COVID-19: Help Rebuild Confidence
The travel platform’s release in July 2020, included a focus on COVID-19 initiatives to assist with travel and wellness. These were designed to assist travellers and travel agency know how different airlines were approaching their health and safety standards to help rebuild and raise the confidence of travellers in the global travel space.
Reassurance UPAs
DISCONTINUED - 31AUG23
Kudos Travel Technology partnered with ATPCO which has included being accepted to be a part of the Routehappy Bridge Labs program for innovation. This provided us with access to their R&D labs as well as some of the latest APIs being developed in collaboration with the airlines to help rebuild confidence in travel.
Our partnership enabled the travel platform to integrate the ATPCO Routehappy Reassurance UPAs (Universal Product Attributes) into the Trips, Care and Request products.
Those travelling now, and those who will fly again in the future are rightfully concerned about their health and safety when they travel.
ATPCO saw a need to help convey the measures airlines are taking to protect passengers when they are considering flights to purchase and before they fly.
Reassurance UPAs (Universal Product Attributes) describe in real-time, the health and safety measures airlines are taking to protect flyers. They provide coverage to over 90% of global flight schedules. Illustrative graphics with messaging allow an airline to communicate key messages.
Reassurance UPAs fall into the following categories, with new ones being added as airlines change practices:
Available for over 119 airlines, with the list growing, the following illustrate Reassurance UPAs Trips, Care and Request.
Trips & Care
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Selecting the COVID SAFETY icon will present Reassurance UPAs, if offered by the airline. |  |
Hovering the mouse cursor over a Reassurance UPA image will provide supplementary airline information, specific to the health and safety measure.
Codeshare Flights
A booked flight operated by another airline is known as a codeshare.
Codeshare flights in the travel platform presented the Reassurance UPAs of the operating airline, if available, not those of the marketing. This ensured the traveller was duly informed of the operating airline’s health and safety measures, which could differ and be stricter than the booked airline’s (marketing).
As seen in the following example, a booked Air New Zealand (NZ) flight from Manila (MNL) to Singapore (SIN) is operated by Singapore Airlines (SQ). As this is a codeshare flight, the UPAs of Singapore Airlines is shown, not Air New Zealand’s.
UPAs Unavailable
An airline that did not currently offer ATPCO Routhappy Reassurance UPAs, presents the following message when the COVID SAFETY icon is selected.
Request
DISCONTINUED - 31AUG23
Reassurance UPAs will be presented if available for a preferred airline selected.
Use of the Any Airline option for Flights in Requests will not present UPAs as this is not airline specific.
Airline Check-In
Kudos' ongoing partnership with Amadeus has enabled access to their Airline Check-in API, a source of website and mobile check-in links (URLs) for at least 265 airlines.
These links allow the Travel Platform to detect the most appropriate Checkin button to display based on the device being used at the time (e.g. Desktop vs Smartphone). Selecting the button will automatically generate the airline’s Check-in login with the traveller’s Last Name and airline booking reference (PNR).
This added feature will assist travellers further given the current COVID-19 climate and social distancing, as well as airlines wanting to reduce possible contact points during the airport experience.
Selecting the Checkin button presented in the following example will open a separate browser window with Air New Zealand’s check-in site pre-filled with the Last Name and airline booking reference obtained from the reservation (booking) in the Travel Platform.
Australian Border Status Widget
DISCONTINUED - 22DEC22
Available to Kudos Travel Platform users with the Asia-Pacific (APAC), this Dashboard widget provides real-time COVID-19-related travel restrictions and advice for Australian states and territories.
The widget is available in both a compact size (1/3) and as seen in the following example, a larger (2/3) option.
To review the travel restrictions and advice of a state or territory, a selection can be made from the Choose a state droplist or via the map, as seen in the following example for Western Australia.
Map Legend
State Border Status refers to non-essential travel only.
While Kudos Travel Technology aims to provide the most up-to-date information, Airline (UPAs), as well as Australia’s State and Territory border restrictions (widget), can change quickly.
We rely on the information being supplied from the source (e.g. ATPCO Routehappy). Users should seek to confirm the information from official websites (e.g. government) and airlines before booking or travelling.