Travelport Corporate Solutions has gained a foothold in the region by signing Australian TMC, Travelforce, as its first Asia-Pacific customer.

Travelport is a Cendant subsidiary which replaced the Highwire brand. It was officially launched in Australia and New Zealand in March, and was first showcased in Asia at the recent Business Travel Expo in Hong Kong.

Galileo, also under Cendant, will help push Travelport to TMCs in the Asia-Pacific. The product’s main selling point is the Advanced Policy function, which allows the booker to apply a second layer of policy that gives a wider search. Based on fare restrictions and availability, many corporate travel policy tools do not come back with available options for the traveller, according to Asia-Pacific director of product management and marketing, Mr Kurt Knackstedt.

The system obeys policy rules but can do “a little bit extra”. “It is like policy software with built-in common sense. So the system will search for an airline specified by the travel manager. But it will go back a second time and interprets the policy to deliver the best fare from available inventory, while also capturing and inserting trip-specific benchmark data,” Mr Knackstedt said.

He said the solution could be configured into existing corporate systems with ease and hoped its ability to influence policy adherence in the online environment would be the key selling point to win over the TMCs – the main target.

Mr Knackstedt said: “Primarily, the marketplace is very underdeveloped with the main competition being Sabre’s GetThere (marketed by Abacus International in Asia) and Amadeus’ e-Travel (see story below). In Australia, the products are more localised with brands such as Serko Online and TRX offers ResAssist. The scene seems quite wide open otherwise, and we prefer to work with TMCs as a reseller of the product. However, we would not turn away requests direct from corporations.”

He added: “Our main focus in marketing Travelport this year will be Singapore and Hong Kong. The solution is offered in English and the main European languages for now, but we are developing multibyte character Asian languages which will be eventual options.”

He added the company would participate at CITM (China International Travel Mart) and ACTE (Association of Corporate Travel Executives) events this year to push the product. Travelport also lets traveller data be accessible across different databases, enhance policy enforcement, and integrate pre-trip notification, web fares, fulfilment services, Premium Economy booking and multi-class itineraries.

KEY FEATURES

Advanced Policy
This gives corporations more power over how the system shops. Instead of only using traditional corporate hierarchy rules, it lets companies apply policies in multiple ways, including by specific search criteria or trip purpose, and displays fares to help direct travellers to a company’s preferred vendor rates.

Web Fares
The ability for low-cost carriers that do not participate in Galileo to be bookable in Travelport.

Premium Economy
The first online booking tool to let corporations and business travellers book and select seats for Premium Economy class – with integrated support for travel policy.

Multiclass Itineraries
If the trip is allowed in business class one way but only economy coming back, Travelport Release 12 has a function that specifies this.