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Better My Trip Beta Program
FAQs
Overview What is Better My Trip? Better My Trip is a white-‐label, post-‐ticketing app designed to help travel agents stay connected and engaged with their clients after a flight has been ticketed. Distributed directly from the agent to their clients, the goal is to provide agent’s greater insight and revenue opportunities in all post-‐ticketing travel stages so that you can enhance and make the traveler’s trip easier. Travelers benefit from anytime access to updated itinerary information and relevant travel content like ground transportation, parking, tours and activities, and even local deals for their destination -‐ all in one user-‐friendly mobile solution. How is this app unique? Better My Trip is designed with the travel agency in mind. It is designed to keep the agent central in the post-‐ticketing activities of their clients. In fact, Better My Trip is completely agency branding and built around agency needs. Better My Trip is easy to use. It combines many post-‐ticketing tasks into one application. Instead of accessing a separate application for each phase of the trip cycle, your client can use one app to view their itinerary and airport maps, schedule ground transportation, or check destination weather, for example. And, the design flow is intuitive so that your travelers truly have the information they need at their fingertips. What is in it for my agency? The proliferation of 3rd party travel apps threatens to erode relationships with your clients. Better My Trip helps retain your customer’s engagement and protects your vital role as true travel advisor. With Better My Trip, you get the credit of providing more post-‐ticketing services to your clients with a traveler self-‐service application. Your agency builds brand and loyalty. What platforms does Better My Trip support? Better My Trip Beta will be available for use on your client’s iPhone or Android device.
How long will the beta period last? The beta period is expected to last between 3 and 6 months depending upon participant transaction volume. Why should I choose ARC? ARC has a vested interest in the success of the travel agency channel. Plus, our unique position in the industry provides you an opportunity to build stronger, more profitable relationships with airlines and other travel suppliers. Product Features, Functionality, & Support What are the key features and functionality? There are seven key components to the app: 1. Contact an agent – Travelers are linked with their specific agent’s contact information 2. Itinerary management – Complete with flight updates and status 3. Relevant offers – offers will be based upon the traveler’s itinerary. Offers include: tours and activities, parking and transportation 4. Airline ancillary deep links 5. Destination weather and information 6. Agency branding -‐ your agency’s name will appear as the banner and your contact information will be linked into the app. 7. User friendly design Can I have the app customized for my current systems and infrastructure? There is a standard set of components and information/transaction flows included in the beta version. Though there will not initially be ability to customize these for your systems and infrastructure, these inclusions are based upon conversations we have had directly with agencies. We would be happy to talk about your needs for customization for future releases of the product or for a custom solution.
What if I have my own supplier agreements? In the beta version we are including select suppliers for ground transportation, parking, and tours and activities. These suppliers can be suppressed by account to ensure offers non-‐compliant with a travel policy are not presented. It is important to note that we are working very hard to bring the right partners to the app, ones that will drive customer loyalty and meaningful revenue opportunities for your agency. We would be happy to talk about your needs for customization in future versions of the product. How will I get trained on the app? ARC will train representatives from each agency on how to use Better My Trip and its agency portal. These representatives will train their respective agents participating in the beta program. What marketing materials will be provided? Agents will be supplied with a quick start guide as well as easy reference documents that outline the value of Better My Trip to both the traveler and the agent. What other product support will I receive? As a completely white-‐labeled app, you will be the point of contact for your travelers. If at any time you have a technical problem, ARC is here to support you, the agent, fully. Vendor contact information will also be included in case your client needs support regarding a purchase. How does it work? How will the application be deployed to my travelers? An e-‐mail from your agency will be generated by the Better My Trip system and sent to your traveler with a link to the white-‐labeled Better My Trip app. The traveler can access Better My Trip and begin the registration process. Flight Updates and Status
The Better My Trip system will be connected to the FlightStats database. Based on the itinerary, the traveler will receive updates on gates changes, arrivals, and departures. Itinerary Management The itinerary management system is a consolidation platform taking data from various booking and reservation sources. The system will take data from an agency e-‐mailed itinerary, an in-‐app purchase or information added directly by the traveler and parse it into a database. The app then draws the data so the user can see their consolidated itinerary in Better My Trip. The itinerary management system also provides alerts, notification, and organization of all the confirmation e-‐mails in one place. ARC is working with your agency and industry leading partners to ensure your customers have timely and accurate itinerary information. Commissionable Content -‐ Tours and Activities & Parking and Transportation ARC has partnerships with leading travel suppliers. Embedded content allows a traveler to request and purchase shuttle service, airport parking and tours and activities without ever leaving the Better My Trip app. Our system uses trip information to alert your clients about bookable content relevant to where they are in the trip cycle. The purchase is confirmed via the traveler’s e-‐mail and integrated into the itinerary. An integrated affiliate link ensures the agency will receive commission for that sale. Airline Ancillary Content Within the Better My Trip interface, a user can request information on, purchase, and receive confirmation of purchased airline ancillaries, such as seat upgrades or Wi-‐Fi access. Payment will be settled through the airline systems. At this time, commissions are not available on airline ancillaries. Contact an agent Agent contact information will be parsed from the traveler’s emailed itinerary. ARC is working with your agency to ensure that the contact information included is custom to you and your relationship with your clients.
I have an itinerary management application, does this replace it? While Better My Trip is designed as a stand-‐alone app, there may be other reasons to continue use of your other apps at this time. We suggest you allow your clients to decide which app best meets their needs. What additional technical resources or infrastructure do I need? You don’t. ARC will manage hosting, maintenance, upgrades, etc. What data is collected? What can I see? And how is my client’s data secured? ARC will only collect and store data necessary to provide our services. ARC is PII compliant and requires suppliers and participants to be as well. Content providers will only have access to what is necessary to fulfill a transaction. You will have access to transactions purchased or uploaded into the system to help you better serve your client. ARC will hold user data for one year before purging it. ARC will also retain aggregated purchase history data without personally identifiable information for use in optimizing offers. Earning Revenues and Associated Costs What is the revenue model for my agency? The agency will be able to generate revenue with bookable content, for example, destination activities, ground transportation etc. Depending upon the partner, payments will be in the form of revenue share, commissions, or transaction fees. How do I increase revenues? We will be providing four components in Better My Trip Beta that will provide opportunities for additional revenue: tours and activities, airport shuttle, airport parking, and ground transportation. You can also consider directly charging your clients additional service fees.
How do I know how much I made and how do I get paid? Monthly reporting and commission payments will be provided directly to your agency. Your agency will use customer identification information to ensure you receive your payment share. What’s the cost? There is no cost for agents or agencies during the beta period. During the beta period, we will gather your inputs regarding additional content, partnerships, and functionality desired in the full-‐release product. So the costs, if any, will be a function of those outcomes as well as any applicable set up or per trip-‐related fees.