Amadeus Ticket Changer makes airline ticket re-issue fast and easy for U.S. travel agents
New solution automates changes and reissues for U.S. domestic and international air tickets
MIAMI, FL, July 26, 2007 – No one likes to change their plans - especially travel plans. Having to change a travel itinerary is inconvenient for customers and travel agents alike. That's why Amadeus is rolling out Amadeus Ticket Changer, a solution available for U.S. travel agents which automates the calculations necessary to easily and quickly change or reissue an airline ticket.
The Airline Tariff Publishing Company (ATPCO) estimates that, on average, 10% of tickets issued are changed. Calculating and re-issuing a ticket manually can take a travel agent over half an hour. With Amadeus Ticket Changer, travel agents can now service their customers’ change requests in a matter of seconds—assuring them the right itinerary at the right fare every time.
"Time is money for a travel agent and changing and reissuing air tickets can greatly impact an agent's productivity," said Bob Lowry, Senior Vice President of Products and Support for Amadeus North America. "Amadeus Ticket Changer brings much needed automation and efficiency to this once tedious chore while allowing the agent to best serve the needs of their customer."
Amadeus Ticket Changer is easy to learn, easy to use and maximizes agent productivity. Amadeus Ticket Changer is also the only truly international re-issue product on the market. Amadeus Ticket Changer handles both public and private fares and all itineraries: domestic, international or a mixture of both. Agents can even re-issue tickets for interline and alliance partners. Best of all, e-tickets originally issued in other global distribution systems can be re-issued using Amadeus Ticket Changer.
Amadeus Ticket Changer enables a travel agent to reduce the time it takes to re-issue a ticket to just a few seconds, going from 15 steps to five simple and easy steps (three for paper tickets):
1. The new itinerary is booked.
2. The original e-ticket is displayed (a mandatory step for electronic tickets only).
3. Retrieval of ticket and fare information, calculation of the price of the new itinerary versus the price of the old itinerary and automatic display and storage of the results. All with one short entry.
4. The travel document is prepared (including form of payment update).
5. The new ticket is issued.
Amadeus Ticket Changer also works in synchronicity with the airline's reservation system, updating the e-ticket as well as associated records immediately.
Based on the voluntary reissue conditions filed by airlines in ATPCO rule Category 31 and the original ticket data, Amadeus Ticket Changer can compute the fare, tax differences, penalties, additional collection or residual (refund) values in a single transaction. Guaranteed reissues also reduce time consuming manual checks often performed by agency back office accounting staff. Airline debit memos are also eliminated since all calculations are based on the airline’s Category 31 filing with ATPCO.
Amadeus Ticket Changer is available to Amadeus travel agents in the U.S. via the Amadeus Selling Platform. For more information, travel agencies should contact their Amadeus Account Representative or 1-888-AMADEUS, salesinquiries@amadeus.com.
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About Amadeus
Amadeus is the chosen technology partner for providers, sellers, and buyers of travel. The company provides distribution, IT and point-of-sale solutions to help its customers adapt, grow and succeed in the fast-changing travel industry. Customer groups include travel providers (airlines, hotels, car rental companies, railway companies, ferry lines, cruise lines, insurance companies and tour operators), travel sellers (travel agencies) and travel buyers (corporations and travelers). Solutions are grouped in four solution categories – Distribution & Content, Sales & e-Commerce, Business Management and Services & Consulting.
Amadeus has central sites in Madrid (corporate headquarters & marketing), Nice (development) and Erding (Operations – data processing center) and regional offices in Miami, Buenos Aires and Bangkok. At market level, Amadeus maintains customer operations in 75 countries covering more than 215 markets. The company has nearly 6,700 employees worldwide, representing 95 nationalities. Amadeus’ revenue for the year ended 31 December was €2,418.7m. More information about Amadeus is available at: www.amadeus.com.
