Issue 1 > May 2010
Newsletter
Amadeus - Kuwait
Editorial I would like to introduce the first ASC - Amadeus Newsletter. This is intended to be a quarterly publication that will inform, update, and educate you on the latest, that Amadeus has to offer the Kuwaiti Travel Market. The landmark 2008 agreement between Amadeus and 12 major Arab Air Carriers Organization (AACO) Carriers increases by several fold the value you can offer to your customers in terms of booking transparency, claim PNR, waiting list confirmations, and up to date fares and taxes from not just the major European Carriers, but also from the major Regional carriers. 2009 was a difficult year for the travel industry among other industries. Faced with challenges as the health pandemic, and the economic crisis, Kuwait market showed it resilience by defying worldwide trends in business contractions, and in successfully managing change, to make Amadeus the market’s leading GDS by the end of the year. For this we are truly grateful to our loyal travel agency customers. As we enter into the second quarter of 2010, ASC has implemented several changes in the interest of differentiating Amadeus products and services. The benefits to our customers include a Product Specialist to bring innovative solutions to the Kuwait market, a Marketing Executive dedicated to informing and educating travel agencies on the value and impact of Amadeus technology and ASC innovation to the travel agency’s bottom line, a Customer Relations Champion to enrich customer interaction with ASC, and a Quality Control Unit to assure the highest levels of customer satisfaction. I would like to thank you all for your support, and hope that you enjoy the Newsletter.
Hani Al Salem
PAGE 2 • Saudi Arabian an Airline on Altea Reservation • Royal Jordanian partner ship with Amadeus • Amadeus Signs full content agreement with Lufthansa and Swiss Air
PAGE 3 • Amadeus CheckMytrip on Mobile, Face book and Black berry to further empowers travelers • KTTAA new board members • Airline PNR Claim
PAGE 4 • Introduction – Aqueel Hazi - Product & Solution Specialist • E-Power - Add new Revenue stream, GO Online
PAGE 5 • Quality Control - Automate your business practices and business on demand • Amadeus SMS – Flight status directly to your customer 24/7
ASC General Manager
• Travel Souk – Market information Arcade.
ATM Arabian Travel Market takes place from 4-7th May 2010 at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre.
Check Out Amadeus Stall HALL # 5 Amadeus Booth # TT 20
2 News
Saudi Arabian Airline Altéa Reservation successful deployment On April 11th 2010 Saudi Arabian airline, one of the leading airlines in Middle East have announced deployment of Amadeus-Altéa Reservation. The latest evolution of Amadeus Altéa Reservation gives travel agents, access to complete Saudian airline content and its internal applications via single screen. Travel agents can process any travel booking request, including Umra & Hajj Group bookings and handle any customer query via a single screen. In addition, it is allowing seamless integration with airlines’ internal applications. This helps airlines to streamline and improve their sales/reservation processes at airport and city ticket office. It means productivity is increased and sales are maximized through easy and efficient booking workflows. Since the implementation of Altéa Reservation Desktop began, Saudi Arabian Airlines has seen significant improvements and efficiency in booking process.
News 3
Royal Jordanian signs with Amadeus to pursue growth and modernisation Altéa selected to underpin expansion and provide updated IT infrastructure. Royal Jordanian adopted the full Amadeus Altéa Customer Management and ecommerce suite of solutions and announce a 10 year IT partnership with Amadeus. Altéa will enable Royal Jordanian to manage all reservations, inventory and departure control from a single, new generation technology platform. Royal Jordanian President and CEO Hussein Dabbas. said “The decision to move to Altéa was made because we can ensure all our customer management functions are based on a future-proof platform that can deliver on our commercial priorities.”
Amadeus signs long-term full content agreement with Lufthansa and SWISS AIR Amadeus, Lufthansa German Airlines and Swiss International Air Lines have signed a long-term full content agreement. Travel agents can now access Lufthansa and SWISS AIR full content through Amadeus. The full range of Lufthansa and SWISS fares, schedules and inventory made available through the Amadeus system will be the same, and under the same conditions, as that offered through any indirect or direct channel, distribution provider or website.
