5.11 Release Notes

Released 09 July 2022

Release Highlights

To make use of the latest updates, it is advisable to clear the browser's cache after every platform release. Details of how to empty a browser’s cache can be found here.

Trips - Multi-Travellers

Trips has been enhanced to better support bookings (e.g. PNRs) containing more than one (1) traveller/passenger aka pax. While companies that allow multi-pax bookings, including "bleisure travel" will benefit, agencies primarily focused on the retail/leisure travel market (i.e. “leisure travel company”) will see the greatest use.

This includes the ability to provide a condensed single Trip instance for a multi-pax booking, indicating the name of the “lead traveller”, rather than the previous multiple instances (lines) i.e. one (1) line for each pax in the booking.

Multi-Pax Indicator

A “multi-pax” indicator (e.g. +4) is provided to allow a Trip containing more than one (1) traveller to be easily identified. The count shown is the number of additional passengers travelling with the “lead traveller”. Multi-pax will impact the following areas of the platform:

• Upcoming Trips widget

• Trips Listing (list & grid views)

• Itinerary Details

Upcoming Trips widget

Trips Listing

• Multi-pax Trips can be easily identified through the icon and the additional passenger count shown.
  e.g. Mr Sylvester Stallone +4 is a Trip containing a total of five (5) travellers.

Itinerary Details

An intuitive new hover is additionally included to provide the complete details of all travellers on the Trip.

The multi-pax indicators will not be utilised in Care as the need to search as well as list travellers individually is required for Duty of Care and traveller tracking needs. This includes but may not be limited to Care messaging (SMS/Email) per traveller.

COVID-19 & Riskline

During the same period, the WHO (World Health Organization) reported a rise in reported COVID-19 cases to exceed 79 million and over 1.7 million deaths globally, our platform provided access to data to assist in the planning and booking of travel.

Though the world has started to open up, various travel requirements remain. IATA Timatic data, a backbone of the airline and travel industry, continues to be our preferred source for these via our Travel Check widget. However, two (2) platform features that were published in early 2021 using an alternative source have now been updated to utilise Riskline. Trusted by our industry partner Amadeus, Riskline supplements data sources used by our platform for the provision of COVID-19 information. All are designed to help restore and build ongoing confidence, thereby making the planning and booking of travel easier.

The Riskline advice should be considered general as it does not take into account the passport nationality(ies) of the individual. As such, entry requirements including but not limited to Visas, COVID-19 and other Health conditions (e.g. Yellow Fever) are not provided. Travel Check therefore is the recommended to be used to ensure all necessary information is obtained.

Widget - Where can I travel (Covid)?

DISCONTINUED - 31AUG23

This widget when enabled is accessible via the platform’s Dashboard.

Request

DISCONTINUED - 31AUG23

System Integrations

Thomalex (OBT)

Thomalex has been added to the list of Online Booking Tools (OBTs) that allow for integration with the Kudos Travel Platform.

Like other OBT integrations, Thomalex includes:

• Synchronisation of the travel platform’s “Master” profile with Thomalex including data such as name, passport as well as frequent flyer/loyalty information.

• Single sign-on (SSO) to allow “Online” enabled travel platform users the ability to select this option from the Navigation Panel.

  • Allows our platform to be the user’s single point of authenticated access, thereby bypassing the OBT’s sign-in page, ready to make a booking.

Magnatech (Unused Tickets)

The Magnatech Unused Ticket integration included in the 5.10 Release has been enhanced with the ability to interrogate a broader range of data elements in the API Response.

The initial purpose will be to provide a richer set of data used to match the unused ticket with the traveller (profile) in our system. This allows the current use of email, as shown in the Magnatech API Response example below (line # 18), to be reprioritised in the overall matching logic employed.

        {
            "ticketID": 997696,
            "ticketNumber": "0811234567890",
            "firstName": "ANTHONY EDWARD MR",
            "lastName": "STARK",
            ...
            "pcc": "BNEA81234",
            "pnr": "6ZIGDU",
            ...
            "status": "OPEN",
            "totalValue": "889.08",
            "openSegments": "ALLOPEN",
            ...
                }
            ],
            "profileAccessLevel2": "",
            "profileAccessLevel3": "",
            "email": "TONY.STARK@STARK-INDUSTRIES.COM.AU",
            "expiryDate": "2022-06-17",

The expanded data capabilities reference “Extra Data Value” unique identifiers of the Company and Traveller in the Magnatech API Response, as shown in the example below (lines # 9-10)

       {
            "ticketID": 997696,
            "ticketNumber": "0811234567890",
            "firstName": "ANTHONY EDWARD MR",
            "lastName": "STARK",
                }
            ...
            "extraValues": {
                ...
                "extraValue1/TID": "STK1234567",
                "extraValue2/KUDOS CODE": "STK"
            },
        },

In the near future, this will be expanded to allow supplementary data to be captured to prefill selected elements of the Credits UI form, such as those highlighted below.

Platform Administration

Dynamic Dashboard Widgets (by Company)

Enhancing the current agency Widget Setup is the ability to customise widgets at the company level. This provides flexibility to meet the needs of specialised platforms such as Leisure and companies which may have unique corporate requirements.

Via the Agency Widget Template, a Company now allows being set which would override the configuration the agency may otherwise have defined.

Concur - Unused Tickets

The 5.10 Release provided full automation capabilities of Unused Credits with our Magnatech integration. In our continued quest to provide automation and efficiencies, Concur Unused Tickets (Credits) can now be made available in the travel platform for those companies with this Online Booking Tool (OBT) enabled.

Once the Post Ticket Credits is ENABLED in the Concur sync, any matching credits will be automatically visible in the platform’s Credits UI.

Agencies utilising the Magnatech integration should not enable the Concur Post Ticket Credits option.

Profiles - Custom Labels

The 5.2 Release provided the flexibility for Profile fields of Department, Cost Centre and Location to be customised to meet differing requirements companies can have. This release provides expanded capabilities to allow the Employee Type field (label) to be customised.

Request

To provide consistency throughout the platform, the Profile fields displayed on the Request form will reflect any custom labels a company may have configured. The following custom labels are considered as part of this enhancement on the Request form.