Lufthansa plans to launch Amadeus Affinity Shopper on the airline's Germany and U.K. websites next week, and its introduction on Lufthansa's U.S. website could take place as soon as in two weeks, an official says.
Marcus Casey, who heads up Lufthansa's global websites, says the new Amadeus shopping engine, which queries users about their interests and price and doesn't begin with dates and destinations, will have a direct link on the airline's home pages.
The entry point to the tool will be a map of Germany, U.K., Europe or the U.S., depending on the website, Casey says.
For consumers, the new search engine will give them options.
Business travelers, who have to fly to a meeting or conference, probably won't find Affinity Shopper very useful.
But, leisure travelers, knowing they need a getaway or holiday, might be inclined to take Affinity Shopper out for a spin if they know they want to travel to play golf or look for a second husband or wife, but just might not know exactly where their best options are to find these things.
Affinity Shopper, which will have new Lufthansa branding -- to be announced next week -- on the airline's websites, will be an add-on to the existing Amadeus-provided shopping and pricing engine, and thus won't replace it.
Casey says Lufthansa is working on additional ways to integrate Affinity Shopper into its websites beyond the home page link.
From its own internal studies, the airline expects that about 20% of site visitors will find travel inspiration in Affinity Shopper and use it.
In that regard, Casey says website traffic has been increasing with things like Euro 99 fares, and that many customers don't have a set idea on where they want to travel.
"I personally think this is one step in the evolution of search for airlines," Casey says.
Amadeus Affinity Shopper takes some inspiration from travel planning websites like TravelMuse, NileGuide, Uptake, Goby, Gliider and others in that Affinity Shopper tries to take their dreaming-of-a vacation/holiday impulses and packs it into a flight-search engine.
Casey says Lufthansa is currently altering the content inside the various search categories to fit the various country websites.
For example, there may be beach holidays near Riga that appeal to some travelers in Northern Europe that wouldn't be considered an appropriate beach holiday for Spanish or Italian travelers, Casey says.
Hey, different strokes -- and beaches -- for different folks.
Speaking of different folks, Casey says he can't speak for a competitor, ITA Software, as to how Affinity Shopper may impact ITA's QPX business. QPX is a market leader in airfare shopping and pricing, especially in North America.
In response to my question, Casey says he has to believe that ITA would be considering developing some form of search engine that takes a more inspirational approach to shopping for flights than merely starting with travel dates and destinations.
If Affinity Shopper gets some traction, I think there will be plenty of imitators.