"My immediate thought was that it was either a promotion or a generic airfare sale email." That was the posting by one frequent flyer on a FlyerTalk message board, but, on closer examination, the email turned out to be more than a slice of spam. Rather, it extended to the American Airlines customer an offer for an itinerary previously searched on aa.com, but never booked. "Still looking for great prices from Chicago O'Hare, IL, to Los Angeles, CA?" the email asked. Read More »

By the end of last month, 11 airlines actively were issuing live electronic miscellaneous documents to travel agents through global distribution systems, according to the International Air Transport Association. Read More »

Concur is initiating discussions with airlines to enable "open bookings" that would give corporate clients the ability to enforce policy, apply discounts and track transactions when travelers book on airline websites. Read More »

A Barcelona-based company is selling booking data globally to airlines that in some cases identifies ticket sales to single corporate clients. Information revealed in the data reports includes how much the client is paying on each route, plus average ticket price and market share. The data product, called eSmash, is sold by Accelya, which handles numerous Billing and Settlement Plan processes for the International Air Transport Association on an outsourced basis. Read More »

More than 50 companies including FlightStats, ExpenseCloud and Short's Travel Management have licensed an application programming interface from WorldMate, according to the itinerary management provider. WorldMate automates the processing of confirmation emails from more than 1,300 travel intermediaries and suppliers. Read More »

Booking and expense tool provider KDS plans in the second half of 2012 to launch a tool for managing reservations by clients’ travelers, even if they book outside approved channels. Read More »

When American Airlines in 2009 debuted on the public stage its direct connect strategy, director of merchandising strategy Cory Garner envisioned that by curtain call "100 percent of our indirect volume" would go through the technology. More than two-and-a-half years later, the carrier remains in the first act. Read More »

Canada-based agency automation provider MagnaTech this week claimed that about 200 agencies use its mobile trip recovery app, which has been downloaded nearly 2,000 times since January. Called SafeToGo, the product was private-labeled as Travel Leaders Corporate's Beacon app, which launched last month for iOS, later than originally planned. Beacon and SafeToGo also have Android and BlackBerry versions. Read More »

The U.S. Transportation Department once again has moved the goalposts on its eagerly anticipated and hotly disputed Enhancing Passenger Protections III notice of proposed rulemaking, this time to Nov. 30 from Aug. 10. The proposals, which, among other provisions, could require airlines to display ancillary fees through global distribution systems in which they participate, now is more than 10 months behind the initial schedule outlined by DOT. Read More »

The U.S. Transportation Department has contracted HDR Decision Economics to submit by August a cost-benefit analysis of a delayed proposed rulemaking that ponders "whether the department should require that ancillary fees be displayed through all sale channels." Read More »