Q for Travel Agents / CRS insiders - online resources; fares
Nov 26th, 2001, 09:57 AM
#1
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Q for Travel Agents / CRS insiders - online resources; fares
Questions to people who use, maintain, program, develop, etc. Worldspan, Apollo/Galileo, Sabre or Amadeus Customer Reservation Systems:
www.air-fare.com uses Worldspan to list lowest fares (in all fare classes) of major cities. I believe this goes directly in to Worldspan's reservation (operated by Delta, NW, TWA mostly).
1. Do TA have access to this type of 'lowest fare in the market'? 1a. Is it available on a web site.
2. Do the other major CRSs also have a lowest fare feature to TAs'? On a public site?
3. What CRS do you use (q mostly for travel agents)? 3a. What do you like about it? 3b. Do they give you an advantage over plain old internet travel sites.
4. Can a regular person access the CRSs directly?
5. Any opinions on finding and booking cheap travel in the internet.
TIA
PS. I used air-fare.com to find the lowest RT fare between DET and JAX to be $89 (last week). It told me Tue/Wed days and Sat stay over. I went to the Continental web site and plugged in a few dates (using combinations of Tue and Wed departures) and low-and-behold - I found the $89 fare after only a few tries!. I thought this was a GREAT way to find the cheapest fare, especially since the info on the web site is updated daily and taps in to Worldspan's CRS. No other major travel site gave me this fare.
www.air-fare.com uses Worldspan to list lowest fares (in all fare classes) of major cities. I believe this goes directly in to Worldspan's reservation (operated by Delta, NW, TWA mostly).
1. Do TA have access to this type of 'lowest fare in the market'? 1a. Is it available on a web site.
2. Do the other major CRSs also have a lowest fare feature to TAs'? On a public site?
3. What CRS do you use (q mostly for travel agents)? 3a. What do you like about it? 3b. Do they give you an advantage over plain old internet travel sites.
4. Can a regular person access the CRSs directly?
5. Any opinions on finding and booking cheap travel in the internet.
TIA
PS. I used air-fare.com to find the lowest RT fare between DET and JAX to be $89 (last week). It told me Tue/Wed days and Sat stay over. I went to the Continental web site and plugged in a few dates (using combinations of Tue and Wed departures) and low-and-behold - I found the $89 fare after only a few tries!. I thought this was a GREAT way to find the cheapest fare, especially since the info on the web site is updated daily and taps in to Worldspan's CRS. No other major travel site gave me this fare.
Nov 29th, 2001, 05:01 PM
#3
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I am a travel agent. I used to use Apollo, and now I am on Sabre (our company switched because Sabre offered a better rental rate). We do not, I repeat do not use the internet to get fares. Our crs is live with the airlines, so we get the fares that the airline has to offer. In Apollo, there was a command $BBQ which i believe stands for Best Buy Quote, and automatically rebooks the lowest fare for us. Gives a few options with different routings. Sabre has a similer functon, and is called Bargan Finder. Basically, CRS's are same S*** different pile. Apollo is my favorite though, because that is what I used in my two years of college and the first 2 1/2 years at my agency.
I really don't know whether you can access a crs directly on the net, but I really don't think so because they are a product for the agents. It took a lot of training and money for me, and others in my proffection to learn to use these effectivly. All the net sites I have ever seen are dumbed down versions.
I believe that a CRS gives us an advantage over internet sites because they are quick, efficiant. Most of the commands make no sense to anyone but us, and that is fine with me. I really don't like point and click type reservations. they are much slower. Also our CRS allows us access to hotels, cars, air, tour packages, (even soap operah and horiscope updates, that amuses me)
I don't think a plain old person can access a CRS because and agency has to pay for a licence to have this program. The more "segment counts" we book through the CRS the cheaper the rental is to the agency. I believe the rental is very expensive, and a reg person would never book enough segments to pay for thier connection.
I have to say, I will not recommend an internet site, because, well I don't want to give business away to the net, and also advertising is not allowed. Our agency has recently bought a web based travel agency, but I do not know if I am allowed to even say what it is on here, because advertising is not allowed.
I really don't know whether you can access a crs directly on the net, but I really don't think so because they are a product for the agents. It took a lot of training and money for me, and others in my proffection to learn to use these effectivly. All the net sites I have ever seen are dumbed down versions.
I believe that a CRS gives us an advantage over internet sites because they are quick, efficiant. Most of the commands make no sense to anyone but us, and that is fine with me. I really don't like point and click type reservations. they are much slower. Also our CRS allows us access to hotels, cars, air, tour packages, (even soap operah and horiscope updates, that amuses me)
I don't think a plain old person can access a CRS because and agency has to pay for a licence to have this program. The more "segment counts" we book through the CRS the cheaper the rental is to the agency. I believe the rental is very expensive, and a reg person would never book enough segments to pay for thier connection.
I have to say, I will not recommend an internet site, because, well I don't want to give business away to the net, and also advertising is not allowed. Our agency has recently bought a web based travel agency, but I do not know if I am allowed to even say what it is on here, because advertising is not allowed.
Nov 30th, 2001, 04:07 AM
#4
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Your question shouldn't be aimed at travel agents! We can tell you about CRS's but unless you're going into the travel business yourself, it doesn't mean anything. Also travel agencies specialize in service, not cheap rates. If you can figure out the rules and how to search for certain classes of service to get them, which it sounds like you did a good job of, you really don't need an agent unless you are willing to pay about $10.00-20.00 more for their service so you don't have to do it all yourself! If you want anything more than just air, you might want to use an agent!
Dec 3rd, 2001, 07:46 AM
#7
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I am an ex-reservation agent who has move on to IT for a major travel agency. I have worked on Apollo (UA based), Sabre (AA based) and Worldspan (so long ago, forgot who it's based by). I also do programming for Apollo and Sabre in a corporate environment. I prefer Apollo because you were able to book in 4 screens, as apposed to 2 in the others. Also, from a programming perspective it is a lot easier to script in Apollo than Sabre. They all offer bargin finders, however each agency must pay for these services.
You are not able to get a CRS system unless you can provide an IATA number, and for that you must pass certain criteria. This includes to be bonded, have a safe on premises and have passes exams issued by IATAN. The amount you pay is determined by how many segments are booked per CRT. Each flight, car, hotel and tour is considered a segment. Also you are allowed only a cretin amount of “hits” per segment. That’s how many times you hit the enter key.
My agency has web based travel self-booking and a multi-CRS reservation center. This center utilizes every CRS system. The agent’s book in a non-CRS environment and it is translated through scripts to find the best available airfare. We do not use the internet to book travel or condone it. It is at this point not available in direct access. This means directly into the airlines inventory. We are currently working on this with several of the airlines.
You are not able to get a CRS system unless you can provide an IATA number, and for that you must pass certain criteria. This includes to be bonded, have a safe on premises and have passes exams issued by IATAN. The amount you pay is determined by how many segments are booked per CRT. Each flight, car, hotel and tour is considered a segment. Also you are allowed only a cretin amount of “hits” per segment. That’s how many times you hit the enter key.
My agency has web based travel self-booking and a multi-CRS reservation center. This center utilizes every CRS system. The agent’s book in a non-CRS environment and it is translated through scripts to find the best available airfare. We do not use the internet to book travel or condone it. It is at this point not available in direct access. This means directly into the airlines inventory. We are currently working on this with several of the airlines.
