Sabre’s merchandising technology boosts Air Canada’s ability to offer Preferred and Advance seat products to more travelers in Canada and the U.S.
SOUTHLAKE, TEXAS – Air Canada has extended its market reach and customers now have easier access to Preferred seats and upgraded amenities as the carrier launches the sale of more offerings through travel agencies, travel management companies and online sales sites that are connected via Sabre Corporation's travel marketplace. This launch also solidifies both companies' collaboration to bring choice and a personalized experience for passengers through the Sabre Red platform.
Thousands of corporate and leisure travel buyers in Canada and the U.S. have more options for pre-reserving seats. They now have the ability to purchase Air Canada's Preferred Seats and paid advance seat selection through the Sabre Red platform. This extends their reach through the Sabre Red Workspace desktop solution and an extensive selection of air shopping and booking API's. Air Canada's Preferred seats offer more legroom and are located at the front of the main cabin and in exit rows. Paid advance seats provide a pre-reserved seat choice in the main cabin to passengers who have booked the airline's "Tango" fare.
"Air Canada has a bold vision in creating a personalized journey for their passengers, and Sabre's technology supports every strategic aspect in delivering their differentiated merchandising strategy," said Sean Menke, President of Sabre Travel Network. "Our collaboration aims to put their customers first, enabling agents with transparent shopping and pricing of their brand, and ultimately a streamlined booking experience."
"Air Canada remains focused on delivering products and services, such as Air Canada Preferred Seats, that bring value to our customers and enhance their travel experience with us," said Duncan Bureau, Vice President Global Sales of Air Canada. "By making this available through the Sabre agency platform we are continuing our commitment to our loyal agency network to make selling Air Canada as seamless and efficient as possible."
Sabre's technology has enabled Air Canada to further expand their merchandising reach and generate new revenue in the Sabre marketplace. In addition to paid seats, the recent release of their branded fares through the Sabre Red platform allows Air Canada to strategically highlight attributes that differentiate their products, support brand continuity, and drive customer loyalty.
Sabre is a leader in providing air merchandising solutions for airlines and was the first GDS to deliver a solution when paid seats were first introduced into the market. The company powers distribution of 12 types of ancillaries that represent nearly 600 products and services through the Sabre travel marketplace. Nearly 100 carriers currently sell ancillaries and offer branded fares through the Sabre marketplace and this number continues to grow.
Air Canada Subscribes to Routehappy Hub
Also, Routehappy, the merchandising content platform for flight shopping, announced an agreement with Air Canada. Under the terms of the agreement, Canada’s largest airline will use Routehappy Hub to distribute highly targeted, visually rich merchandising content across its worldwide sales and marketing channels to improve the flight shopping experience.
Air Canada will also be the first airline to participate in a platform integration between Farelogix and Routehappy following the partnership announced earlier this year between the two companies. The integration will seamlessly deliver targeted merchandising content from Routehappy Hub, as well as dynamic pricing and rules-driven offers from FLX Merchandise to distributors in a single API.
With an integrated Routehappy and Farelogix solution, Air Canada will be able to create, price, and deliver tailored, dynamic offers supported by targeted UPAs (Universal Product Attributes) such as descriptive text, icons, photos, 360° virtual tours, videos, to the 60+ distributors using Air Canada’s ac2u API.
“We have worked with Farelogix for years and just recently began working with Routehappy. It makes sense for Air Canada to integrate both technology platforms to deliver an even greater benefit to our customers,” said Keith Wallis, Director – Global Product Distribution at Air Canada. “Air Canada continues to invest in products that are focused on delivering the best possible experience for each and every customer, from our Business Class seats to our Maple Leaf Lounges and new Boeing 787 Dreamliner fleet. Routehappy will help us vividly convey this to all of our customers so that they can make a more informed purchase decision.”
“Travelers want relevant offers coupled with engaging product content, while airlines want to optimize revenue per passenger. The integration of the Farelogix platform with Routehappy Hub enables Air Canada to achieve both of these objectives, using best of breed technologies for airline-controlled merchandising and personalized offers,” said Jim Davidson, CEO of Farelogix. “We are thrilled that Air Canada will be the first airline to implement both our platforms.”
Robert Albert, CEO of Routehappy added: “Our mission is to differentiate and better monetize flight shopping, which means delivering useful merchandising content in flight shopping. Routehappy Hub can connect with virtually any airline platform and Air Canada’s selection to distribute their rich content managed in Routehappy Hub via the Farelogix offer engine and API pipe is a real world solution to a difficult problem, we welcome Air Canada as a new Routehappy airline customer.”
Farelogix, Routehappy, and Air Canada are currently developing the integration which is expected to be live in 2017.
Vicky is the co-founder of TravelDailyNews Media Network where she is the Editor-in Chief. She is also responsible for the daily operation and the financial policy. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Tourism Business Administration from the Technical University of Athens and a Master in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Wales.
She has many years of both academic and industrial experience within the travel industry. She has written/edited numerous articles in various tourism magazines.