Amadeus enriches CheckMyTrip by launching mobile version and announces pilot applications to further empower travelers • Web-based platform lets travellers view most up-to-date travel plans at any point in their trip via mobile phone • Applications in pilot for Face book, iPhone and Blackberry The launch of CheckMyTrip for Mobile comes as part of the ongoing development of the CheckMyTrip web-based platform (http://www.checkmytrip.com) which enables business and leisure travellers to check the most up-to-date travel itineraries plans via the internet, including amended or cancelled flights. To access CheckMyTrip for Mobile users simply need an internet-enabled mobile phone, an Amadeus booking reference number. They type www.checkmytrip.com into their mobile browser and will then be prompted for their Amadeus reservation number. - CheckMyTrip application for Face book allowing with a Facebook account to install an application to import and share travel plans booked on the Amadeus system. - CheckMyTrip for the Blackberry® platform Amadeus is conducting trials to introduce CheckMyTrip to the popular SamrtPhone. - CheckMyTrip for iPhone allowing users to download and install an application on their iPhone to view their itineraries.
KTTAA Kuwait Travel and Tourism Agencies Association KTTAA objective is to develop and raise the standards of travel and tourism services, also to protect legal interests of the members relating to travel & tourism affairs. They offer training to new and existing employees of the travel agency to enhance there skills. On January 28th 2010 KTTAA announced new board members .Wishing them all continued success in future endeavors with KTTAA in the years to come. 1-Mr Khalid Alhamad – Chairman 2-Mr Mohammed Lafi AlMutairi 3-Mr.Ahmad Abdulwahab AlFahad 4-Mr Suliman Mohammed AlMirjah 5-Mr Abdulaziz Jasem Burhmah 6-Mr Hussain Mohammed Al Azmi 7-Mr Khalaf Abdullah Ismail 8-Mr Ahmad Al Ghaith
“Amadeus Introduces PNR Claim in Kuwait Travel Market” New Functionalities offer significant business advantage to travel agents using Amadeus in Kuwait. Amadeus announced that travel agents in Kuwait can now benefit from Passenger Name Record (PNR) claim functionality from many Airlines through Amadeus. It contributes to the preferred content of the airline that Amadeus is offering its partner agencies. This feature is accessible to all travel agents in Kuwait Market. A PNR is the record containing details of a passenger’s reservation (Name, itinerary, contact, ticket number, special service request e.t.c) and can be created in the airlines computer reservation system or directly in GDS. Travel agents can claim PNRS of the following Airlines on Amadeus System •
Kuwait Airways
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American Airline
DO YOU KNOW!!
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Continental Airline
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Delta Airways
More than 155 Airlines uses the same Amadeus system as Travel Agents for all its pricing, availability and PNR management. The airline and the Travel agents use the same Fare Quote engine, access the same information pages and Frequent flyer profiles.
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US airways
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Kingfisher Airline
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Yemenia Airways
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Swiss Air
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Virgin Atlantic
4 Products
Products 5
Our current issue
Amadeus Quality Control
In this issue on Amadeus Products and Solutions, Muhammad Aqueel, Products and Solutions Specialist, explains how the Amadeus can help the travel agencies increase revenue, make operations effective and reduce operating costs.
In the increasing competitive climate for travel agencies it is more important than ever that you implement quality, consistency and accuracy across your business processes. Amadeus Quality Control is a flexible solution that will enable you to better manage your business practices and guarantees total quality of every reservation. Integrated with Amadeus Selling Platform and fully adapted to the agency’s own business needs and processes, Amadeus Quality Control ensures you maximise the efficiency of every sale.
