December 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.). 

General

Spotnana Help Center

The Spotnana Help Center is now live! It offers travelers and travel administrators an easy-to-use site containing helpful how-to topics and reference guides. You can refer to this site whenever you have questions about using the Spotnana Online Booking Tool.

To access the Spotnana Help Center, go to https://spotnana.freshdesk.com/support/home. You can also reach the Help Center at any time via the chat icon in the bottom right corner of the Spotnana Online Booking Tool.

Content

NDC integration added for Lufthansa Group

Spotnana has added a direct NDC integration with Lufthansa Group airlines, providing travelers with expanded content and fare options for Lufthansa, Swiss Airlines, Brussels Airlines, and Austrian Airlines.  

As a result, travelers will also have access to Lufthansa's Economy Light, Business Saver, and new 'Green Fares' when booking as well as benefit from additional fare price points available through continuous pricing. Green Fares reduce up to 20% of flight-related CO2 emissions by the use of sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) and offset parts or all of the remaining 80% of the CO2 emissions by an equivalent contribution to high-quality climate protection projects. 

Travelers can also make self-service changes and cancel on their own. Note that Lufthansa Group does not support multiple exchanges. This means that after the first exchange is done on the Spotnana Online Booking Tool, any subsequent exchanges will need to be done by a Spotnana agent. In addition, Lufthansa Group does not support unused ticket credits. 

Traveler Experience

Flights: Additional prompts to review visa requirements

When embarking on international travel, ensuring the traveler’s awareness of and compliance with visa requirements is paramount.  As a result, we have increased the number of places where we alert travelers of this during their booking experience:

• Before finalizing the booking, travelers now have the option to review their visa requirements on the checkout page.

• Once the traveler has booked an international trip, they can go to the My Trips page and again check their visa requirements.

• Once booking is complete, Spotnana sends travelers an email, proactively reminding them to recheck their visa requirements.

If a visa is needed, travelers can easily apply online within the Spotnana Online Booking Tool. Be sure you leave adequate time for your visa to be processed and obtained prior to departure.

Flights: Streamlined loyalty program sign-up process

Spotana has made it easier for travelers to sign-up for loyalty programs with Delta, United, and Alaska Airlines. Now, travelers can scroll down to the loyalty program section of the checkout page and select the loyalty program they wish to join. The loyalty enrollment page for the selected airline will open and allow the traveler to enroll. After enrolling, the traveler returns to the Spotnana Online Booking Tool, adds their program number, and continues with the checkout process.

Flights: Ticketing statuses for NDC bookings

When booking a flight, travelers will now be directed to the Trips page after clicking Book Flight. Initially, while our platform waits for a ticketing response from the airline, the flight status for the segment will be Processing. As soon as a response is received, the flight status will be updated. To learn more about flight booking statuses, see our Help Center.

Flights: Ability to retry payment (NDC only)

We have introduced a few improvements to deal with the scenario when the form of payment used for a booking fails: 

1. The status for the flight segment will be updated to Payment Failure.

2. Travelers will be provided with the opportunity to retry their payment from the Trips page in order to complete the booking successfully.

3. The PNR will automatically be canceled if payment is not completed within the allowed hold period.

4. An email will be sent to the traveler explaining that the payment has failed and direct them to the Trip page to retry the payment in order to confirm the booking.

Flights: Ability to change form of payment for exchanges

When making an exchange, if additional fees or charges are incurred, travelers can now pay for those with a different form of payment than what was used to initially book the flight.  

Hotel: Ability to book same hotel again

Travelers can click Book again (for upcoming or completed trips) to rebook for a particular hotel. This allows the traveler to search availability for that hotel on the same or different dates, and book for themselves or another traveler. If the traveler then decides to look at other hotels, they can simply click Back to hotels and will be presented with a list of hotels in the same vicinity.

Hotel and Car: New “Show preferred only” filter

When searching hotels and cars, travelers can now select the Show preferred only filter to only view those options that match their company's preferred hotel properties, hotel chains or preferred car rental companies.  

Car: Special equipment options

Travelers can now add special equipment to car rentals. When searching for a car rental, travelers can now select the Add special equipment filter and then choose the desired equipment. All car rental results will then include the selected special equipment. The selected special equipment will also be shown on the Checkout page and, once booked, on the Trips page. Special equipment options for car rentals include:

• Bike rack

• Child seat (booster)

• Child seat (infant)

• Child seat (toddler)

• Satellite radio

• Luggage rack

• Navigation system

• Ski equipped

• Snow chains

• Wheelchair access ramp

Car: Contact details and requirements

When reserving a car, travelers can now find the following information from the car rental company on the checkout page when clicking on the “Rental company requirements” dropdown widget: 

• Car rental company address, email, and phone number

• Age Requirements

• Shuttle Information

• License Requirements

• Driver Requirements

• Geographic Restrictions

• Drop off Information

Upon booking, the same information is also accessible when viewing the reservation from the Trip page. 

Car: Ability to add a flight number to a car booking

When booking a car, travelers can now select a flight number (from an existing air booking in one of their trips) during the checkout process. This allows the car rental company to keep track of a traveler’s arrival and if their flight is delayed. This is particularly important if the rental company location has restricted hours and is closed after an arriving traveler’s flight lands. 

Invoices now available (US, UK, NL)

Travelers can now view invoices for all travel bookings made in the Spotnana Online Booking Tool for travel purchased from supply partners in the United States, United Kingdom, and the Netherlands. This is currently limited to bookings sourced via Sabre (for flights and hotel), NDC, and TravelFusion through TFPay.

The invoices are available on the Trips page. They can be accessed by clicking Payment details and then Show Invoices. Invoices are generated for the following types of transactions: 

• New bookings

• Exchanges

• Canceled bookings

• Voided bookings

For the UK and the Netherlands, invoices specify the value-added tax (VAT) when applicable. This helps you claim VAT refunds, when available.

Travel Management

Site messaging

Site messaging provides travel managers with the ability to message their company employees within Spotnana’s Online Booking Tools and traveler emails. To create a message, select Company from the Program menu (the Settings page will be displayed). Then, select Site messaging from the Company section.

The Site messaging page will be displayed. Travel managers can then create a new site message or see current, upcoming, or past site messages. When creating a new site message, you can select from the following options:

• Message platform - mobile, desktop, or email

• Message location - what page you want the message to appear on (e.g., Checkout page)

• Message type - where on the page you want the message displayed (e.g., banner at the top of the page)

• Audiences - who do you want to see the message (e.g., only employees traveling to a specific city)