Alternate air ticket purchasing order systems allow for alternative ways of purchasing air tickets and GDS Connectivity not involving Internet or personal TA contact.
Mobile booking of flight tickets and other facilities, for example reviewing flight schedules and comparing fares, can be done using the mobile phone. The importance of mobile booking has increased significantly in the last years. Especially business travelers who use mobile devices too book additional services or to check their flight status.[1]
A short code can be sent to the TA provided code with specific parameters to receive the required information.
A specific number provided by the carrier can be called, and an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) asks questions and guides the user through. The IVR can also take the payment details and process the payment. The e-ticket can be sent as an email or collected over the counter.
Shanghai SmartPay Jieyin has partnered with Lu Hai Kong travel agency in Hefei, Anhui Province, to jointly launch mobile and telephone based payment systems for airline electronic tickets. As part of the launch promotion, customers who buy airline e-ticket in Lu Hai Kong ticket agency and process payment via interactive voice response (IVR).
A smart card (also known as chip card or integrated circuit card-ICC), is a pocket-sized card with embedded integrated circuits to process information. It can receive input, process it using the ICC applications, then deliver the output. The airline smart card enables quick and easy passenger identification; allowing them to obtain a ticket and pay for other products and services. The smart card provides airlines the opportunity to increase savings in distribution costs, provide better security against fraud, allow more access to self-service facilities, and provide a better means to identify their frequent travelers.
Global Distribution System (GDS) provides applications that participating carriers can purchase and use to inform its passengers by means of alerts on their mobile phones. The alerts can be for flight delays, terminal/gate changes, flight cancellations, airport/airline alerts, city/country security alerts, as well as a trip reminder service. Alerts may be private or custom branded with contact information and can be sent via Voice, e-mail, fax or Short Messaging System (SMS). Customized alerts or marketing messages may be also created to get in touch with the passengers anywhere they may be; Patheo offers this same application. The alerts may be delivered to travelers via WML and HTML phones, Web-enabled PDAs and RIM Blackberry devices. Any device that receives e-mail or SMS (AOL, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ) can receive Alert Notifications.
A software application can be installed on a phone, providing access to a specific airline’s reservation system, allowing the user to book, pay and generate e-tickets via their mobile phone. This requires a JAVA enabled handset with GPRS connection.
Mobile phone manufacturers generally provide integrated software for the use of applications like MS Office, and also for connecting to the Internet using GPRS on WAP. These applications may also provide pre-programmed interface to a GDS. Using this feature, travel plans can be made, schedules can be seen, and tickets can be booked.
Motorola and WORLDSPAN furnish travel information via Motorola's Internet-access-enabled wireless devices. Through Motorola's Mobile Internet Exchange communications platform (also known as the MIX platform) and its enhanced voice capabilities, carriers are able to offer their customers access to WORLDSPAN's travel services through any phone. WORLDSPAN is the first travel channel provider of the core content for Motorola's MIX platform.
The WAP versions of GDS provides use to mobile phones to surf the site on their GPRS mobile phones.