The business structure of the travel and tourism industry has undergone incredible changes over the last decade especially with the emergence of the Internet. New technologies have improved the current business process tremendously and had a major impact on transforming the travel industry. Amadeus goes beyond expressed needs to offer you a solution portfolio that helps anticipate the future. As your technology provider, Amadeus delivers the right solution to help prove value to your customers and therefore strengthen your market leadership.
Muhammad Aqueel Products and Solutions Specialist
Amadeus is committed to provide a wide variety of industry-leading products and solutions that increases the functionality, productivity and profitability of travel management companies handling both business travel and leisure customers. Some of the core benefits that our solutions portfolio offers are • Creating the perfect fit – the tailored solution for your specific business needs. • Access to functional consultants with key expertise of the travel distributor environment and the Amadeus product portfolio. • Minimised risk from using experienced Amadeus resources and Amadeus Products and Solutions. • Controlled cost because we build on existing industry solutions.
E-Power E-Power is an Internet Booking Engine for travel agencies and travel portals, by which their clients can book air, hotel, car and travel and liesure packages online. E-Power has a user-friendly interface, so it’s easy for your customers to check schedules and fares, make bookings, and access travel information. E-Power drives conversions online while controlling your operating costs. Your business is travel and ours is technology. Reservations made by your customers through E-Power are automatically queued to a Travel Agency Internet Office ID for further processing, leaving you to concentrate your energies on growing high-value sales. In addition, all the relevant information from the user’s profile is automatically transferred to the PNR.
Integrated with Amadeus Selling Platform, Amadeus Quality Control helps to increase the productivity of your agents through the systematic checking of every PNR at the time of booking, fare quoting or ticketing Agents are reassured that the right information is captured at the right time, avoiding manual errors and reducing any PNR re-work that might otherwise be required. And since quality check rules and administration are managed centrally, you can be sure that every PNR is compliant to agency standards. With Amadeus Quality Control, agents are free to focus more on their core activities – serving the customer! Maximise your revenues: • Up- and cross-selling opportunities: You can automatically propose, for example, a car or hotel booking with pre-filled information when the traveler stays more than one day in the same location.
can be customized to the agency’s own look and feel, functionality and preferences that can be deployed within 4 working weeks at an affordable budget. E-Power makes the booking process simple and easy, driving conversions on your own website. E-Power allows your customers to easily and securely book air, hotels, car and packages online - converting lookers to bookers. I am confident that with E-Power in use, we foresee immediate growth in online revenue with in a short span of time. Product Features Online and Offline Payment methods Instant e-Ticket, Book Only Option Advanced Customization and Branding Low Cost Carrier Content External Profile Database support User based Permissions
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Enforced booking on selected providers; preferred suppliers or one-off special deals can be highlighted to the agent at the time of the booking.
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Assured data quality allows you to work faster because all information is correct the first time
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Customisable to your specific business needs:
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Customer Service is improved as rules can be associated down to traveler or company profile level
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Unlimited number and type of rules - can be associated to any element of the PNR
Amadeus SMS
Travel Souk
The Amadeus SMS Solution was developed for the purpose of sending SMS text messages from the Amadeus Selling Platform to the traveller’s mobile phone. The Amadeus SMS Application can send the itinerary, Agency’ promotions or free text messages to the traveller’s mobile. The application is capable to track the flight status for your travellers and update them about the changes in real time even if your travellers are on move.
Travel Souk was conceived to ‘Serve the Travel Industry’ by providing reliable mass communications medium between the Airlines and the Travel Agencies. It was designed and developed with an objective to give the travel agencies a single medium to receive messages, promotions and market fares in real time from the Airlines.
The Amadeus SMS Application consists of Amadeus SMS Client and the Amadeus Flight Stats. Amadeus SMS Client is a Multilanguage application is accessible from the Selling Platform to send the itinerary information to your travellers mobile phone. You can also send your promotions and free text messages to your travellers’ mobile phone.
