Pro-X-Travel

American Airlines Streamlines Its Airport Processes

American Airlines said today, as part of its efforts to streamline processes and the customer experience during flight departure, it is placing greater focus on its existing Confirmed Flight Change service (CFC), while modifying its standby procedures for customers traveling within and between the United States, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Canada.

To streamline the departure process at the gate, only American's premium customers will continue to be eligible to standby at no charge on the day of travel for a flight on which they are not confirmed. This includes American's elite status AAdvantage® members – AAdvantage Executive Platinum®, AAdvantage Platinum® and AAdvantage Gold®, those customers who are confirmed in the First or Business Class cabin, customers on certain types of Coach cabin fares, other travelers booked in the same reservation as the eligible customer, and customers traveling on military fares (including spouse and immediate family). 

All customers wishing to change to another flight on their day of travel may purchase American's Confirmed Flight Change for $50, if inventory is available on the requested flights. The CFC service has been in place since 2005. Customers who desire CFC may call American's Reservations offices, handle the transaction at an airport Self Service machine, or purchase at the airport ticket counter. Subject to availability, day-of-travel changes may be confirmed within 12 hours of the new desired flight departure.

The changes go into effect for tickets purchased on or after Feb. 22, 2010. American noted that the changes announced today are similar to the policies of several other airlines and also apply to American Eagle and AmericanConnection flights.

SOURCE American Airlines

JetBlue Airways Celebrates 10th Anniversary

Value airline based on style, service and cost enters second decade - - Special 10-themed livery revealed

New York's hometown value airline JetBlue Airways today celebrates its 10th anniversary with a special Airbus A320 aircraft, featuring a unique 10-themed livery to signify the carrier's entry into its second decade. Images of the new livery design can be seen on JetBlue's blog at http://blog.hellojetblue.com. In its second decade, JetBlue aims to be America's Favorite Airline by delivering superior customer service, the award-winning JetBlue Experience and the best domestic coach product in the skies.

"We created a customer service company that happens to fly airplanes," said Dave Barger, JetBlue's CEO. "Since 2000, we have succeeded in building a new airline category that focuses on friendly service, free snacks and drinks, comfortable leather seating with ample legroom and complimentary satellite radio and live TV on personal seatback screens. We look forward to our next 10 years and thank all of our loyal customers and crewmembers for an incredible decade. We will continue to refine and refresh our product by listening to the valuable feedback from them while delivering more destinations, more choices and more value to our customers!"

In addition to revealing the new 10-themed livery, JetBlue today also announced its Crewmember Tailfin Design Contest winner. In October of 2009, JetBlue crewmembers were invited to submit proposed designs for another new tailfin. The winning design was chosen from among the top five finalists by public voting between December 8, 2009 and January 31, 2010. After more than 30,000 votes, the winning design for an A320 aircraft was selected. More information on this tailfin and the winner can be found at http://blog.hellojetblue.com.

JetBlue inaugurated service between New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) and Fort Lauderdale, Florida, with two daily nonstop flights on Feb. 11, 2000. JetBlue offers the most nonstop departures from JFK and the most domestic departures from the New York metro area of any major domestic carrier. JetBlue is also the single largest airline operating nonstop between New York and Florida(a) and the 7th largest passenger carrier in the United States(b), serving 60 destinations in 20 states, Puerto Rico and 11 countries in the Caribbean and Latin America.

JetBlue's home base of operations is Terminal 5 at New York's JFK, a state-of-the art terminal that opened in October of 2008. One of the first terminals in the United States to be completely designed and built post 9/11, T5 focuses on efficiency and customer comfort. The 635,000-square-foot terminal boasts 26 gates distributed throughout three concourses and includes a 55,000-square-foot central retail and concession Marketplace. T5 is designed to accommodate up to 20 million annual customers with up to 250 daily departures. JetBlue is the #1 airline at Boston's Logan International Airport and at Los Angeles's Long Beach Airport, and continues to grow at other focus cities in Orlando and Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

TrueBlue, JetBlue's customer loyalty program, is home to nearly 8 million members and provides customers with a rich, rewarding and flexible way to enjoy the benefits of a program that has no blackout dates -- every seat on every JetBlue flight is now available for redemption (c), allowing customers to redeem awards whenever they want to travel. TrueBlue points will not expire as long as a member travels on at least one paid JetBlue flight or makes a qualifying purchase with a JetBlue Card from American Express within 12 months of their last TrueBlue transaction (either a qualifying flight or JetBlue Card transaction). To enroll in TrueBlue or to learn more about the program, visit www.jetblue.com/trueblue.

New York-based JetBlue Airways has created a new airline category based on value, service and style. In 2009, the carrier ranked "Highest in Customer Satisfaction Among Low-Cost Carriers in North America" by J.D. Power and Associates, a customer satisfaction recognition received for the fifth year in a row. Known for its award-winning service and free TV as much as its low fares, JetBlue is now pleased to offer customers Lots of Legroom and super-spacious Even More Legroom seats. JetBlue introduced complimentary in-flight e-mail and instant messaging services on aircraft "BetaBlue," a first among U.S. domestic airlines. JetBlue is also America's first and only airline to offer its own Customer Bill of Rights, with meaningful and specific compensation for customers inconvenienced by service disruptions within JetBlue's control. Visit www.jetblue.com/promise for details. JetBlue serves 60 cities with 600 daily flights. With JetBlue, all seats are assigned, all fares are one-way, and an overnight stay is never required. For information or reservations call 1-800-JET-BLUE (1-800-538-2583), TTY/TDD 1-800-336-5530 or visit www.jetblue.com.

