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      Routehappy and OpenJaw Partner to Boost Airline Bookings

      August 22, 2017  | Written by Marisa Garcia
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      Image: Marcelo Cáceres

      APEX Insight: Routehappy has set itself on a path to improve airline bookings through product differentiation supported by content that highlights passenger experience features. Its partnership with OpenJaw is the latest stage in that journey.

      Routehappy and OpenJaw Technologies have announced that they will integrate their platforms to enhance flight shopping by matching personalized offers with targeted rich content, using IATA NDC standards. Their collaboration will simplify deployment for distributors and airlines, while offering consumers and travel agents better resources for product comparisons.

      OpenJaw’s t-Retail platform, which delivers personalized pricing through multiple distribution platforms, will incorporate Routehappy’s Universal Product Attributes (UPA) data as well as rich content from the Routehappy Hub like descriptive text, features icons, product photos, 360º virtual tours, videos or links to more information. The companies expect this extended integration will help improve airline booking conversions, upsells and ancillary product sales. The companies also anticipate that airlines will be more likely to adopt IATA NDC standards when they benefit directly by doing so through integrated platforms like these.

      Airlines can use Routehappy Hub to distribute rich content through OpenJaw’s NDC APIs. The solution allows authorized distributors access to UPAs via a Rich Content Pointer, which is a unique URL that connects the exact Rich Content targeted to the NDC offers. Image via Routehappy

      “Partnering with Routehappy enables our airline clients to deliver rich content across all channels,” said Kieron Branagan, CEO of OpenJaw. “Providing rich image-led product content at all points of sale, both direct and indirect, aids conversion by ensuring that the traveler will be able to make a more informed purchasing decision, wherever they shop. The partnership with Routehappy will enhance OpenJaw Technologies’ ability to deliver rich content to airline customers via IATA NDC enabled channel partners.”

      “Visually engaging, targeted, and personalized merchandising benefits the entire industry. Airlines can increase upsell and conversion, while having more control over their brand; and flyers and agents receive detailed, compelling content that makes the flight shopping experience easier and more relevant,” said Robert Albert, CEO of Routehappy. “Both Routehappy and OpenJaw’s technology are moving the industry away from commoditized to differentiated, and together our platforms will further benefit the ecosystem and encourage more useful NDC merchandising.”

      Routehappy and OpenJaw launched this collaboration in response to demand from mutual airline customers and expect to complete the integration later this year.

      Airbus also partnered with Routehappy this year to add enhanced rich content to the airline reservation systems of mutual customers that help highlight the passenger experience benefits of flying on the OEM’s A380 and A350 aircraft. The partnership was first announced at ITB Berlin, and involved airline launch partners Cathay Pacific, Emirates, Lufthansa Group and Singapore Airlines. The partners announced that they would extend these airlines’ Airbus-branded UPAs to Travis CheapTickets websites during the IATA Annual General Meeting in Cancun this June.

      Earlier this year, Australia’s largest online OTA, Webjet, shared A/B testing results showing that Routehappy Hub’s UPAs increased the likelihood of converting searches to bookings by 26.3 percent.