Business travel platform
TripActions is launching an end-to-end flight shopping and booking experience integrated
with IATA’s New Distribution Capability (NDC) industry standard.
The system is
launching in partnership with United Airlines and will allow TripActions
clients to access the same content that is available on United’s website, such
as fares, bundles and ancillary products like premium seating, checked baggage,
club access and more.
“We are getting
essentially everything that’s available on United.com. There is no need for a traveler
to purchase anything outside of the platform, even down to a same-day change ...
where they couldn’t have done that before,” says Daniel Finkel, vice president
of booking experience and supplier strategy at TripActions.
Enabling a more
user-friendly experience will drive higher adoption of the platform by business
travelers, he says, thereby giving their employers a more complete and
transparent view of their company’s travel spending.
“Through the customization
of the bundles we are able to do, in some cases we’ll have more [content] and
it will be tailored to the companies using us,” Finkel says.
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“As we start to
roll this out, we are going to do it at the TripActions-wide level from an
economy-plus perspective. What we are able to do, because we are able to bundle
these disparate ancillaries together, is to create a new fare class essentially
for United – an economy-plus fare class - that will be available ... to all
clients that we move into NDC.”
The next step will
be to develop bundles customized to individual clients based on their unique
needs.
“We don’t want to
put things in front of our clients that create harm in terms of policy. So by
rolling it out to a smaller handful of customers, we can work with them and United
to determine the right bundles and the right offers to put in front of the
clients to really learn about how this affects policy,” he says.
Finkel says he
expects the NDC experience to be scaled to all customers “in the very near
future,” with United as well as several additional carriers.
“Our goal at United is to provide
the easiest and best experience for customers from the moment they book a flight to the moment they
arrive at their final destination,” says Glenn Hollister, vice president of sales
strategy and effectiveness at United.
“We’re committed to making the
booking and shopping experience the best it can be on a variety of channels,
and in working with TripActions to offer NDC, we’re able to provide a more
seamless experience for our customers.”
In February, TripActions launched
a new booking experience in collaboration with United, American Airlines and
Delta Air Lines and based on the Next-Generation Storefront (NGS) standards
being developed by ATPCO.