United Kingdom
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Worldspan to offer powerful search tool by spring
BTS Special Report: Worldspan is making its e-pricing low-fare technology available to the UK travel market at the end of March.
The technology, which is already available to US agents, is a shopping system enabling retailers to search through thousands of airfare options to provide customers with the right price.
E-pricing enables agents and other travel providers to search for and book point-to-point fares on a set date or on a more flexible basis by allowing for up to seven days either side.
The system also allows retailers to search for fares across a series of weekends if they are trying to book a short-break.
Until now the global distribution system has been unable to offer this sort of technology to agents because of the number of searches it would generate on its core system.
To get around this Worldspan has put a bank of servers in place which can deal with the volume of enquiries.
Worldspan vice president and general manager for the EMEA region Graham Nichols said: “It’s all based around the fact that you can do more searching for less money. It will be great for online agencies but also good for traditional agencies because it gives them an awful lot of power in terms of the options it brings back.”
Nichols also said the system would be extended to bring in hotels and car-hire searches in the future.
E-pricing is available in three tiers based on how many fare options an agent needs to see when searching for fares.
Worldspan has also introduced its Rate Runner system enabling UK and European travel agents to access fares from low-cost airlines which are not included in the GDS.
The technology is integrated into the agent’s desktop so that passenger details are automatically fed into the back-office system.
Report by Linda Fox
Linda Fox
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