TRAVELOCITY is trialling a calendar system that pinpoints exactly when low-cost fares are due to go on sale.
The three-year-old on-line travel agency is currently soft-launching the product in the US – to gauge consumer reaction and monitor how it affects the speed of the site.
Company vice-president and general manager Jim Marsicano said Travelocity’s focus had been on redesigning the site after clients had e-mailed them saying they needed to find particular fares easily. “We have been getting e-mails from people who have heard about low fares but can’t find them. So we have been working on a product based around the calendar that will inform them about it.”
A customer will inform Travelocity which flights he or she is interested in and the company will e-mail that customer when a good deal is on offer. The customer then clicks on the e-mail and a calendar will come up that shows all the days when the fare is offered.
Travelocity uses the inventory knowledge of the global distribution system Sabre, its parent company, to offer this service and says the beauty of it is that it allows customers who have a little flexibility on dates to always get the best fare.
“We have found that the accent has been on price when choosing to buy services so with this system you know you are being offered the cheapest fare,” said Marsicano.
The service is expected to be rolled out in the UKthis year.