Limited Travel Distributors: What Are They? And What’s All The Hype About?
Within the past year, several U.S.-based companies have announced plans to introduce new, low-cost technologies as alternatives to the GDS. These new companies, commonly known as Limited Travel Distributors (LTD), have created a lot of hype and confusion in the marketplace about the capabilities their systems will offer once they are in operation. They have also asserted a number of false or misleading statements about the capabilities of today’s GDSs. Many travel agencies are confused about what these companies plan to do, and they want to know how they might be affected by LTD technology.

When and if they become fully operational, LTDs will perform simple airline transactions for airline reservations in the United States. Based upon what is known about LTDs today, if a travel agency were to use an LTD system, the agency may need to pay additional fees to other travel distributors or providers when their customers require more than simple airline bookings within the United States.

The agency would most likely not be able to transact all parts of a travel itinerary through a single LTD portal, and would not be able to assure its customer that all, or even the best offerings, have been presented without performing multiple searches. Equally problematic, the LTDs have announced no plans to provide agencies with access to hotel, rental car, tour, cruise or other non-air content. Help desk support, agency inducements and other critical components of your business are also missing from the LTD business model.

It’s simple to see that the LTD cannot be compared to, or be considered an alternative to the GDS—in capability or scope. If LTDs are limited in scope, limited to working with only a handful of airlines and agents, and limited in the types of transactions they are capable of handling—what does all the hype mean, and what are the LTDs actually offering? The truth is, they will not actually offer a new or lower-cost distribution alternative—rather, they will introduce a way of doing business that shifts costs from one travel distributor or supplier to another. And in the process, they will fragment the distribution of travel products and services among travel sellers and buyers.

Clearly, the differences between LTDs and your GDS are significant. Worldspan is not limited in the services we offer, and in fact, the technologies some LTDs are testing for the small segment of travel they support, are less advanced than technologies and applications employed by Worldspan. Your GDS has a proven track record of meeting the changing needs and demands of travel agencies, suppliers, and the international traveling public—including handling complex global transactions, providing training to agents and suppliers, offering help desk support and remitting payments to travel agents.

It’s difficult to predict when or if the LTDs will fully enter the marketplace, or exactly what they will offer or become. Yet there is certainty in the systems and services you require to conduct business. You can rely on Worldspan today and far into the future to meet your needs, including providing you with the leading solutions, service and support you have come to rely upon from a true technology partner.

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Independent Study Shows Worldspan’s e-Pricing® Low-fare Shopping Technology Outperforms Other GDS Shopping Tools
Worldspan’s advanced low-fare shopping solution, e-Pricing, found the lowest available airfares significantly more often than other competitive global distribution systems (GDS), according to an independent airfare analysis study conducted by Topaz International in July 2005. Performance was tested among low-fare shopping solutions from Worldspan, Sabre and Amadeus

In the overall results, Worldspan obtained the lowest fares 79 percent of the time, Sabre 61 percent of the time, and Amadeus 23 percent of the time. Additionally, 89 percent of the time Worldspan was at or within $1 of the lowest fare found.

Each shopping tool searched all airlines that fly in the most popular U.S. travel markets, as well as all possible airfare combinations, based upon low airfares, nonstop flights, direct flights, and any creative connections representing opportunities to drive down itinerary prices. The Topaz study compared the performance of each shopping tool in finding lowest airfares on 99 US domestic city pairs. Each solution was tested applying the same travel dates and times, with all system defaults applied.

e-Learning in Today’s Fast Paced World
Worldspan’s e-Learning allows students to use Internet Technology to their advantage by customizing their learning opportunities.

e-Learning allows users a single logon to participate in virtual (live) classes with an e-Learning instructor or self-paced tutorials. All Worldspan training is free of charge

Virtual (Live) Classes offer online training. Instructors and students interact as the instructor shares web sites, facilitates online chats, offers whiteboard presentations, submits online questions to the students for their participation, and shares applications for all students to view.

Self-Paced Tutorials are independent online tutorials or self-paced lessons that can be taken at a time that fits the students' needs. Lessons are presented using easy-to-follow online interactions and are limited to a maximum time for convenience.

For more information, log on to: home.wspan.com and click on the “training” tab.

An inquiry can also be sent to – training@worldspan.com

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In This Issue

Ticketless Airline Bookings Made Easier
Worldspan is pleased to announce the launch of Ticketless Payment - new enhanced functionality to facilitate ticketless carrier bookings. Formerly known as Guaranteed Ticketing, Ticketless Payment better describes Worldspan's business processes that support ticketless carriers.

Worldspan currently offers thirteen participating carriers that are partially or entirely ticketless, which is a common characteristic among the new low-cost entrants. Most low-cost carriers rely on simple fare structures, accept limited forms of payment and avoid costs associated with traditional ticketing. Additionally, they manage booking fulfillment by processing credit card charges and subsequently marking the PNR as entitled to travel.

The release of Ticketless Payment includes five innovative features that are designed to effectively support the fulfillment of ticketless airline bookings in Worldspan.

