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Alternate air ticket purchasing order systems allow for alternative ways of purchasing air tickets and GDS Connectivity not involving Internet or personal TA contact.
Mobile booking of flight tickets and other facilities, for example reviewing flight schedules and comparing fares, can be done using the mobile phone. The importance of mobile booking has increased significantly in the last years. Especially business travelers who use mobile devices too book additional services or to check their flight status. [1]
SMS: A short code can be sent to the TA provided code with specific parameters to receive the required information.
Interactive voice response: A specific number provided by the carrier can be called, and an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) asks questions and guides the user through. The IVR can also take the payment details and process the payment. The e-ticket can be sent as an email or collected over the counter.
Shanghai SmartPay Jieyin has partnered with Lu Hai Kong travel agency in Hefei, Anhui Province, to jointly launch mobile and telephone based payment systems for airline electronic tickets. As part of the launch promotion, customers who buy airline e-ticket in Lu Hai Kong ticket agency and process payment via interactive voice response (IVR).
A smart card (also known as chip card or integrated circuit card-ICC), is a pocket-sized card with embedded integrated circuits to process information. It can receive input, process it using the ICC applications, then deliver the output. The airline smart card enables quick and easy passenger identification; allowing them to obtain a ticket and pay for other products and services. The smart card provides airlines the opportunity to increase savings in distribution costs, provide better security against fraud, allow more access to self-service facilities, and provide a better means to identify their frequent travelers.
Global Distribution System (GDS) provides applications that participating carriers can purchase and use to inform its passengers by means of alerts on their mobile phones. The alerts can be for flight delays, terminal/gate changes, flight cancellations, airport/airline alerts, city/country security alerts, as well as a trip reminder service. Alerts may be private or custom branded with contact information and can be sent via Voice, e-mail, fax or Short Messaging System (SMS). Customized alerts or marketing messages may be also created to get in touch with the passengers anywhere they may be; Patheo offers this same application. The alerts may be delivered to travelers via WML and HTML phones, Web-enabled PDAs and RIM Blackberry devices. Any device that receives e-mail or SMS (AOL, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ) can receive Alert Notifications.
A software application can be installed on a phone, providing access to a specific airline’s reservation system, allowing the user to book, pay and generate e-tickets via their mobile phone. This requires a JAVA enabled handset with GPRS connection.
Mobile phone manufacturers generally provide integrated software for the use of applications like MS Office, and also for connecting to the Internet using GPRS on WAP. These applications may also provide pre-programmed interface to a GDS. Using this feature, travel plans can be made, schedules can be seen, and tickets can be booked.
Motorola and WORLDSPAN furnish travel information via Motorola's Internet-access-enabled wireless devices. Through Motorola's Mobile Internet Exchange communications platform (also known as the MIX platform) and its enhanced voice capabilities, carriers are able to offer their customers access to WORLDSPAN's travel services through any phone. WORLDSPAN is the first travel channel provider of the core content for Motorola's MIX platform.
The WAP versions of GDS provides use to mobile phones to surf the site on their GPRS mobile phones.
Short Message/Messaging Service, commonly abbreviated as SMS, is a text messaging service component of most telephone, Internet and mobile device systems. It uses standardized communication protocols that let mobile devices exchange short text messages. An intermediary service can facilitate a text-to-voice conversion to be sent to landlines.
Computer reservation systems, or central reservation systems (CRS), are computerized systems used to store and retrieve information and conduct transactions related to air travel, hotels, car rental, or other activities. Originally designed and operated by airlines, CRSs were later extended for use by travel agencies, and global distribution systems (GDSs) to book and sell tickets for multiple airlines. Most airlines have outsourced their CRSs to GDS companies, which also enable consumer access through Internet gateways. Modern GDSs typically also allow users to book hotel rooms, rental cars, airline tickets as well as other activities and tours. They also provide access to railway reservations and bus reservations in some markets, although these are not always integrated with the main system. These are also used to relay computerized information for users in the hotel industry, making reservation and ensuring that the hotel is not overbooked.
A passenger name record (PNR) is a record in the database of a computer reservation system (CRS) that contains the itinerary for a passenger or a group of passengers travelling together. The concept of a PNR was first introduced by airlines that needed to exchange reservation information in case passengers required flights of multiple airlines to reach their destination ("interlining"). For this purpose, IATA and ATA have defined standards for interline messaging of PNR and other data through the "ATA/IATA Reservations Interline Message Procedures - Passenger" (AIRIMP). There is no general industry standard for the layout and content of a PNR. In practice, each CRS or hosting system has its own proprietary standards, although common industry needs, including the need to map PNR data easily to AIRIMP messages, has resulted in many general similarities in data content and format between all of the major systems.
