With the U.S. Dept. of Justice making inquiries into allegations by Farelogix that Sabre engaged in anti-competitive practices, Farelogix President and CEO Jim Davidson answered counter-charges by Sabre that Farelogix was encouraging "content fragmentation" and seeking a "free ride" on the back of the Sabre global distribution system. Davidson says: "I landed in the Middle East on Tuesday morning (local time) and my Blackberry awoke to a surge of messages about an article published by Tnooz about the DOJ making calls to certain Farelogix customers. After reading the article, I felt compelled to respond to the comments made by the Sabre representative. "To the Sabre comment about the 'evolution of the Farelogix business model to one of content fragmentation,' I offer the following 3 points: "I can confidently say that the Farelogix business model has been consistent from the first day I joined the company, over four years ago. As a matter of fact, on two separate occasions, Farelogix invited and hosted Sabre product managers and executives in our Miami office where we provided full-disclosure product demos. We clearly reviewed with Sabre how the FLX Platform technology accesses and manages multiple content sources, including all GDS, Web, private fares, and direct supplier content. So maybe the 'evolution' comment was related to the fact that since that time, Farelogix has actually developed some solid customer traction with our business model. Perhaps 'fragmentation' is simply a code word for 'lower cost competition.'"... Read More

The UK's Travel Technology Initiaitve is pushing ahead with plans to attempt to introduce a set of rules for geo-coding for the travel sector. Executives at the organisation are keen to adopt an agreed set of standards throughout the hotel sector in order to ensure geographical information about properties is accurate and useful for consumers and third party websites. The system would work by forcing the hotel industry to create a geo-code for each hotel which would then be verified before release to the wider world. Unfortunately the TTI has a number of problems with this initiative.... Read More

There is some confusion about extra services (which are mainly non mandatory to the end customer) that are now available on many forms of mainstream travel products such as flights. The problem is these agents are looking at all these ancillary products through the wrong lens. Yes of course it is about the money but it is also about centralising bookings. No wonder agents are upset - but they put the issue down to airline incompetence rather than well considered strategy. The agents are complaining about the wrong point!... Read More

In weak moments, I find myself pining for Travelocity, which at times appears to have disappeared behind the iron curtain of private equity and debt. Since parent company Sabre, acquired by private-equity firms Texas Pacific Group and Silver Lake Partners in 2007, hasn't released any earnings statements for 2009, except to bondholders, it is tough to get a precise handle on Travelocity's performance. But, it is clear that Travelocity has not been nimble in reacting to -- let alone spurring on -- market developments.... Read More

There are some indications that travel job market is picking up over the past few months after what most have said is the worst period in history for the travel, tourism and hospitality industry. Politicians will try to avoid the phrase "green shoots of recovery" at all costs, simply because it's often seen as a fool's game to predict any sign of a return to normality, however a number of folk with more than a passing knowledge of the recruitment sector are hopeful that the worst period is now over. But what is perhaps the most interesting nugget in all this is signs that the tech jobs are driving some much of that resurgence in the market.... Read More

When it comes to Orbitz Total Price Hotel, you can lead online travel agencies to water, but you can't make them drink. Six months ago, Orbitz introduced this new mode of displaying hotel pricing, where consumers view the base rate plus "taxes and fees" up-front, but none of Orbitz's OTA competitors has copied this bow to transparency. For years, OTAs have played bait and switch with consumers on hotel pricing because travelers only learn the true cost of the room, with booking fees tacked on, when they are ready to book. Comparing base rates doesn't really tell the story. Addressing a gaggle of bloggers at an Orbitz bloggers' summit in its Chicago headquarters last week, Orbitz Worldwide CEO Barney Harford said, "I am a little surprised" that no competitor has matched Total Price Hotel.... Read More

Arnaud Bilquez is claiming to lead a new form of travel reviewing, creating the new concept of NOW Reviews for the airline market. Just as Twitter offers real-time news, searches and messaging, Google is now thinking about following the trend to provide users with more and more up-to-the-minute news. Arnaud explains more about his mobile airline news application and the NOW Reviews for the airline market.... Read More

Launched quietly last night, but press released this morning, TripAdvisor has finally launched its flight metasearch product in the UK. The service is a like-for-like copy of the US product which launched in February 2009 and comes amid significant changes in the metasearch arena in the UK. At present the UK is the only country site outside of the US to have taken the product, although a spokesperson says the remaining domains on the roster (currently running at 12 after the US and the UK) will all receive the functionality in due course.... Read More

There is nothing like United Airlines for getting us in that proper holiday frame of mind. Just in time for Chanukah, Christmas and Kwanza, United has introduced Premier Baggage. If I hadn't read about it on the United website, I would have taken the name, Premier Baggage, and the idea as satire. So with Premier Baggage, the latest salvo in ancillary-services marketing, travelers can pay an introductory rate of $249 per year and check up to two standard bags for no extra charge all year on United and United Express flights.... Read More

The U.S. Dept. of Justice has begun looking into allegations by Farelogix that Sabre engaged in anti-competitive practices when it terminated a Farelogix developers' agreement in March. Tnooz has learned that the Dept. of Justice has recently begun contacting Farelogix customers about the allegations. Farelogix partner Pass Consulting, as well as Globus and Vayama (also known as Air Trade International), confirmed they have been contacted. Farelogix alleges -- and Sabre denies -- that when Sabre terminated the Farelogix developers' agreement with the Sabre GDS that Sabre was using its imposing market clout in the U.S. market to snuff out a competitor. When that agreement ended, it made it much more difficult for Farelogix customers to integrate their Farelogix bookings with other reservations made through Sabre.... Read More

Rumours that bids for the beleaguered BlueSky Travel Systems business would only be accepted before 5pm BST today are apparently wide of the mark. The cut-off date appeared rather hurried as the company only officially went into administration last week, on September 30. Administrator MCR has confirmed how many bids have been received "so far" and also remarked that any technology company or investor that wanted to put a proposal together for BlueSky needn't panic at missing what was supposedly an official deadline.... Read More

Farecast, Farecompare and a number of other travel sites made the idea of data crunching at the front end extremely popular with users. Such scientific chores such as displaying when is typically the best time to buy a ticket on certain airlines became quite a usual and often core feature of websites as they tried to differentiate themselves from the metasearch engines already in the market. Kayak has now done it the other way round, with a slightly watered down version showing search volumes and average fares across its network of destinations.... Read More

In putting WIT-Web In Travel 2009 together, I have been traveling across the region and getting a taste of what’s unfolding in the online travel landscape. From Kuala Lumpur to Taipei to Bangkok, a similar story seems to be unfolding – that the convergence of several things happening is moving more and more consumers online and onto mobile in this biggest, and fastest growing market in the world. First, there’s the crisis that’s made 2009 The Year of the Deal in Asia, and many of these deals are being pushed online by suppliers.... Read More

I reported over the weekend that Hugh Crean, general manager of Bing Travel, is leaving the company, effective Oct. 23. Now, it turns out, that Jay Bartot , chief principal engineer at Bing Travel, will be following Crean out the door a few weeks later, in mid-November. The question now is whether Bing Travel can up the ante with much of the original team missing in action.... Read More

We can have a long debate about the merits of Twitter. It has its advocates as well its opponents. The reason I like Twitter is because the travel industry is so fragmented that it is a great mechanism to keep up with the zeitgeist. No other tool, website, conference or trade association is as effective at joining together so many people from all corners of the fragmented travel industry.... Read More