Travelport has announced a substantial merchandising milestone with the introduction of the new Prepaid Extra Bags feature. The new agreement enables Travelport-connected travel agents in Ireland, the UK, Australia and New Zealand to book extra bags using industry standard electronic miscellaneous document (EMD).
With the new functionality, agents in the specified regions will be able to pre-book extra baggage services for their customers on Air New Zealand operated flights. The service may be purchased at the time of booking, or up to three hours prior to departure for international journeys and up to 30 minutes prior for domestic New Zealand trips. By pre-booking extra baggage, travellers will be able to make cost savings.
Air New Zealand’s Prepaid Extra Bags feature was rolled out in late November to agents using the Galileo system in New Zealand and Australia. In Ireland and the UK, Extra Bags is available on Galileo and Worldspan.
Damian Hickey, Vice President of Distribution Sales and Services for Asia-Pacific at Travelport, said: “For Travelport, enabling the distribution of an airline’s complete product set is a key part of our business, and this new capability is a win for all parts of the distribution chain and should lead to Air New Zealand being able to grow their ancillary revenues via the travel agency channel. Additionally, travel agents will be able to expand their service offering, while travellers will save on last minute costs of having extra baggage at the check-in counters.”
Providing fulfillment via EMD completes the end-to-end process for travel agency distribution of airline ancillary services and forms part of Travelport’s wider merchandising offering. This offering enables a number of major airlines to sell their products in a more efficient and integrated way through travel agents. Over the past 16 months, Travelport has successfully integrated ancillary services seamlessly into agency points of sale for airlines including KLM, British Airways, Air Canada, United and Alitalia, with more in the pipeline.
