Contact Center Solutions Featured Article

April 07, 2008

US Airways Selects ReShop Solution from ITA Software to Enhance Call Center Capabilities

By Susan J. Campbell

TMCnet Contributing Editor

ITA Software, a provider of innovative airline IT and services, has announced that it has been selected by US Airways to automate exchange ticket shopping, reprise and reissue capabilities across the airline’s customer call centers and airport kiosks.

The company’s ReShop solution is designed to reduce costs and improve operational efficiencies by simplifying pre- and post-departure itinerary changes made by airline reservations agents and through self-service channels for international, domestic and interline travelers.

ITA Software’s ReShop product offers a new, easy-to-use intuitive automated reprice and reissue solution in order to integrate the same level of sophisticated airfare shopping that the company’s QPX System is known for.

With ReShop, reservations agents and self-service tools are empowered to efficiently address customers’ travel needs including shopping for the best airfare on last-minute destination changes, upgrades, refunds and exchanges.

ReShop is also the only product available in the industry that combines comprehensive shopping for the new itinerary with automated calculations on the itinerary changes for partially flown and wholly unflown tickets.

The deal effectively expands US Airways’ current relationship with ITA. The airline has been using ITA’s QPX to power flexible date/calendar shopping, multiple-destination shopping, upsell, network selling and booking features that are available on the airline’s website.

"ITA Software's ReShop solution will have a quantifiable impact to US Airways' bottom line by improving the accuracy of fare calculations associated with the ticket re-issue process,” said Brad Beakley, vice president, Reservations & Inventory Services, US Airways, in a Monday statement.

“ReShop will also improve the customer experience by streamlining the multi-step, time intensive processes for making itinerary changes in our call centers, and by providing self-service options to our customers via usairways.com and our airport kiosks.”

“We are pleased with our existing relationship with ITA and, after evaluating other solutions, determined its ReShop solution was far more superior. We look forward to further expanding our partnership over the long term as we eventually roll out ReShop beyond our customer call centers to include www.usairways.com and airport kiosks," Beakley added.

ReShop was first announced last fall and includes such features as simultaneous pricing and shopping for multiple passengers and passenger types; enhanced revenue collection; elimination of revenue leakage caused by inaccurate change fee assessments; reduction of interaction times; support for industry standards; and all the advantages of ITA’s QPX shopping.

"Airlines like US Airways that are focused on simplifying the reservations process for their customers are quickly gaining competitive advantages through our ReShop feature. They're tackling one of the most complex reservations processes in the industry - last minute itinerary changes, and associated refunds and exchanges - while taking advantage of all the benefits QPX has to offer," said Gianni Marostica, chief commercial officer, ITA Software, in Monday’s statement.

"What really makes ReShop different from other similar solutions is its sophisticated shopping capabilities embedded within an itinerary exchange product that is easy-to-use for all users, not just select, specially-trained individuals."

Airlines are facing a challenging situation lately as cutbacks have been common across the industry as fuel prices continue to increase and travelers are looking for cost-effective travel solutions. The airlines must find a balance between offering competitive pricing, excellent customer service and balancing the books.

ITA Software and its ReShop solution is providing US Airways with a solution that can help the airline to achieve all three. The results should be apparent with improved customer service delivery and increased revenues.

Susan J. Campbell is a contributing editor for TMC (News - Alert) and has also written for eastbiz.com. To see more of her articles, please visit Susan J. Campbell’s columnist page.

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