DENVER-Business traveler content provider Trip.com Inc. launched a wireless extension to its Internet site last week, featuring a first-of-its-kind ability to rebook flights from AT&T Wireless PocketNet phones.
The service allows users to modify existing flight reservations, but not initiate new ones. Users also may check hotel and rental car reservations, flight status and view the speed and altitude of a current flight via a direct feed from the Federal Aviation Administration.
“This reinforces Trip.com’s leadership in the travel industry,” said Alison Kane, vice president of product strategy and development at Trip.com. “It shows we’re not just a Web site, but a technology innovator.”
This is the first wireless travel application that allows users to actively modify their flight reservations from their phones. While Internet-enabled phones on other carriers’ networks may access the Trip.com general information, only PocketNet users may interact with the rebooking feature. Kane said the act of provisioning the phone to handle the modification service is just too painstaking to expect the average user to do so from any phone at this time. It requires entering Internet Protocol addresses, routing information and other actions Trip.com felt were not very user friendly.
PocketNet Trip.com users also may have other travel related information sent to their phones, which they can provision at the Trip.com Web site, such as tagging the itineraries of business associates and family members and receiving notification of changes to flight status and confirmation of departure times.
Future improvements to the service include provisioning upgrades, initiating a flight reservation and modifying hotel and car reservations from the wireless phone as well. Trip.com also is looking at possible voice portal interaction of its information.
“If you’re going to jump in, you have to jump in the deep end,” Kane said about extending Internet content wirelessly. “You can’t just dip your toe in the water.”
