? VAX VacationAccess December 8, 2011 Enhancements Reference Guide
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Introduction At VAX VacationAccess, we continue to make it easier for agents to research, market and sell leisure vacations. VAX is pleased to announce a series of upgrades to the VAX booking platform aimed at doing just that. These latest enhancements are available as of December 8, 2011 VAX has added more resources such as the redesigned Destination pages and a direct link to Travel weekly in the Agent Resource Center. The Destination pages contain valuable destination information from Travel42. Travel42 provides everything agents need to recommend hotels and cruise ships, create customized destination guides for clients, and stay informed about travel disruptions and security developments worldwide. We ve developed functionality to enable agents to assign seats for clients on participating airline flights. Other enhancements include improvements in promotion code price display on availability screens, page display on availability screens, added flight status display, and per passenger breakdowns of air tax. VAX has also added some exciting new vacation suppliers accessible on the Reservations Vacation page and in the participating suppliers Supplier Showcase. These include Pleasant Holidays, Jetset Vacations, City Escape Holidays and Foreign Independent Tours! In addition, VAX is launching a new resource in the reservations drop down menu for escorted tours. This new page will provide information on promotions, training and other resources to help agents sell these profitable tours. Agents will have the ability to easily link off to the suppliers sight to book. Once an agent is registered to sell that supplier, they need only log in once, and from that point forward they will not have to login again. VAX is pleased that the Globus Family of Brands will be the launch supplier for this page. At VAX, we re staying one step ahead of our customer s demands. This reference guide will communicate all of what s new on VAX VacationAccess and assist your discovery of how VAX can make things simpler, faster and most importantly, help showcase your value to your customers. Please note that the availability of each new enhancement listed may vary by supplier. January 2013 VAX VacationAccess Page 3 Version Date: December 8, 2011
Table of Contents Introduction... 3 New Vacation Supplier Content... 5 New Escorted Tours Page... 5 Redesigned Destinations pages... 6 New Vacation Supplier Showcases... 8 Flight Status Updates in Reservation Summary... 9 Seat Assignments... 11 Seat Assignment Status:... 15 Promotion Code Price Display... 15 Page Reference Display... 16 Air Tax Passenger Breakdown... 17 Conclusion... 18 January 2013 VAX VacationAccess Page 4 Version Date: December 8, 2011
New Vacation Supplier Content VAX VacationAccess is committed to increasing your productivity and improving your experience with the end goal of delivering functionality and tools to make your vacation research, marketing and selling easier. Part of that goal includes striving for more vacation suppliers and opportunities that you can share with your customers. New Escorted Tours Page The release in December features a new Escorted Tours page where you can research, market and sell escorted tours from participating suppliers all over the world. The Globus family of brands is the foremost supplier to participate. Insert Escorted Tours page image January 2013 VAX VacationAccess Page 5 Version Date: December 8, 2011
Redesigned Destinations pages Now, you have access to much more valuable destination information that you can share with your clients; all right inside VAX VacationAccess. The new Destinations pages are filled with valuable resources to help you research destinations for your customers. Use the destination descriptions shown on these pages to help you describe this location to your customers and maybe, nudge them into exploring this destination on their next vacation. January 2013 VAX VacationAccess Page 6 Version Date: December 8, 2011
Included in the enhanced Destination pages is detailed research and quick facts for your desired destination provided from Travel42. Travel42 provides everything travel professionals need to recommend hotels and cruise ships, create customized destination guides for clients, and stay informed about travel disruptions and security developments worldwide. As a registered agent of VAX, you are eligible for a free 7 day trial subscription to get to know all the destination resources at Travel 42 and if you sign-up, all additional subscriptions can receive an additional $10.00 off the monthly subscription rate. VAX continues to add new destination content so be sure to check this page often. January 2013 VAX VacationAccess Page 7 Version Date: December 8, 2011
New Vacation Supplier Showcases Other vacation suppliers added to the platform include JetSet Vacations, Pleasant Holidays Vacations, City Escape Holidays and Foreign Independent Tours! Be sure to check out their Supplier Showcases to learn more about their vacation products. January 2013 VAX VacationAccess Page 8 Version Date: December 8, 2011