Hahn Air is a minor German airline headquartered in Dreieich, offering business jet scheduled and charter flights within Europe from its base at Düsseldorf Airport.
A boarding pass or boarding card is a document provided by an airline during airport check-in, giving a passenger permission to enter the restricted area of an airport and to board the airplane for a particular flight. At a minimum, it identifies the passenger, the flight number, the date, and scheduled time for departure. A boarding pass may also indicate details of the perks a passenger is entitled to and is thus presented at the entrance of such facilities to show eligibility.
An electronic ticket is a method of ticket entry, processing, and marketing for companies in the airline, railways and other transport and entertainment industries.
Amadeus IT Group, S.A. is a major Spanish multinational technology company that provides software solutions for the global travel and tourism industry. It is the world's leading provider of travel technology that focus on developing software for airlines, hotels, travel agencies, and other travel-related businesses to enhance their operations and customer experiences.
The term mobile commerce was originally coined in 1997 by Kevin Duffey at the launch of the Global Mobile Commerce Forum, to mean "the delivery of electronic commerce capabilities directly into the consumer’s hand, anywhere, via wireless technology." Many choose to think of Mobile Commerce as meaning "a retail outlet in your customer’s pocket."
A global distribution system (GDS) is a computerised network system owned or operated by a company that enables transactions between travel industry service providers, mainly airlines, hotels, car rental companies, and travel agencies. The GDS mainly uses real-time inventory from the service providers. Travel agencies traditionally relied on GDS for services, products and rates in order to provide travel-related services to the end consumers. Thus, a GDS can link services, rates and bookings consolidating products and services across all three travel sectors: i.e., airline reservations, hotel reservations, car rentals.
Airport check-in is the process whereby an airline approves airplane passengers to board an airplane for a flight. Airlines typically use service counters found at airports for this process, and the check-in is normally handled by an airline itself or a handling agent working on behalf of an airline. Passengers usually hand over any baggage that they do not wish or are not allowed to carry in the aircraft's cabin and receive a boarding pass before they can proceed to board their aircraft.
Interlining, also known as interline ticketing and interline booking, is a voluntary commercial agreement between individual airlines to handle passengers traveling on itineraries that require multiple flights on multiple airlines. Such agreements allow passengers to change from one flight on one airline to another flight on another airline without having to gather their bags or check-in again. Airlines can also promise free rebooking if the connection is lost due to a delay.
Zonal Employee Discount (ZED) is a multilateral agreement for reduced rate personal travel by airline employees and other travelers. Airlines may bilaterally agree to apply one of three fare levels, space-available / subload and / or positive space / firm reservation status, as well as eligibility for travel in the economy and / or business class cabins.
SITAONAIR is a company that enables airline passengers to use their smart devices including mobile phones and laptops for calls, text messaging, emails and Internet browsing.
Airline reservation systems (ARS) are systems that allow an airline to sell their inventory (seats). It contains information on schedules and fares and contains a database of reservations and of tickets issued. ARSs are part of passenger service systems (PSS), which are applications supporting the direct contact with the passenger.
Videcom International Limited is a United Kingdom travel technology company based in Henley-on-Thames. It designs, develops and provides modern computer reservations systems to airlines and the travel industry, specializing in the hosting and distribution of airline sales.
Galileo is a computer reservations system (CRS) owned by Travelport. As of 2000, it had a 26.4% share of worldwide CRS airline bookings.
AeroMobile Communications Limited is a registered mobile network operator for the aviation industry and is based in the UK. It provides technology and services that allow the safe use of passengers' own mobile phones while inflight. A subsidiary of Panasonic Avionics Corporation its services are often installed alongside Panasonic's Wi-Fi network and can be installed either at the point of aircraft manufacture or retro-fitted across both Airbus and Boeing aircraft. Panasonic Avionic's Wi-Fi network and AeroMobile's mobile phone network are complimentary services and provide passengers with a choice of inflight connectivity options.
Mobile payments is a mode of payment using mobile phones. Instead of using methods like cash, cheque, and credit card, a customer can use a mobile phone to transfer money or to pay for goods and services. A customer can transfer money or pay for goods and services by sending an SMS, using a Java application over GPRS, a WAP service, over IVR or other mobile communication technologies. In India, this service is bank-led. Customers wishing to avail themselves of this service will have to register with banks which provide this service. Currently, this service is being offered by several major banks and is expected to grow further. Mobile Payment Forum of India (MPFI) is the umbrella organisation which is responsible for deploying mobile payments in India.
Voice-based marketing automation (VBMA) refers to software platforms designed for marketing, sales, and support departments to measure, manage, and automate their phone conversations. Marketing departments, sales teams, and support agents use VBMA to initiate, manage, monitor, track, route, record, and report on sales and support phone conversations.