Agencies Special Travel Deals
The internet penetration rate in Kuwait is 35%. The internet has been one of the factors to drive sales for budgeted airlines such as Jazeera and Air Arabia. On the other hand, increased competition within the travel industry and growing consumers demands have forced travel agencies need to explore new revenue streams. Taking your business online is interesting as well as challenging. With an online sales department in place and enhanced customer satisfaction, you will definitely experience a surge in your revenues. E-Power is a complete and advanced online booking engine that
Service Fee Management Portal Performance Report Multilanguage Support
Amadeus Flight Stats helps you track the status of flight segments, departures, arrivals , airport delays, flight and airport information for your travellers in real time.
Fare Driven & Schedule Driven Searches IP Restriction, Portal Referrer Restriction External Payment Gateways
E-Power gives you the low-cost, easy way to help you build your business online. Join the online travel revolution!
“The Amadeus SMS Software is a multi tasking application capable of sending the booking itinerary, our specials deals and promotions and also monitors flights for my customers. It has and is adding a great value to our customer service and has made our operations more effective. My first priority is service to my customers, and that looks very impressive now.”
Benefits to Travel Agencies One stop bulletin board: Travel-Souk provides your agency with instant online information on Travel Suppliers, advisories, market fares and various other special promotions. These instant updates give you more opportunities to service your clients. Direct Information: The information on Travel-Souk is uploaded and updated by the Airlines/Other Suppliers directly, so you can be confident that you are looking at the most reliable and up to date information in real time Instant Alerts: Receive an instant alert as soon as the supplier uploads or updates advisory, promotion or a fare. Travel-Souk is an ideal medium over which to receive information that impacts your business and customers.
6 Guidelines
Guidelines 7
Reservation Guidelines - Do’s & Don’ts Important Do’s
Important Don’t
Ensure passenger names are identical to travel documents & passports.
Don’t use fictitious passenger names or speculative segments to block space to facilitate future booking requests.
Please check GGPCALNCC and also GGAIRXX (or direct with the carrier) for name change policy and to gain name change authorities for each carrier in the PNR. Amadeus will not be held responsible for any cancellation of bookings by the airlines, as a result of legal name change.
Don’t cancel an HL (Waitlist) segment and rebook the same flight as HK (confirmed) in one transaction as it may cause confusion and reject in the airline’s system. It is recommended to do this in two separate transactions.
When making last minute bookings or changes ensure Record Locator Return in the PNR and ensure ticket numbers are present prior to the flight going under airport control (depends on airline access level).
Don’t insert passenger contact with AP. It should be with OS example OS YY PAX CTC home -99999999
Delete rather than cancel (XE) all inactive segments with status codes HX/ NO/UC/UN.
Don’t cancel and rebook segments for the purpose of extending the airline’s ticket time limit as it is considered system abuse by carriers and may result in PNR cancellation.
It is recommended you advise ticket numbers well in advance of the airline’s auto- TTL in case of messaging delays. In cases of last minute booking we recommend you contact the airline directly with ticket numbers.
Don’t create passive (PK) segments unless there is genuine need for ticketing
Those airlines without auto-TL , suggest to create an OSI/SSR element to advise of your intended ticketing date. Example OSYY TKTL 15SEP OR OSAI TKTL 1200/15SEP SROTHSYY-TKTL15SEP OR SROTHSMH-TKTL1200/15SEP (YY - to advise all airlines / MH - for specific airline only)
Don’t modify Segments when PNR is localized or taken over by airlines.
Refer to either GGPCALFUN or GGPCAXX to check if the airlines in your PNR accept Ticket Number Transmission. If they do, ensure that an FA element with the ticket number is returned to your PNR before you make any PNR modifications. If the FA is not returned please contact Amadeus Help-Desk.
Never rebook a flight that has already been rejected as UN, NO, or UC status.
To save transaction always do Receive( RF name) and End transaction and retrieve( ER )
Don’t insert duplicate ticket number in SSR/OSI, if FA/FH elements already exist.