Flight Status Updates in Reservation Summary New to VAX is access to flight status information upon retrieval of your client s reservation. When you retrieve an existing active reservation, the system automatically references flight status data if it is made available to VAX. Now you can check your customer s flight status in their reservation summary! Updated every 15 minutes, you can monitor your customer s flight status on the day of travel, giving you the advantage to service your customer if a flight is cancelled or delayed. The Flight Status information displays flight-related information for each flight in a client s itinerary. This includes departure and arrival times, current flight status, delay information, and terminal information. The system uses a 24-hour look ahead to request flight status information and obtains updates every 15 minutes. *Itineraries must include at least one U.S. or Canadian segment. Note: This information is provided by and dependent upon a thirdparty source and is integrated into VAX VacationAccess. Flight Status Information January 2013 VAX VacationAccess Page 9 Version Date: December 8, 2011
The system displays Delayed, Cancelled and Diverted statuses in red. If flight status data exists, the Flight status information is powered by message displays. Flight Status Information Status Changes Note: Flight status on commercial charters is included once the pilot activates the flight plan with the FAA upon departure. January 2013 VAX VacationAccess Page 10 Version Date: December 8, 2011
Seat Assignments VAX VacationAccess has an exciting new feature to help you showcase your value! VAX s new seat assignment functionality will enable you to request specific airline seats for your customers at the time of booking when seat availability is the highest. Note: The selected seats are requests only and are not guaranteed. They are still subject to confirmation by the airlines. The task of making a seat request begins on the flight availability screen. Here, you will find a Preview Seat Map link that will open the aircraft Seat Map in a separate window. This is where you have the ability to preview available/occupied seats for a flight. January 2013 VAX VacationAccess Page 11 Version Date: December 8, 2011
The aircraft seat map will reflect the type of fare selected in the initial search. Note: This map is for reference only. Actual seat selection will occur at checkout If the selected carrier does not provide seat map data, the following message will be received: Once your customers commit to an itinerary, you can complete the task of requesting the desired seats. This can be accomplished during the checkout process under the Itinerary Tools panel, there will be a Select Seat Assignments link that when clicked, will open the selectable seat map. January 2013 VAX VacationAccess Page 12 Version Date: December 8, 2011
This seat map allows you to click and select an available seat for your customers. Simply click the desired seat that is not currently occupied to make your seat request. January 2013 VAX VacationAccess Page 13 Version Date: December 8, 2011
Shown below is a completed seat assignment for Flight 2537 Row 13F and E. Selected seat assignments will also display in the Itinerary Tools panel. January 2013 VAX VacationAccess Page 14 Version Date: December 8, 2011
Seat Assignment Status: After completion of the seat assignments and booking, a request status will display on the Confirmation screen, the email confirmation, and the e-travel document. There are 3 Seat request statuses: Confirmed The seats have been confirmed by the airline. Pending The seats have not yet been confirmed by the airline. Denied The seats were denied by the airline. If this occurs, an Unable to assign seats message will display. You may always retrieve the reservation at a later time to check the most up-todate seat request status. Promotion Code Price Display Immediate display of promotion code price adjustments are now shown on the availability panels in VAX. After a promotion code is applied in the Search panel, you will see the updated (discounted) price immediately on the availability screens. Discounted vacation components will show highlighted in yellow. January 2013 VAX VacationAccess Page 15 Version Date: December 8, 2011
Page Reference Display VAX has improved the method of paging through several pages of vacation components to focus on the number of results being viewed rather than which page of multiple pages is being viewed. When multiple pages exist, you will be able to scroll to the next or previous set of results. This new format will help you know how many total results there are to view and which set of the total results you are currently viewing. The paging changes apply to Flight, Hotel, Car, and Feature Availability screens in VAX VacationAccess. Old reference: Enhanced reference: Replace image January 2013 VAX VacationAccess Page 16 Version Date: December 8, 2011
Air Tax Passenger Breakdown The information within the taxes and fees links for VAX VacationAccess is enhanced to display a per passenger breakdown of each air tax. VAX will display the passenger type, as provided by the GDS, as well as the tax amount per passenger. VAX will continue to show the total tax for each tax type as well as the total of all taxes and fees. Hotel taxes and fees will not be broken down on a per passenger level. Hotel taxes and fees will not be broken down on a per passenger level. Old reference (3 adults/1 child): Enhanced reference(3 adults/1 child): January 2013 VAX VacationAccess Page 17 Version Date: December 8, 2011
Conclusion VAX VacationAccess proactively provides new opportunities to deliver the vacations of your customers dreams by giving you the right tools to research, market and sell customized vacations. This release is another example of how VAX is committed to improving your productivity through evolving technology. January 2013 VAX VacationAccess Page 18 Version Date: December 8, 2011
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