Travel Blog
The latest news and notes from the Travel team
Boston Googlers give back in 2011
Friday, December 30, 2011
In the spirit of giving, we wanted to take a moment to reflect upon some of the
good deeds
our Boston Googlers have done over this past year.
Held a bone marrow registration drive with the
Gift of Life
Hosted a charity drive to benefit
Japan earthquake and tsunami relief efforts
Designated a week to
GoogleServe
where Boston Googlers joined 8,000 Googlers company-wide to do good in our local communities
Provided national grants to
MIT’s OEOP MITES program
, to the
Boston Museum of Science
and to
Citizen Schools
Collected non-perishables, and donated time and money to the
Greater Boston Food Bank
Worked with
Bikes not Bombs
to promote the use of bicycle technology as an alternative to war and environmental destruction
Worked with the
Charles River Conservancy
to help keep the Charles River clean
Fed our veterans at the
New England Center for Homeless Veterans
Educated kids on the math behind the Rubik’s Cube at the
Cambridge Science Festival
Sponsored the
MIT KBPS
, a music and engineering student organization that restores, documents and maintains the musical installation/sculpture at the Kendall T stop
Raised funds to help care for local Boston women and children at
Rosie’s Place
Delivered meals to the critically ill and homebound through the annual Thanksgiving
Pie in the Sky fundraising event
Donated time and talents to
Citizen Schools
Launched Age Engage where Boston Googlers trained Boston seniors on Internet search and email. Watch the
Age Engage Google Ireland video
to learn more about this program
While this represents only a small portion of the charitable efforts made by Googlers around the world, we wanted to acknowledge the kind hearts and minds of our Boston-based team! You can find out more about
Google giving in 2011
on the Official Google Blog.
Posted by Sarah McManus, HR Business Partner
Looking for somewhere to go on New Years Eve?
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Looking for something fun and different to do this New Years Eve? Thinking about heading out of town, but not sure where to go or if you can afford it? Consider using Google’s
Flight Search
feature to help you plan your domestic trip in the U.S. with just a few clicks of the mouse.
Just enter your departure city, preferred dates and set your price limit. For example, let’s say you’d like to depart from Denver on December 30, returning January 1, and want to spend less than $350. Enter this information and the map will automatically update to show you where you can go. Solid blue dots represent the places you can visit for under $350 on the dates you’ve specified. Clear dots represent possible destinations available from Denver that exceed your $350 price.
Our team is working hard to make features like this that are fast and easy. For more tips on other ways you can search for flight information, check out the Exploring travel options video below or visit our
Inside Search blog
.
Posted by Noam Ben Haim, Senior Product Manager, Travel
Star Alliance FareFinder app now available across all mobile platforms
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
The Star Alliance FareFinder app can now be used on Android, BlackBerry and iPhone. The free flight search app, powered by ITA Software by Google, lets travelers search, find and shop for the best airfares for domestic and international trips across all 27
Star Alliance member airlines
. It can be used by frequent flyer members and non frequent flyer members. FareFinder enables you to quickly find the best flight and offers an option to book your preferred flight directly from your mobile device.
Find out more about
FareFinder
and how to download or access the app on the Star Alliance website.
Posted by David Peller, General Manager, EMEA/India/Asia-Pacific
Now Google Maps makes it easier to find your way through the airport
Wednesday, December 07, 2011
Many of us will travel hundreds of miles to visit family and friends this holiday season, and it’s likely we’ll find ourselves in an airport or two. We might even find ourselves stuck on a layover wondering where our gate is or trying to find our favorite coffee spot. The good news is
Google Maps 6.0 for Android
has a new feature that can help. Google Maps recently added floor plans and the ability to see where you are on the map when you’re indoors, for several U.S. airports, making it easier to find a gate or grab that cup of coffee.
For more information, watch this video and visit the
Lat Long blog
.
Posted by Scott Ciabattari, Strategic Partner Development Manager
See flight results right on Google.com
Thursday, December 01, 2011
(Cross-posted on the
Google Inside Search blog
)
Back in September, we launched
an early look at our Flight Search feature
, which was developed to help people find faster, more flexible, and more useful results for online travel searches.
