The OpenTravel Alliance Publishes Specification Version 2010A
Enhancements for Loyalty Programs and Dynamic Packaging, Hotels and Car Rental Companies
The OpenTravel Alliance (OpenTravel), the travel industry’s leading specification development organization, has published the 2010A version of it specification that includes useful functionality for companies across the travel industry. “We had great participation from leading companies in the industry, including Amadeus, AceRentACar, Pegasus and US Airways Vacations,” said Valyn Perini, executive director of OpenTravel. “The travel industry is certainly not sitting still during the economic recovery, but is actively positioning itself to take advantage of the better times to come.” The 2010A version includes message solutions for the following business needs: Loyalty programs:
- Added loyalty account information including more flight details (like the flight reference number associated with a certificate), PIN numbers, customer booking class and more details about the requester of the certificate.
- Enhanced functionality to support for more loyalty certificate “currencies” (including miles, points, vouchers and hotel stays) and the ability to issue/reference multiple certificates for customers in a single message.
Dynamic packaging:
- Added ability to include rental cars to existing hotel and air segments
- Added ability to include activities, including
- show tickets
- amusement park tickets
- airport transfers
- meal plan vouchers
- club passes
- travel insurance
For hotel companies:
- Enhanced hotel availability searches by adding the ability to return a link to a map, indicates the position of the matching hotels and allows inclusion of map display attributes, such as height and width
- Added a search options for meal plan types
For Immediate Release Contact: Ms. Valyn Perini P: +1 978 263 7606 E: [email protected] For rental car companies:
- Created the ability to transfer bulk vehicle reservations between two systems either internally, from a reservation collection system to a rental counter level system, or externally between two trading partners
Upcoming OpenTravel Activities OpenTravel’s annual Advisory Forum will be held April 26-28, 2010 at the Marriott Seattle Waterfront in Seattle, Washington. OpenTravel will hold a half-day event at TRAVDEX in Atlanta on May 6, 2010.
About the OpenTravel Alliance The OpenTravel Alliance is passionate about solving the problems inherent with connecting multiple systems within the complex travel distribution arena. OpenTravel’s mission is to engineer specifications that make data transmission flow smoothly throughout travel, tourism and hospitality. OpenTravel creates, expands and drives adoption of open universal data specifications, including but not limited to the use of XML, for the electronic exchange of business information among all sectors of the travel industry. With a diversified membership representing influential names in all sectors of the travel industry, OpenTravel is comprised of representatives from airlines, car rental firms, hotels, cruise lines, leisure suppliers, service providers, tour operators, travel agencies, and trade associations. Thousands of message structures are in use, carrying tens of millions of messages between travel trading partners every day. For more information, visit www.opentravel.org.
