Making the news this week: Sabre’s Red App Centre’s record adoption, Fly-Thru with AirAsia, Linkedin with KLM, flights comparison engine for Lonely Planet, TripAdvisor Travellers’ Choice awards
Sabre’s Red App Centre sees record adoption rate
Record adoption for Red App Centre
Sabre Corporation reports that global user adoption for its Red App Centre surged over the past year to more than 500,000 app downloads from 70,000 users in 112 countries, and expects to see the numbers top one million by end of the year.
The Centre is the world’s first B2B app marketplace for the travel industry, where agents can shop and request Red Apps that they can use to extend the capabilities of their Sabre Red Workspace. With the apps travel agencies have the ability to customise the Workspace e to fit the specific needs of their agency.
Sabre said the Centre has been completely redesigned. Searching, sorting, and filtering through apps is simpler, and ordering has been streamlined with a new, intuitive step-by-step process.
Two of the most recent contributions to the Sabre Red App Centre include Sabre’s Low Fare Calendar and Red Eva apps.
The Sabre Low Fare Calendar app allows agents using the Sabre Red Workspace to quickly view the lowest round-trip fares for a desired length of stay across a variety of different departure dates during the next six months, helping them save time and provide more options to travellers. It was created using the Lead Price Calendar Application Programming Interface, recently released as part of Sabre Dev Studio.
With the Red Eva app, agents can shop the Sabre marketplace using natural language. This app converts the language request to a Sabre command and execute it. For example, a user can type: “Find a flight from Boston to Paris, July 22, returning, July 28, and a hotel near the Eiffel Tower.” Thw app takes the text input and converts it into a Sabre Classic View command within the Sabre Red Workspace, helping to shorten training time for new travel agents and provide veteran agents an easy way to shop for content they do not typically book.
Flying through to more destinations with AirAsia and AirAsia X
Aireen (left) and Azran flying through / Image credit: AirAsia
Asia’s leading low cost carriers, AirAsia and AirAsia X, have introduced 139 new Fly-Thru routes, making journeys on multiple-city a seamless travel experience without the hassle of numerous check-ins, transit visas or multiple baggage transfers.
The airline’s guests on any of these routes receive an onward flight boarding pass from the first point of embarkation, and are allowed to bypass immigration clearance at the airline’s Fly-Thru hubs in Kuala Lumpur’s klia2 or Bangkok’s Don Mueang. All check-in baggage are tagged for automatic transfer to the consecutive flight right up to the final destination.
Guests also enjoy guaranteed connection. In the event of delay caused by the airline leading to missing of consecutive flights, AirAsia will automatically accommodate affected Fly-Thru passengers on the next available flight without any additional charges.
The latest addition increased the airlines’ Fly-Thru routes to 700 via the two hubs.
AirAsia CEO, Aireen Omar, said, “The Fly-Thru service reflects our continuous effort to innovate and enhance our service offerings, presenting utmost convenience to our guests and making multiple-city flights easier and more efficient. Fly-Thru also allows guests to leverage on the strength of our network and connectivity to various destinations in ASEAN and beyond.
Azran Osman-Rani, CEO of AirAsia X Berhad added, “With the convenience of our Fly-Thru flights, guests from our long haul network and that of the AirAsia group may connect seamlessly to over 85 destinations across the group’s network. The hassle free travel experience will indeed open up new horizons for commercial activities and boost tourism in the ASEAN region.”
KLM first airline to offer service through LinkedIn
World’s first airline to use LinkedIn
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines is offering 24/7 service via LinkedIn that provides customers with general and flight-related queries on topics such as seat reservations, rebooking a ticket or making arrangements for extra baggage.
KLM is the first in the world offering service via this business-oriented social media platform.
Martijn van der Zee, senior vice president e-Commerce of Air France KLM, said the latest offering is a move by the airline to offer its guests even better service.
“After Facebook, Twitter and VKontakte, adding service via LinkedIn is in line with KLM’s strategy to be where our customers are. LinkedIn attracts business people worldwide, many of whom regularly travel by air. This makes it an interesting platform for KLM,” he added.
KLM currently has over 70,000 followers on LinkedIn, more than six million fans on Facebook, and one million on Twitter. The airline receives more than 35,000 mentions a week on social media, around 4,500 of which are queries, that are handled by 130 service agents, who are available 24/7.
Lonely Planet launched flights comparison engine
Book or purchase products and services on the site
Lonely Planet has partnered with global search provider, Skyscanner, to launch a new flights comparison engine, the first time the leading travel media company has hosted an own-branded flight search engine.
Sitting within the booking section of LonelyPlanet.com, the mobile-optimised search engine is seamlessly incorporated into the recently re-designed site.
In addition to flights, travellers can book or purchase a range of products and services on LonelyPlanet.com, including accommodation, car rental, insurance and a range of tours. The site provides information on 27,000 destinations and has a travel forum with a community of over 1.3 million members.
Travellers can book flights on the site, and within the “Need to Know” section of each destination page.
Tom Hall, director of digital editorial for Lonely Planet, said the partnership was a crucial step for it to make every part of the travel experience bookable on LonelyPlanet.com. “Our site is evolving to become a one-stop hub for travellers, providing them with inspiration, and the information and tools they need to plan and book a trip. ”
Universal Studios Singapore is Asia’s top amusement park
Universal Studios, op amusement park in Asia
Universal Studios Singapore was named the top amusement park in Asia in TripAdvisor Travellers’ Choice awards for Amusement Parks and Water Parks around the globe.
The theme park was ahead of Hong Kong’s Ocean Park and Tokyo’s DisneySea and Tokyo Disneyland, which came out second, third and fourth respectively in the top 10 list.
The others in the Asian listing are Hong Kong Disneyland (fifth); Universal Studios Japan, Osaka (sixth); Wonderia Amusement Park, Bangalore, India (seventh), Vinpearl Amusement Park, Nha Trang, Vietnam (eighth); Harbin Icen and Snow Amusement World, Harbin, China (ninth); and Ramoji Film City, Hyderrabad, India (10th).
In the global listing of amusement parks Orlando in Florida, US, takes the cake with four listing with Discovery Cove at number one, followed by Universal’s Islands of Adventure (third), Magic Kindgom (fourth), Disney’s Hollywood Studios (fifth), and Disney’s Animal Kingdom (10th)
In the Water Parks category Waterbom Bali, Indonesia, is number one, with Flow House Bangkok, Black Mountain Water Park in Hua Hin (Thailand), Water Kingdom in Mumbai (India), and Chimelong Water Park in Guangzhou (China) making up the top five in Asia.
Globally, the US and Brazil lead the wave with the most award-winning water parks. As the former is home to six of the top 25 water parks on the world list, and Brazil home to five, these hotspots offer fun-filled parks for travellers to make a splash including Beach Park in Aquiraz, Brazil, in second place, and Disney’s Blizzard Beach in Orlando, Florida, third. Number one, however, goes to Siam Park in Adeje, Spain.
Click here for the complete list of winners from the 2014 Travellers’ Choice Amusement Parks, and here for Water Parks.
• Featured image (book flight button) credit: Patryk Kosmider/Shutterstock
