August 2023 - Release Notes

Modified on Wed, 1 Nov, 2023 at 4:50 PM

August 2023 - Release Notes

Content

American Airlines NDC for international routes

Travelers that book international routes can now benefit from access to additional travel options and discounts through our direct NDC integration with American Airlines.

Traveler Experience

Change a flight with a pending upgrade

Travelers can now change their flight even when they are waitlisted for an upgrade. This is a common situation for business travelers, since they often have status in an airline loyalty program that enables them to be automatically waitlisted for an upgrade when they book a flight.

Improved user experience for changing or canceling a booking

We've made it easier for travelers to change or cancel an air, hotel, car, or rail booking. The change and cancel options have been changed from being menu selections (where they were a little hard to find) to buttons on the top of a Trip summary.

Improved messaging when a flight change is not possible

In some cases, airlines do not permit a flight change. For example, when a traveler is already checked in or when the fare rules indicate that a flight is non-exchangeable. Now, if a traveler attempts to change a flight that cannot be modified, we display the exact reason why this is the case.

Preferred traveler name

We strive to create an inclusive and welcoming environment for everyone using Spotnana. In support of this goal, we've released the ability for travelers to add their preferred name to their Profile. The preferred name of the traveler will be used on the traveler's homepage, trips, and itineraries. The traveler's legal name will continue to be used for bookings.

Initially this feature is available for employee travelers only. Guest travelers will be supported in a future release.

Universal itineraries

Each time a traveler completes or modifies a booking, we send a confirmation email. As a result, over the course of a trip, travelers may receive multiple emails. This can be an inconvenience when a traveler wants to quickly find a specific piece of information. To address this issue, we now provide a consolidated view of all trip elements in a single itinerary that can be easily downloaded from the Trips page.

The downloaded PDF contains both upcoming and completed trips, providing a comprehensive view of travel plans. Canceled trips are excluded from the PDF, ensuring simple, accurate communication. Travelers can easily share their consolidated Itinerary with others. The email will include the consolidated PDF attachment, providing recipients with a comprehensive view of the itinerary.

Enhanced filters for hotel and car bookings

We’ve expanded the number of options that travelers can use to filter hotel and car search results, and we’ve improved our filter design.

New filter options on the Hotel Search Results page include:

Facilities
Property type
Loyalty program
Payment (Pre-paid or Pay at property)
Rate type (i.e. AAA, Government, etc.)

New filter options on the Hotel Details page include:

Price
Room amenities
Payment (Pre-paid or Pay at property)
Rate type (i.e. AAA, Government, etc.)
Number of beds

New filter options on the Car Search Results page include:

Engine type (i.e. Electric, Hybrid, Gas, etc.)
Vehicle specs

Travel Management

Supplier management CSV upload and download

Spotnana supports the ability to designate specific suppliers as "preferred", which moves booking options to the top of search results and adds a banner to the search listing. Previously, it was necessary to manage each preferred supplier manually, one at a time. Now we support the ability for administrators to bulk upload a list of suppliers via a CSV file as well as download the current list of suppliers. This simplifies change management and maintenance for preferred air, hotel, and car suppliers. If no suppliers are configured yet, the Download button will generate a template that can be populated.
The upload process uses a new file framework we have recently completed. Depending on the size of the file, we will either show a loading indicator that represents upload progress or notify the administrator that the file will be processed in the background, and an email will be sent when the process is complete.

Our file upload automatically applies preferred status for a supplier to all legal entities. If preferred status for a supplier should not be applied to a specific legal entity, that setting must be made manually.

CHF billing currency

We now support the ability to choose CHF as a billing currency within the Company and Policy settings.

Payments

Change form of payment for seat selection

After booking a flight using one form payment (such as a central card), travelers can now purchase a seat or an upgrade using a personal credit card. This is the first of several enhancements we are working on to support split payments.

Direct billing for car rentals

Many car rental suppliers support a direct billing arrangement where all bookings for a corporation are tied to a single billing number, and all payments are managed via a single consolidated invoice. Spotnana now supports this capability. When booking a car rental, travelers can now choose Direct billing as the payment method. An industry first, our new direct billing feature supports the ability to pass traveler loyalty numbers to suppliers, enabling travelers to accrue loyalty points while corporations benefit from simplified payments and expense management.

Support for credit and debit cards with 3D Secure

Spotnana has added support for credit cards and debit cards that use 3D Secure, an authentication protocol that reduces the risk of unauthorized card usage by requiring a one-time security code or password to be entered by the cardholder to complete a purchase. This is currently supported for flights. We plan to add support for 3D Secure in additional areas in the coming months.