Travel Technology

April 7, 2008

Travelport and G2Switchworks

Tweet On Friday April 4, 2008 Travelport announced that they were acquiring from G2 Switchworks “certain software assets and intellectual property to be used in the development of a future Travelport agent desktop solution.” Given all the hype of GDS verses GNE over the last four years, what does this deal mean to alternative distribution? There are a number of […]
March 26, 2008

American Airlines Facebook Widget

Tweet American Airlines announced today the release of a widget for Facebook in an effort to “understand how consumers interact with one another”.” The tool allows Facebook users to share trips within their network and comment about their experiences. American has always been a leader online going all the way back to the late 1990s when they introduced an early […]
March 26, 2008

Unbundling Air Fare Costs

Tweet ,Today Delta matched earlier moves by United and USAirways to charge $25 for a second checked bag. This is both a reaction to increased operating expenses due to escalating fuel costs as well as the clear desire to unbundle airfare pricing. It is interesting to note that this fee ” will not apply to first-class or business-class customers or […]
March 24, 2008

WiMax at airports

Tweet WiMax’s first commercial rollout may very well be at U.S. airports. The goal is to provide a faster upload of manifests, flight plans and onboard entertainment for incoming aircraft. For those not familiar with the term, WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) is a wireless industry coalition whose members organized to advance IEEE 802.16 standards for broadband wireless access […]
March 7, 2008

Sprice: Meta Search for Static Packages

Tweet I had a great conversation this morning with Jerome Thil the CEO of the French meta-travel search company Sprice. In Europe and other parts of the world purchasing static vacation packages has been the norm long before the advent of the Web. That buyer behavior has changed a bit with the concept of dynamic packaging, but roughly 80% of […]
March 7, 2008

iPhone SDK: The Good News and Bad News

Tweet Yesterday’s announcement concerning the availability of the iPhone SDK (Software Development Kit) is significant for potential travel application developers. The iPhone has shifted the focus from cell phones to mobile Internet devices with the first full function mobile Web browser. Applications written for the iPhone can be downloaded directly from the Internet bypassing the traditional walled garden of the […]