Resorts and Universal Studios Vacations.
Meanwhile, AAA is working to bring Web fares to the clubs and is
beta-testing an option with Galileo, AgentWare and TRX.