FOSTER CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--While the travel industry continues to debate the way in which its products and services are bought and sold, Rearden Commerce has been listening to customers. A leader in next-generation personalization and digital communications delivery, Rearden Commerce believes consumers and corporate end-users are best served through a customized approach to travel options that includes transparent access to information and smart integration of data and technologies. To that end, Rearden Commerce today announced a partnership that enables Rearden Commerce to bring to market new travel features to provide customers with easier, faster and more cost-effective ways to get the travel services they want and need.
Farelogix Partnership
Working with Farelogix, a leading provider of distribution technology and services for the travel industry, Rearden Commerce will enable airlines to sell ancillary products and services – such as seat upgrades, meals, increased baggage allowances, etc. -- directly from the Rearden Personal Assistant™.
- The Rearden Personal Assistant was designed to deliver a unified and personalized travel experience for businesses, their employees and consumers that reduces costs and increases satisfaction.
- Integrating Farelogix’ new XML Direct Connect Technology will provide a point-of-purchase display that can designate preferred offerings, along with the ability to add policy, calculate a “total” price, and track expenditures making the resulting data available to both the company and its designated travel management company (TMC).
- Most major airlines make their services available to consumers via the Rearden Personal Assistant.
Rearden Personal Assistant Upgrades
Along with the Farelogix technology, Rearden Commerce is also adding new features that make airline and rental car bookings even simpler and more targeted to save consumers and employees time and corporations money, and produce a superior end-user experience.
- Southwest Direct Access -- The Rearden Personal Assistant now shows the full scope of Southwest Airline content, both SWABIZ and web only fares, giving travelers true “one-stop” shopping when tracking down the best prices. This new feature also includes support for unused tickets (including the ability to apply up to two per new booking) and a true “modify booking” experience with full cancel/rebook options.
- Flexible Date Search – Corporate clients can now quickly review airfare variations over a range of travel dates via a new pricing matrix that makes it much more efficient for individuals to identify the least expensive travel dates. While consumers have been enjoying this option for a while now, corporations can now take advantage of the cost-savings that date flexibility affords.
- Car Service Quick Buy – Similar to the airport parking and mobile quick buys, Rearden’s Quick Buy Car Service is part of a growing list of quick buy options designed to give customers the flexibility to easily configure their travel shopping experience.
“With over 20 million users on the Rearden Commerce platform, we’ve learned a lot about human insights and how to combine that knowledge with relevant technology to create smart experiences that simplify and enhance people’s lives while saving their companies money,” said Tony D'Astolfo, SVP Travel Services, Rearden Commerce. “Our partnership with Farelogix and recent enhancements to the Rearden Personal Assistant are the direct result of listening to our customers and giving them what they want – namely, more choice in airline and car rental bookings and more access to ancillary services and visibility into the costs associated with them. This is no way diminishes our cooperation with the GDS and all they bring to the travel distribution paradigm, but our customers continue to ask us to manage their problems and we need to seek all options when doing that.”
“Our partners look to Farelogix to provide a way to merchandise their full suite of products and services and we’re delighted to be partnering with Rearden Commerce to do so,” said Jim Davidson, CEO, Farelogix. “Gone are the days of limited, rigid distribution. What airlines want is to be able to modify and uniquely present their offerings in an effort to serve a more demanding and diverse clientele.”
Additionally, Rearden Commerce announced that it has joined Open AXIS Group as an Allied member. Open AXIS Group is a non-profit organization dedicated to the promotion of XML as the optimal electronic messaging structure for airline system connectivity worldwide. According to Mr. D’Astolfo, “Joining as an Allied member will allow us to help define the standards across all airline services, but with a current focus on airline merchandising.” Open AXIS has licensed XML schema from Farelogix as the foundation for its development efforts.
About Rearden Commerce, Inc.
Rearden Commerce, a next generation eCommerce platform company, offers applications, services, content and powerful personalization capabilities that enable highly-personalized, relevant transactions. The company connects millions of consumers and more than 7,000 business customers across every market segment to more than 1,000,000 merchants. The solutions are distributed globally by over 60 strategic partners, including American Express, JP Morgan Chase, Paychex and many leading travel management companies. Rearden Commerce is headquartered in Foster City, California and has offices in San Jose, California, Secaucus, New Jersey, Wooster, Ohio and Bangalore, India. For more information, visit http://www.reardencommerce.com.
About Farelogix
Farelogix is a leading provider of lower-cost, high value distribution and optimization technology to the global travel industry. Farelogix counts among its customers some of the largest travel related companies in the world. Farelogix has offices in Toronto, Canada and Miami, Florida. For additional information, visit www.farelogix.com.