CHICAGO -- Amadeus began pilot testing its browser-based booking
product, Project Vista, with five agencies on the East Coast,
including three in the Miami area, near the headquarters of the
vendor's U.S.-based national marketing company.
Another five agencies will become part of the pilot in
mid-January, and more will be added through the second quarter of
1999, according to David Cerino, who is the CRS' U.S.-based
marketing director.
Amadeus is employing a mix of corporate and leisure travel
agencies for the test and "in total we will end up with 60 to 70
pilot [testers]," Cerino said. The official launch of Project Vista
is slated to occur at the end of the second quarter or early in the
third quarter of next year, he said.
Cerino said Amadeus encountered some confusion and concern among
agencies that were concerned that a Web-based booking tool like
Project Vista will subject their bookings to airlines' on-line
commission caps, which in many cases limit pay to $10 per
ticket.
A browser-based system like Project Vista is not the same as a
Web-based booking system where a consumer rather than an agent does
most of the work, he contended. Project Vista simply provides
travel agencies with a different interface to the Amadeus system
than Amadeus subscribers have been using.
"We are still transmitting that traffic via our own network,"
Cerino said. "It's not like a consumer booking on an agency Web
site. That's taken a little explaining. We've recognized some of
the education we have to do," he said.