(a) Based on both number of departures and service capacity as measured by Available Seat Miles (ASMs)

(b) Based on service capacity as measured by Available Seat Miles (ASMs)

(c) No blackout dates apply to JetBlue-operated flights only. Blackout dates apply to code share and interline flights.

SOURCE JetBlue Airways

Sleek New Look, Same Low Fares, Only on southwest.com

Southwest Airlines Showcases Difference with Web Site Enhancements

southwest.com, the most popular airline web site in terms of unique visitors, is now offering an even better online Customer experience. Today, Southwest Airlines launched a new look and feel, along with improved navigation, on its award-winning web site. The new homepage offers Customers a more personalized experience and makes it easier to find what's needed including hotel and car rentals. The new homepage also showcases what makes Southwest Airlines different from other air carriers. southwest.com is the only place to book Southwest fares online, and the bookings made through the site account for more than 80 percent of all Southwest Airlines bookings. Check out the changes at www.southwest.com.

The new web site enhancements include:

• The homepage image and other features can be personalized and pre-populated to the user's home airport. Saved searches make it easier for Customers to shop for flights, cars, and hotels.
• Customers can now easily plan any part of their trip directly from the homepage with new car and hotel booking widgets.
• New pages have been added to highlight how Southwest Airlines is different from its competitors.
• Every page of the site has updated, easy-to-use navigation and a search box to help users find exactly what they are looking for.
• Drop downs are available from the global navigation to help users get to interior pages faster.
• Every page now has a social media bar to help users engage with Southwest on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and blogsouthwest.com.

The new homepage is another step in Southwest's efforts to ensure that southwest.com is the preferred full-service travel booking solution for Customers. In 2009, multiple enhancements to the site laid the ground work for the new southwest.com. Southwest launched an online travel community called TravelGuide, provided Customers tools to quickly find travel deals with a new Special Offers section, and completely redesigned the air booking functionality to make the process more useful and efficient. More updates to southwest.com are expected throughout 2010.

After 38 years of service, Southwest Airlines continues to differentiate itself from other low fare carriers--offering a reliable product with exemplary Customer Service. Southwest Airlines is the most productive airline in the sky and offers Customers a comfortable traveling experience. Southwest Airlines is the nation's largest carrier in terms of originating domestic passengers boarded, currently serving 68 cities in 35 states. Based in Dallas, Southwest currently operates more than 3,100 flights a day and has nearly 35,000 Employees systemwide.

SOURCE Southwest Airlines

Audio Guides for iPhone - Hiking and Tourist Trails: Just Follow the Guide With Geolives-M and Acapela Voices!

Geolives, editor of maps & GPS solutions for outdoor activities, has launched Geolives-M, an iPhone application designed to search and share audio guides, vocalized by Acapela, the expert and inventor of innovative vocal solutions, in more than 20 languages and a wide choice of voices.

Wherever you are in the world, visiting a capital city or hiking off the beaten track, Geolives-M allows you to select routes sorted by activity around your GPS location.

Follow the guide!

Find your way with only an iPhone, without the need for a bulky book or printed map.

Throughout your itinerary, and according to your GPS positioning, you automatically access images, youTube videos and written information read out loud by a synthesized voice. You also get acquainted with Wikipedia geo-localized articles (already more than 80 000 articles available in 13 languages) which are read to you, on the spot, by highly natural voices from Acapela.

20 languages and a wide choice of voices to show you the way Acapela speech synthesis is your perfect guide, reliably turning written information into speech, reading proper names, dates and figures with precision. Choose from among Geolives-M's repertory of voices the one, female or male, which will be your companion throughout your route.

'Geolives-M must provide high quality and fast to download audio guides. Acapela voices allow us to perfectly vocalize information from any text format, with an excellent audio result in many languages. It was the right choice for our application which offers to the end user a cheerful talking interface which fully meets their needs' said Yves Peeters, Geolives General Manager.

Community websites allow users to make the most of their experiences with additional features and to share their favorite trails and itineraries on line. Geolives.com enables the selection of specific topographic maps for a range of European countries and routeyou.com paves the way to over 180 000 hikes and outdoor activities the world over.

Geolives-M - Features

• Access to maps from Google Maps worldwide and possibility to order topographic maps (offline) for some European countries.
• Search feature for places or sights.
• Search for trails by criteria: type of activity, nearness, duration, etc.
• POI associated with downloaded routes are highlighted (by pins).
• Record and classify trails by activity, save and send to e-mail or Geolives account.
• Unit display in miles/feet or km/m.
• Real time trail information (distance, time, etc.)

Sold at EUR 4.99, the Geolives-M application is provided with one synthesized voice from Acapela. Additional voices can be acquired for EUR 1.99 /voice.

Available languages : Czech, Dutch NL, Dutch BE, English UK, English US, Danish, Finnish, French, French Canadian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish .

SOURCE Acapela Group