Amadeus Unveils Merchandising Tool, Signs with TravCom

Amadeus is rolling out a new tool that will enable travel agencies to set their own criteria for sorting air fares on their Web sites, depending on what is most relevant to the client.

Called Amadeus Master Pricer Agent Fare Families, the application allows an agency to group search results in up to six fare families, each with similar characteristics. Criteria might include the publishing carrier, booking class, cabin, refundability, penalties, public/private/corporate fare, etc.

Fare Family merchandising functionality will be made available through the GDS channel by the end of 2010. It will be delivered as part of the functionalities that will be rolled out under the Amadeus Airline Retailing Platform and will be bookable via the Amadeus Selling Platform, its browser-based agent desktop with a graphical user interface that provides access to the Amadeus GDS as well as third-party content.

Agents can tailor the selection of fare offers, depending on each customer request and profile and decide and design how the fare families are constructed. They also can give more visibility to specific content from a preferred airline, helping them reach their sales goals more quickly.

Amadeus noted that the lowest fare is not always the best option in a variety of scenarios.

A traveler may require the flexibility to change or cancel an itinerary, for example, and may or may not be willing to pay a penalty to do so. Search results can be grouped so that the customer can see an apples-to-apples comparison of fares. Non-refundable fares can be grouped together in one family; fares that are refundable with a penalty can be grouped into a different family; and fully flexible fares can be displayed in a third family.

Business travelers must consider corporate policy, which may dictate the choice of carrier or type of fare. They have less schedule flexibility.

Frequent travelers also have preferences based on their mileage programs on specific carriers or alliances.

Amadeus said Master Pricer Agent Fare Families puts a merchandising tool used by airlines into the hands of travel agents. When airlines display fare families on their Web sites, allowing travelers to see clearly the benefits attached to a higher fare, they see increases in online revenues of up to 30% within three months. Air Canada, for example, has said that most travelers “buy up” from its lowest fare category.

Amadeus Master Pricer Agent Fare Families is currently available and in production worldwide.

Marketing Agreement with TravCom

Amadeus also entered into a marketing agreement with TravCom that will offer U.S. subscribers greater product integration between Amadeus’ travel agency solutions and TravCom’s products, ClientMajic for CRM and TravCom CS for back-office accounting.

The agreement also extends to all members of Amadeus’ wholly owned subsidiary, Vacation.com.

Preferred pricing is available to Amadeus and Vacation.com travel agency customers in the U.S. who are currently not TravCom clients. Preferred pricing also will be available to current TravCom customers upon contract renewal. Agents will be given future opportunities for additional content and enhanced functionality with preferred pricing options.

The offer, including preferred pricing, is available to Amadeus and Vacation.com agents in the U.S. who are currently not TravCom clients. Preferred pricing also will be available to current TravCom customers upon contract renewal.