November 2023 - Release Notes
Here are the most recent enhancements to Spotnana’s Travel-as-a-Service Platform. The features are grouped by functional category (Content, Self-service, etc.).
Content
We have built a deep direct integration with Southwest that opens up additional capabilities to travelers, including:
- Full access to Southwest content including EarlyBird Check-In and promotional offers
- Self-service changes and cancellations, including same-day changes
- Servicing through any Spotnana or Southwest channel
Traveler Experience
Flights: Book American Airlines NDC fares with EDIFACT unused credits
Travelers can now apply unused credits from an American Airlines booking made on the GDS via EDIFACT toward the purchase of NDC-based fares.
Flights: View airline seat map in search results
Travelers can now view the seat map for a flight in the search results, providing them with visibility upfront into available seats remaining on a flight.
Flights: Fare change alert
If a traveler has selected a fare that is no longer available by the time they get to the checkout process, they will receive an alert that their selected fare is no longer available and be provided with the option to book the next available fare class. The cost difference and applicable fare rules will also be provided.
Flights: Cabin upgrade status now visible
On the Trips page, travelers can now see when they have been waitlisted for an upgrade to a better cabin when room in that cabin class is available.
Flights: Book same flight again
Within both upcoming and completed flights, travelers can click on ‘Book again’ to search for that flight on the same, or different dates – for themselves or for another traveler. Messaging will indicate if the previously booked flight is available. In the case it is not available, alternate messaging will show, along with other flight options.
We have made the following improvements in the search results page:
- Clearer labeling to indicate if the flight results shown are for departing or returning flights
- Easier ability to sort results for the different class types; with a single click on the arrow next to the class type, you can view your results from least to most expensive
We’ve rolled out a new responsive design, providing a more optimal hotel booking experience across desktop, tablet, and mobile. Additionally, travelers can shop and compare hotel rates more easily in a grid view and see a new ‘Rate details’ module. This module provides nightly price breakdowns, as well as special rate conditions.
We’ve made similar updates to our car booking experience and rolled out a new responsive design that works seamlessly across desktop, tablet, and mobile. Additionally, we have added a fuel type indicator to the search results, providing travelers the ability to shop by engine type (electric, hybrid, alternative fuel, etc.).
Train travelers can now download all e-tickets for their UK and/or EU rail bookings directly from their Trips page – including multi-carrier journeys. Travelers will still continue to receive their e-tickets attached to their Spotnana itinerary confirmation.
We have made improvements in our rail search experience, making it easier for travelers to search for rail stations in the US and Europe – whether they search by station code, city, or state.
Upon landing on the homepage in Spotnana’s Online Booking Tool, travelers now see clear labels for the various forms of travel they can book – Flight, Hotel, Car, Rail, and Concierge. The associated travel icon is shown next to the text label.
Travelers can now find a link to download Spotnana’s mobile app at the bottom of the homepage in Spotnana’s Online Booking Tool. This allows them to easily find and download the app from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store, and then access their trip details on-the-go.
Travel Management
Status page: subscribe for notifications of scheduled downtime
Travel managers and their teams can now visit the Spotnana Status page to view how our systems (APIs, web, UI, and mobile) are operating and can subscribe to the page to receive advance notification of any planned maintenance where downtime is required.
Agent Experience
For flights, travel agents are now able to add a special service request or other special information on behalf of travelers – such as a wheelchair or preferred meal for NDC bookings in addition to EDIFACT bookings.
It’s our goal to ensure that all servicing tasks can be performed within Spotnana to improve agent efficiency and accelerate issue resolution times. Our Agent Desktop manual form allows agents to create, modify, and remove bookings from a traveler’s trips page. The following three improvements have been made to the air manual form experience:
- Agents can now cancel a booking and generate an unused credit which will appear on the travelers profile using the manual form. The traveler will then be able to redeem this credit in an automated way as with any other credit on the platform.
- Agents can now easily cancel a booking for no refund using the manual form.
- Agents can now choose whether or not to send a cancellation email to travelers when they are processing a cancellation.
In cases where an NDC booking has been made in the Spotnana platform and is later modified on SPRK or via the airline's website, these updates are now automatically reflected in the Spotnana platform. Agents no longer need to manually copy information from one platform to another.
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