Flight Search results have been available by clicking on “Flights” on the left-hand navigation bar on the search results page, or by going directly to
google.com/flights
. But we’ve heard from you that you’d like to see more options to find flights and prices even more easily and quickly.
Starting today, we’ll begin showing flight information right in your Google search results on certain flight related searches. For example, if you search for [flights from San Francisco to Las Vegas] you’ll see a table that shows available flights, including duration and prices. You can adjust dates on the page, or click any flight to be taken to Flight Search to further research and book your trip.
Over the next couple days, you’ll start to see the flight results appear for searches whose origins and destinations are currently supported by our Flight Search feature. In the short term, those results are limited to domestic US flights. The
flight schedule feature
will continue to provide information about nonstop routes around the world and across 11 languages.
Once you've booked your flight and are on your way, if you're traveling through one of the many U.S. airports whose floor plans we
recently added
to Google Maps for Android, you can easily see where you are and what's around you from the convenience of your mobile device.
Happy travels!
Posted by Emmet Connolly, UX Designer, Flight Search
H.I.S. differentiates their online travel presence with ITA
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
H.I.S., one of the largest Asia-Pacific multinational travel agencies, wanted to make it easier for customers to plan travel online. They also knew they would need flexible and advanced airfare shopping tools to complete a critical project to reengineer their booking platform. After careful evaluation they chose our airfare pricing system, QPX™.
On November 15, 2011, the H.I.S. and ITA teams successfully completed the first phase of the project, launching QPX live on the H.I.S. consumer website,
his-j.com
.
With its global headquarters in Japan,
H.I.S.
is considered a leader in the retail agency domain. They have more than 280 walk-in outlets in Japan, with more than 108 branches in over 84 international cities.
Kiyoshi Takano, executive officer and general manager, information system division, H.I.S., said “I’m delighted to have selected and now deployed ITA Software. QPX will help us differentiate our online shopping experience, by offering more innovative and comprehensive airline products -- regardless of the point-of-sale.”
We’re looking forward to working with H.I.S. as they expand their global online presence.
To learn more about ITA, visit
www.itasoftware.com
.
Posted by David Peller, General Manager, EMEA/India/Asia-Pacific
From Istanbul to the entire globe, Turkish Airlines makes it easier to plan travel with QPX™
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
(Cross-posted on the
Google Turkey Official Blog
)
Turkish Airlines just signed a multi-year agreement with us to use QPX, our airfare pricing and shopping technology. They plan to use it for revenue and reward redemption pricing and shopping, as well as ticket exchanges and refunds.
The rollout will take place in phases, with the first release expected in Q3 2012. When launched, Turkish Airlines customers will be able to use the same advanced airfare shopping tools across all channels -- whether they shop
turkishairlines.com
, agency websites, the THY Mobile Application, or by visiting one of their ticket offices.
When we asked Turkish Airlines why they selected us, Mr. Adnan Metin, senior vice president, corporate development and CIO, Turkish Airlines replied, “The flexibility of QPX will let us roll out more advanced features, faster, and consistently across all of our channels. Ultimately, this will make travel planning much easier for our customers and will improve our revenues.”
A Star Alliance member, Turkish Airlines is the fastest growing and fourth largest European airline. They are the most recent airline in Europe to take advantage of our technology to enhance the overall shopping experience for their customers while driving sales and slashing distribution costs.
To learn more, visit
www.itasoftware.com
.
Posted by David Peller, General Manager, EMEA/India/Asia-Pacific
Learn more about Flight Search with three quick tips
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
(Cross-posted on the
Google Inside Search blog
)
With the holiday season closely approaching, you might be looking to book flights to visit friends and family. With our
Flight Search
feature, you can plan your trip quickly and easily with just a few clicks of the mouse.
In response to interest from you, we’ve shot three short videos to share some of our favorite ways the Flight Search feature can enable you to explore travel options. For example, you may know you want to travel and have a set budget, but you’re not sure where to go. You can also easily see when to fly in order to get the best deal, and you can use a scatterplot to view the entire set of results to more easily compare all flight options at a glance.
