Two
travel technology vendors launched software that automatically
displays the details of a client's unused airline tickets at the
moment the travel agent is booking the client's next trip.
The new software is a
bridge between a MagnaTech product, OnTrack Profiler, which
collects unused ticket data, and BookingBuilder's Genie, a
point-of-sale quality assurance tool. The two vendors will provide
the bridge between the two systems for any agencies that want it
and are using both products.
Until now, said
MagnaTech President Jacques Thibault, OnTrack Profiler dropped the
unused ticket information into traveler profiles.
In that scenerio, he
said, the booking agent had to manually search out information on
unused tickets when booking a traveler's next trip. With the bridge
in place, he said, the booking agent automatically receives a
reminder on screen, "something everyone has been looking for for a
long time."
With the bridge, he
said, OnTrack Profiler ships to BookingBuilder's main server the
data on unused tickets, if that information is associated with
agencies using both systems. In turn, he said, the Genie device on
the agency's desktop queries BookingBuilder's server for the
information and brings it to the counselor's screen.
OnTrack Profiler can
be used with Sabre and Worldspan agencies, and Amadeus will be
added in the first quarter of this year, Thibault said. Genie is
functional with all four GDSs.
Thibault estimated a
few hundred agencies use both the OnTrack Profiler and Genie, but
the new bridge will raise those numbers, he predicted.
He said the product
is viable for small agencies with only half a dozen counselors, as
well as for the largest agencies.
For the smallest, he
said, his prices -- calculated on a per-transaction basis -- can be
as low as $60 a month; at the midrange, he said, they are about
$200 a month. Genie's cost is $5 a month per desktop.
Find more information
at www.magnatech.com and www.bookingbuilder.com.
To contact the
reporter who wrote this article, send e-mail to Nadine Godwin at [email protected].