• Revised Sell Comment
  
• New End Transaction Edit
  
• Handy Go! Script
  
• Standard SSR OTHS format
  
• Global Reference System (GRS) enhancement
  

We are confident that our newly launched Ticketless Payment features will greatly enhance the booking and fulfillment process for ticketless carriers in Worldspan and help reduce the number of rejected bookings for lack of form of payment or improperly formatted form of payment information.

For additional information on Ticketless Payment please see INFO TKTLESSPAY in the Worldspan reservations system. An updated script review document is available via the Global Learning Center

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Worldspan CruiseSelectSM Adds Royal Caribbean and Celebrity
Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines (RCCL) and Celebrity Cruise Lines have recently been added as the latest participants in Worldspan CruiseSelect. A full–featured on-line cruise booking system, CruiseSelect connects cruise lines with Worldspan travel agencies throughout the United States and Canada via Worldspan Go!â. It enables distribution of the most comprehensive cruise content available via the Web. With CruiseSelect you have the tools at your fingertips to search, plan and book cruises, including the ability to create modify or cancel bookings directly within a cruise line’s internal system—in real time.

In addition to Royal Caribbean and Celebrity you can also book Carnival, Costa, Windstar and Holland America Cruise Lines via CruiseSelect.

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Walt Disney Resorts Adds Air to Worldspan Tour Source®
You now have the ability to book air packages along with Walt Disney World land packages through Tour Source, Worldspan’s electronic tour and vacation booking system.

Accessible by Worldspan subscribers in the United States and the United Kingdom at no charge, Tour Source enables travel agents to receive instant confirmation when booking tours and other leisure products and services.

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Quick Tips for Booking Car and Hotels

Worldspan Car Source® – Rule Enhancements
Car Source participants now have the ability to alert agencies when restrictions and conditional rules apply—directly on the Availability screen. Worldspan agents are now able to see if a vehicle or rate requires a credit card guarantee to book, if an incoming flight is required to book, if there are mileage restrictions or if the rate is a corporate rate, or if other restrictions are highlighted by the Car Supplier. By displaying indicators directly on the availability screens, agents can easily see if the vehicle or rate has specific restrictions. This feature makes it must faster and easier to give clients the full story early in the booking process, saving time for both customers and agents!

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Worldspan Car Source®– Off Airport Location Searches
Did you know that shopping for an off-airport rental car location through Worldspan is easier than ever before? You can display a list of all locations stored in Worldspan, see real time availability with prices, view car makes and models and read all rules and restrictions. You don't have to limit your opportunities for booking car rentals to just trips where you book a flight, you can meet your customers' needs (and increase your commissions) by servicing off-airport car rentals. For additional information and format assistance, see INFO CRL.

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Car and Hotel Loyalty Programs
Did you know that you can help your clients earn loyalty points while simplifying your search process? We’ve made shopping for your customer’s favorite car and hotel brands easier by associating participating car and hotel frequent traveler programs to a master chain code in Worldspan. You can search up to 25 brands at a time using a single loyalty code! For additional information, see INFO HLOYALTY for hotels or INFO CLOYALTY for cars.

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Hotels – Shop and Compare
Comparison-shopping is easier with Worldspan! Did you know that you can select a group of hotels from a list and SAVE them to make comparison shopping easier? Worldspan makes it simple with Hotel Select Save. Simply display a list of hotels using your choice of search parameters and then enter HS and the line number(s) to save. When you enter HS*, your short list of Hotels appears for simple comparison-shopping. You can toggle between your original list and the saved list, add new properties and then book directly from the Save screen. For additional information, see INFO HS.

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Worldspan Trip ManagerXE® Enhancements

Hotel Enhancement—Search by Postal Zip Code
Trip Manager XE will add the ability to search hotel contracts by zip code only. Today, if a user searches for a hotel in a specific zip code, all contract hotels are displayed. With this enhancement, if a user searches by zip code, only contracts in that zip code and other non-contract hotels (if settings allow) in that zip code will be displayed.

Hotel Media Content Now Available
Worldspan's new partnership with VFM Interactive, the leading distributor and producer of rich media content for the lodging and travel industry provides corporate travelers who book trips online through Trip Manager XE the ability to view, shop, compare and book hotel properties by tapping into videos and 360 degree virtual tours for specific properties and destinations. Worldspan is the first GDS partner to integrate VFM's product into the travel distribution chain.

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Rapid Reprice Enhancement
Due to various rules, which govern airline fares, there may be times when a ticket is not eligible for a reissue. A new option has been added into the Worldspan host, which identifies these types of tickets. Trip Manager XE looks at the fares governing the ticket and the new itinerary and verifies if the ticket can be used towards the new itinerary. If it cannot, the Trip Manager XE customer will see the following response:

The residual value on this ticket cannot be used towards this new itinerary due to the airline rules governing this fare. Click the Continue button to continue with the purchase of this reservation as a new ticket.

Please refer to on-line help and your Worldspan representative for additional information.

Upcoming Events

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Look for Worldspan at these upcoming events:

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