ITA... A new online booking engine
W Yu
more than a few people here...
Sorry that I don't have an URL for it. A relative forwarded it to me.
But apparently it came from http://www.thestandard.com/.
WY
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Subject: TECH TRAVELER: Expedia, Beware
TOP STORY
~~~~~~~~~
Expedia, Beware
ITA's ETA puts fear into the hearts of big players.
By Michael Shapiro
If you're looking for the biggest travel story of the year, a few
obvious candidates come to mind. There's Priceline.com's plummet and
all of the question the company's model raises. There's the Orbitz
(non)launch. But for its potential impact on the travel industry,
perhaps nothing can compete with the achievements of ITA Software, a
Cambridge, Mass.-based startup that has come up with a nifty little
booking technology that's a generation ahead of its predecessors.
Founded by a graduate of MIT's Artificial Intelligence Lab, ITA
enables customers to find and sort airfares and schedules with far
greater ease than most of the traditional systems. While Expedia,
Travelocity.com and their ilk have put a consumer-friendly veneer on
clunky computer reservation systems, ITA takes the same data and
rapidly sifts billions of flight options, including alternate airports
and dates, and shows users their best bets for fares, schedules and
carriers. So on one grid, for example, users can compare the best
nonstop fare from SFO to JFK with the best one-stop fare. Or a
traveler could easily see that United is $11 more than Delta for the
same route, but it might be worth paying $11 more for those in
United's frequent flier program.
"If the typical fare-search tool shines a narrow flashlight beam into
a dark room to illuminate a specific group of fares," says the
Washington Post's Craig Stoltz, "ITA turns on all the lights in the
airfare warehouse and lets you see pretty much all the lower-priced
options in a single view."
The company has no plans for creating its own booking site. Instead,
it's been busy signing up deals, like the nonexclusive arrangement it
inked with Orbitz a few months ago. (Orbitz is the collective online
effort of major airlines United, Delta, Continental, Northwest and
American.)
Orbitz, along with its ITA system, won't even come out in beta until
February, with a full launch slated for June. But on Nov. 13, a site
called Travelbyus.com became the first to launch ITA's search tool
with a full booking capability. So far, travelers can use ITA's search
features only for booking flights in North America, but the company
plans to roll out its international service soon. (This partnership
could create some strange bedfellows. Travelbyus, which works with a
network of thousands of travel agents, took the lead in launching
ITA's software, even though the tool may be the biggest threat agents
have ever faced.
Not surprisingly, ITA has Expedia and Travelocity scurrying to build a
better mousetrap. Expedia has recently upped the number of flights
shown to 30 per query, from the seven it used to show. And the
Microsoft-spawned booking site plans more improvements over the next
12 months to give travelers better control over booking options.
Travelocity has announced broader searches of low-fare options and has
magnified the visibility of its phone support for its users. But while
other sites can emulate ITA's grid system for displaying itinerary and
fare choices, it remains to be seen if they can replicate the scope
and efficiency of ITA's searches.
As leading travel sites bust a move to catch up to technology ITA
unveiled a year ago, ITA CEO Jeremy Wertheimer made a surprising
announcement at last week's PhoCusWright conference - the company
plans to add negotiated fares to its database sometime in the
not-too-distant future. ITA would negotiate special rates exclusive to
ITA's users, such as Orbitz and Travelbyus. This could pose a threat
to online discounters such as CheapTickets and Lowestfare.com.
Although it's highly unlikely ITA can create one-stop shopping (there
will always be a chance some other Web site or bucket shop has a
better deal), ITA's next iteration could siphon some bookings from
online discounters.
In his recent speeches, Orbitz CEO Jeff Katz has bemoaned the state of
the online travel industry, noting that for every 20 or 30 lookers
there's only one booker. "Electronic retailers are missing something,
and we're running out of time," he says. "If we were on target,
shouldn't that (booking ratio) be bigger?" With ITA, Katz may have
found his answer.
James Robinson
>
> This item on a new online booking engine might just be of interest to
> more than a few people here...
>
> Sorry that I don't have an URL for it. A relative forwarded it to me.
> But apparently it came from http://www.thestandard.com/.
The software is not new, and has been working as a beta site for at
least a year. What's new is that a number of groups have adopted the
ITA search engine as their choice, like Orbitz.
To try it out, go to www.itasoftware.com - click on Beta Version. No
registration, and you can't buy tickets, just look at options.
One of the neat features is a graphical display that shows flight
options as bar graphs. It's useful when looking at multiple stops and
when trying to figure out layovers and connect times.
The software also has a lot of flexibility in grouping multiple airports
at origin and destination, and in grouping dates around the preferred
travel date.
Christopher K Davis
> W Yu wrote:
>>
>> This item on a new online booking engine might just be of interest to
>> more than a few people here...
>>
>> Sorry that I don't have an URL for it. A relative forwarded it to me.
>> But apparently it came from http://www.thestandard.com/.
> The software is not new, and has been working as a beta site for at
> least a year. What's new is that a number of groups have adopted the
> ITA search engine as their choice, like Orbitz.
The new part is that TravelByUs now uses it (it's still the beta--NorAm
flights only).
> To try it out, go to www.itasoftware.com - click on Beta Version. No
> registration, and you can't buy tickets, just look at options.
I haven't actually bought a ticket via http://www.travelbyus.com/ but
using them it certainly *looks* like you can buy (it hands off to Amadeus
for that part).
--
Christopher Davis * <ckd...@ckdhr.com> * <URL:http://www.ckdhr.com/ckd/>
Put location information in your DNS! <URL:http://www.ckdhr.com/dns-loc/>
Caila
http://www.itasoftware.com/
(currently in beta testing, according to the site)
...and the link to the article from thestandard.com:
http://www.thestandard.com/article/display/0,1151,8029,00.html
(slightly different article, also by Michael Shapiro)
Intriguing. :)
--Michelle
Miguel Cruz
> here's why I think these sites are doomed at least for attracting
> experienced travellers: they do not show fares that are internet-only
> specials that most airlines offer on their own sites, nor can you get the
> sometimes substantial mileage perks offered by airline sites e.g. the
> 1,000-mile bonus you get from some airlines (I know NW and UA have this)
> any time you buy off their site or the 4,000-mile bonus UA and NW give for
> first-time use of their sites to buy a ticket.
Seems they would be wise to take a leaf from Progressive Auto Insurance's
gimmick, wherein they purport to tell you about lower competitor rates and
send you on your way if they can't beat them.
I would happily use such a service and book with them when advantageous to
do so, if I knew that they'd also steer me in the right direction for those
cases when the best deal was to be found elsewhere. As it is, like you, I
never use them (expedia, travelocity, etc.). They're useless for
international, and for domestic, I end up checking the airline web sites
anyway because of the possibility of finding a deal there. Having done that
and found nothing special, I see no reason to go to expedia when I've
already found the best mediocre fare I'm going to find.
miguel
--
Hit The Road! Photos and tales from around the world: http://travel.u.nu
JohnT
<wizie....@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:2e04e36b-0daa-4aba...@googlegroups.com...
> author.I will remember to bookmark your blog and will often come back
> sometime soon.
> yours information is very effective. the information about Flight Booking
> Engine Too Good.Look At This Website.
> http://www.reallycrappy.com
This one is 13 years old and, again, your website doesn't help.
--
JohnT
Fly Guy
full-quoting:
> This one is 13 years old and, again, your website doesn't help.
obviously usenet spam in your reply?
When will you and other morons learn to use usenet correctly?