Hope these tips help you spend less time worrying about booking your flight and more time preparing for the holidays.
Posted by Marcin Brodziak, Software Engineer, Flight Search
American Airlines amplifies results with Boombox™
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Travel companies work hard to make finding deals easy online; however, developing their websites can require a significant investment of resources and time.
That’s where our Boombox platform can help. It’s a middleware system that offloads much of the technical burden for travel companies. This means new airfare shopping features can go from concept to prototype to production more quickly -- and with fewer resources.
American Airlines launched Boombox last year and they’ve added several new features to
AA.com
since. The first addition was making their price and schedule matrix the default shopping flow. This change made it much easier for travelers to evaluate price differences between fare classes, which led to an added benefit for AA - a higher number of sellup conversions.
They also used Boombox to launch AAdvantage DealFinder, a pricing and shopping feature that makes it easier to provide more targeted offerings to their travelers.
American Airlines has been a customer since 2004 and an early adopter of many of our products. In addition to
Boombox™
, American Airlines uses
QPX™
,
Reward Shopping
,
ReShop™
,
DACS®
, and most recently
ITA Merchandising
.
“American has steadily built its relationship with ITA because we align in key areas such as vision, leadership, and innovation,” said Monte Ford, the senior vice president and technology and chief information officer at American Airlines.
Check out the full
case study
to learn more about the results AA has achieved so far, with Boombox.
Posted by Nate Nottke, Senior Technical Account Manager
Top three reasons StudentUniverse uses QPX™
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
When StudentUniverse, the largest student travel deals site in the United States, wanted new airfare pricing and shopping technology, they knew exactly what they needed:
Cost savings,
A better shopping experience for their travelers, and
A partner who could adapt to changing customer needs quickly and reliably.
We strove to meet all three of their needs. Firstly, within the first month of switching to our QPX airfare pricing and shopping system, StudentUniverse saved tens of thousands of dollars as a result of lower query costs and efficiencies in searching.
Secondly,
StudentUniverse
travelers can now shop for the lowest fare within a +/- 3 day window of their preferred departure or arrival date. This makes it easy for students to figure out the cheapest way to go on winter break, spring break, or semester study abroad programs.
Finally, because we’re working so closely with them we’re able to anticipate peaks in volume when students are planning for these events. We can add new servers and expand capacity within only a few short weeks to handle the increased traffic without interruptions.
Check out the full
case study
to learn more.
Posted by Harriet Holcomb, Technical Account Manager
Welcome to our blog
Friday, September 30, 2011
It’s official. The ITA Software by Google Blog is now the only place you need to check for all ITA news.
Starting today, this blog will be our primary source for making customer and product announcements, providing company updates, offering guest essays, and giving you unique tips from our experts. So if you’re curious about ITA Software -- please check back often or subscribe to our RSS feed.
Posted by Cara Kretz, Sr. Manager, Marketing, Communications and Public Affairs, Travel
OnTheFly™ 1.2 for Android just made it easier to plan your trip
Friday, September 30, 2011
We just released the latest version of our airfare shopping mobile app for Android. One of the new features in OnTheFly™ 1.2 is the flexible date search that allows you to browse 35 days of potential departure dates on a calendar combined with an interactive price graph.
You can also save and access search history now, including particular itineraries of interest. We’ll even check price changes for those itineraries so you can know the best time to plan that dream trip.
Designed to demonstrate the comprehensive search abilities offered with our QPX™ airfare shopping engine, OnTheFly makes it fast and fun for you to compare options across airlines, dates, and alternate cities/airports.
If you haven’t already tried OnTheFly, you can download it for free from the
Android Market
or
App Store
. OnTheFly for use with BlackBerry (OS 4.6+) can be accessed at
http://bbmatrix.itasoftware.com
.
We’re excited about the response to OnTheFly so far, both from our first time and loyal users! Keep sending us your
feedback and suggestions
.
Posted by Stefan Frank, Product Manager
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