ASC- Amadeus proudly recognize 100% Amadeus users in Kuwait Travel Market We would like to appreciate travel partners for there continuous support and ASC-Amadeus proudly recognize Amadeus exclusive users in Kuwait Travel Market. IFA TRAVEL : Mr Emad Jber “IFA Travel decided to work 100 % with Amadeus due to unique solutions that caters our needs”. AlAwali Travel : Mr Khalid Alhamad “ Amadeus advance technology benefits travel agency to enhance there skills. Ecommerce Products Ideally suited for Travel Industry”. Al Yousifi Travel: Mr Ahmed Adel “Amadeus is complete GDS, with Fares and ticketing accuracy in short it’s the Future of Travel Industry ”. Canary Travel: Mr Basel Al-Tasabehji “Amadeus Reissue is the easiest compare to other GDS”.
Sultan Travel Hawally: Mr Huassain Assi “our travel agency converts to Amadeus Exclusive for professional service and friendly Help Desk staff”. Burgan Travels: Mr Abdul Karim “Amadeus is the easiest GDS, when it come to entries”. ALMasader Travel : Mr Fareedon Fakhrai “Amadeus is an Airline system ,it is transparent for travel agents”. Alathla Travel: Mr Zamin Naqvi “Appreciate long term business relation with ASC-Amadeus that conclude at professional support & expert services”. Al Sawan Holidays: Mr Osama M. Beitamouni “Amadeus has the best products portfolio ,used by the Airline and travel agencies”. Syed Travel Surra: Mr Mohammed Haitem “Amadeus is user friendly GDS on both GUI & Cryptic”. Salhiya World Travel ( Zain) : Mr Amir AlNuss “Absolute accurate Fare search engine”. Asfar Travel: Ms Amani “Amadeus has complete products and solution for travel Market”.
Important Do’s
Important Don’t
In SPLIT PNR most carriers return a RLR ,exceptional cases with in 4 hours, apart from standard access carriers which may take up to 12 hours. If a RLR isn’t returned please contact your Amadeus help desk. Check with airline if PNR contains more than one RLR from the same airline. Check time of RLR history (RLH) and PNR history (RH) to ensure modifications have been acknowledged by airline
Don’t make any modifications to a PNR in the same transaction as a split.
Cancel all inactive or unwanted SSR, OSI & RM elements in PNR to prevent confusion. Contact numbers should be put in OSIYY.
Don’t use any of these special characters / symbols (*’..,;:$) in AP, OSI & SSR fields in the PNR. They are not recognized by the airline’s systems; hence they can be rejected upon transmission.
Ensure that no duplicate bookings are already created for same passenger. Verify passenger’s name by RT/PAX NAME. It is recommended to query your customers if they have already made booking else where before Commencing your PNR. All multiple bookings where it seems impossible or unlikely that the passenger takes both flights be considered as duplicate in airline’s systems.
Don’t re-use an inactive PNR which has expired. Instead, you may use the RRP entry to copy the passenger’s data to create a new PNR.
Use the direct access availability display to book a seat on the airline participating in Direct Access (*) level. The seat is guaranteed upon end transaction (ET). Example 1YYAD 24MAR KWICMB (YY- two letter airline code).
With Party of 4 passenger in a PNR do not request Special Service Request with out the Passenger specification. Instead state passenger number Example SR VGML/P1
Ensure that name and flight details exactly match the airline’s PNR. If you wish to cancel the live airline booking you will need to contact the airline office, not just XE the passive segments.
Don’t use SB entry to rebook flights originally booked in Standard Access. Cancel and Rebook in two transactions. The airline may have the rights to reject sales with status code -US- with in 12 hours. Refer to GGPCAXX for access level.
Check queues regularly, The command to see the Queue Bank is QT
Don’t create test PNRs only for pricing purposes, Instead you can create PNRs with GK segment or use the Amadeus pricing by mask functionality (FQP/S option).
