Travelport announced a new long-term agreement with United Airlines. This will add to the availability of United’s best inventory and prices, and provide access to ancillary products through the state of the art airline merchandising technology offered under the Travelport Merchandising Platform umbrella, including the adoption of Travelport’s Rich Content and Branding.
Rich Content and Branding enables airlines to more effectively present the value proposition for their products through detailing their offers, including services and/or ancillary services available for purchase, as well as options to upgrade to alternative products via the Travelport Travel Commerce Platform and travel agencies in a manner more similar to the airline’s own consumer-focused website experience. United joins well over 40 other carriers around the globe — ranging from full-service, network carriers, to smaller regional airlines, to low-cost airlines — that have already signed up to use this solution which goes live in the next version of the Travelport Smartpoint agency desktop due this year.
Travelport was the first global distribution system to re-launch the capability for travel agents to sell the additional space and comfort of United’s Economy Plus seating. Travelport-connected agents have the ability to access Economy Plus seat availability and prices within the Travelport Commerce Platform with real-time booking and automated integration into the trip built for the travelling leisure or corporate consumer who has elected to use the services of a travel agency. This includes United’s complimentary Economy Plus seats for qualified MileagePlus customers and their companions.
“United’s array of travel offerings continues to expand and evolve into dynamic products tailored to our customers,” said Tom O’Toole, United’s senior vice president of marketing and loyalty and president of MileagePlus. “United is pleased this agreement enables us to offer the choices our customers value through additional shopping channels. We look forward to continuing to improve the shopping experience for our customers and their agencies through Travelport’s solutions.”
“United is one of the world’s leading airlines and we are delighted to expand our longstanding partnership with them and see them take advantage of the investments we have made in our pioneering merchandising technology, which has been designed to meet the changing needs of the global travel distribution chain,” said Derek Sharp, managing director, Global Distribution Services and Sales, Travelport. “United will be able to leverage Travelport’s leading technology to grow their global reach, promote their brand to travelers all over the world and most importantly maximize the revenues they are able to generate per seat sold.”
