Corporate-booking tool vendor GetThere revamped its ticket-exchange capabilities for road warriors in partnership with ITA Software.
GetThere says business travelers, depending on their industry, exchange 20% to 50% of all tickets annually, and its beefed-up Ticket Manager Exchange enables them to exchange a ticketed flight online, saving corporations big bucks and reducing the need for manual intervention.
GetThere has had ticket-exchange functionality in place since 2004, but the improved Ticket Manager Exchange, introduced in beta early this year, provides new features.
Paul Wiley, GetThere's director of product and customer experience, says the company modified its existing ticket-exchange functionality through the use of a ticket exchange and refund engine [pdf] from ITA Software.
Enhancements, GetThere says, include the ability to make exchanges on partially flown trips and the presence of exchange cost calculations, among others.
One TMC which tested Ticket Manager Exchange during the beta period reports that online ticket exchanges increased as much as 50% since the introduction of the new features, GetThere says.
Part of the impetus for business travelers to exchange unused tickets is the "visual guilt" that the ticket exchange service employs, including unused- ticket messaging on the homepage and throughout the shopping process, Wiley says.
Ticket Manager Exchange works with multiple GDSs -- and not just with the GDS offering from Sabre, GetThere's parent -- and it provides business travelers with the ability to exchange tickets mid-trip if their plans change for domestic and international flights.
Travelers also can execute exchanges for itineraries which use multiple airlines.
GeThere is making Ticket Manager Exchange available to corporations first in U.S. points of sale and the company plans to offer it to global points of sale beginning in the third quarter, Wiley says.