Frequently Asked What is the past dated fare display entry?
FQDKWILON/ABA/D10FEB10**25FEB10/R,01FEB10
How to price a PNR with carrier code?
FXP/R,VC-XX where XX is the carrier code
How to force the fare with fare basis?(manual fare)
FXP/L-YEE4M where YEEM is the fare basis
How to insert FO for Infant tickets
FOINF(TICKET NUMBER)
How to insert child tag for the already created pnr
FDCH/(PASSENGER NO)
How to insert the foid entry in the pnr
SRFOID(AIRLINE CODE)HK1-PP(PASSPORT NO)
How to insert Form of payment with additional cost
FPO/CASH+/CASH
How to insert Frequent flyer card
FFN(AIRLINE CODE)-CARD NO
How to price Deportee with KW tax exempted
FXP/RDEP,ET-Kw
How to Price GP letter fare
FXP/RGVT
Entry to update BSR Rate
TTK/K1(BSR rate)
Entry to find out 3 letter nationaly code
DC (Country name)
Entry for Planned Flight Information
DO Flight number eg. DO KU352
entry to check local time in london
ddlondon
over ride validation carrier
ttp/v*ek
display query report for specific airline
tjq/sof/qvp-ba
display refund documents
tjq/sof/qtc-rfnd
email unauthorized
WM/
check ITN Status
ERK
LPO-entry by agent sign
LPO/S(SIGN)D(DATE)
8 Announcement
Customer Care professionals To service our valued customers ASCAmadeus help desk is open from 08:00am till 08:30 pm Saturday to Thursday and 4:00pm till 8:00 pm on Friday, There are 8 customer service experts to assist you.
ASC – Amadeus Road Show Kuwait “The newest technological innovations in the Travel and Tourism Industry, experience our latest Solutions first hand and test them yourself” was the main subject of the Road show, which ended its one-week run at ASC Kuwait from the 18th – 22nd April 2010, drew over 60 leaders of the Kuwait Travel and Tourism industry. “The feeling was good a lot of the key people from partner agencies. There are very good opportunities in the market. The Road show was a good way to show our solutions to the market leaders” proclaimed Mr. Amal Merchant, CSD Manager at ASC. The ASC team demonstrated the arsenal of solutions that ASC-Amadeus had to offer which will advance Travel Agencies’ efficiency and productivity. See you soon at the next Road Show
Imtiyaz Khamkar Vendor Support co-ordinator
Krishna Prasad Customer Service Supervisor
Customer Quality Assurance Sahar Abdulbari Customer Support Executive
Shakeel Amin Customer Support Executive
The Customer Quality Assurance (CQA) department at ASC was set up in 2009, as a direct result of our Chairman, Mr. Jassem Al-Zainal’s, intention for ASC to proactively measure, and consistently improve our customers’ satisfaction levels with the company’s products, solutions, and services. The objective is simply to ensure a long term relationship with our customers. The CQA team constantly gathers feedback from Amadeus users on their experience with the Amadeus products and services. Customer Satisfaction levels are monitored through surveys conducted at the travel agencies, and these measurements are relayed to the concerned departments within ASC. The CQA department then ensures that these departments take the necessary actions, and deploy policies and practices, that will enhance the customer experience with the products and services that they receive.
AMADEUS Quiz Airline have returned the GDS PNR with the cancellation of AIR segment HX, what would be the procedure for an agent to action this type of PNR where agent also required to rebook the same itinerary? Please reply on quiz@asc-me.net by June 30th 2010 Provide your name, contacts & 1A office ID
Armine Minassian, Nabeel Sab, Ruba Ghanim Amadeus Help Desk 1-888-272 Amadeus Sales ae@asc-me.net Amadeus Product & Solutions solutions@asc-me.net Automated Systems Co. P.O. Box: 27159, Safat 13132 Kuwait Tel.: +965 24822286 Fax: +965 24824300 www.asc-me.net
www.amadeus.com/kw