December, 2007

Trip Calendar Integration
Calendar synchronization is here with one simple click!  Simply click Update Calendar directly from your RESX itinerary to create a meeting invitation using the standard .ics file and populate trip data to your calendar.  Additionally, RESX will automatically include an .ics file attachment with emailed itineraries thereby providing an alternate synchronization method. 

What if your itinerary changes? No problem. Simply select Update Calendar and the update will appear on your calendar. Trip cancellations will require you to manually remove the corresponding meeting event from your calendar.

Hotel Image Enhancements
We have made a good thing even better!  We understand how a visual presentation and amenities play a key role in this decision.  We now provide hotel images and a photo slideshow on the Hotel Information and Room Rates pages.  Participating hotel properties will display up to ten images, ranging from Exterior, Guest Rooms, Lobby, Restaurant, among others.

Trip Research Controlled by Company Policy
In an effort to continually provide a flexible corporate booking engine that meets all of your company's needs, we have added policy control to the existing Trip Research functionality. This control will allow your company to continue your ability to utilize the Trip Research functionality or to restrict it for some or all users. If this functionality is removed from your site, your existing trips in the Trip Research section will no longer be visible. The Save as Trip Research button will also be removed.

Destination Information
You can now retrieve and view information about your destination from your RESX itinerary.  A Destination Information link has been added below booked hotel segments.  When clicked, information is displayed based on the location of the booked hotel.  Information includes: weather, images, airport information, city guide and more.

Driving Directions
The ability to access driving directions within RESX is now available on your RESX itinerary.  A Driving Directions link has been added below booked hotel segments providing access to driving directions from the destination airport to the selected hotel. If there are no air segments included in the itinerary, you can input a custom "start point" and plot directions to the selected hotel.

Itinerary Email - Alternate Language Support
RESX allows our Users to book and view travel in seven different languages. We have updated the Email Itinerary functionality to support your selected default language. Whether you manually email your itinerary or use the automatic email functionality, the email will be translated into your specified language. To update your language selection go to your RESX Profile | Display Options | Preferred Language. You have the option to choose English, Dutch, French, French Canadian, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish.

August, 2007

Amtrak Rail Bookings
You may now book and cancel Amtrak rail reservations directly through RESX. In the case of short-haul trips such as Boston to New York City, you can price and reserve Amtrak without placing a call to your travel agency. Simply select the RAIL tab on the Travel home page and enter your desired dates and times. The system provides the best available option for your date and time parameters for the class of service you requested. You may search alternate times and fares using the RAIL SCHEDULES tab. You can also include car or hotel reservations with your Amtrak itinerary. U.S. Federal Government contracted rates are available to shop and book within RESX for those of you with access to U.S. Government rates and fares.

Enhanced Trip Reservation Synchronization
The synchronization of your offline travel reservations (reservations placed or changed directly with your travel agency) is even better than before!  The ability to automatically synchronize all of your travel reservations has been enhanced, providing one central point of access through RESX for the most updated and reliable information.

Multiple Airfare Display
RESX now provides an easy way to view and compare multiple available fares for a single airline itinerary. Given the myriad of corporate and travel agency negotiated fares, web-fares,  promotional carrier fares, government discounted fares, unique penalty levels to name a few,  you may be faced with viewing the same itinerary multiple times in a single response with a different fares attached.  For ease of selection, RESX now clearly identifies these itineraries during the shopping process.  For qualifying itineraries, you can click a link to view a fare comparison matrix, which lists each available fare for the selected itinerary and the specific fare type. This will you save time and effort when choosing the fare that is best suited for your travel purposes. 

Preferred Airlines by Market
The ability to bias, or designate, an airline as a preferred carrier has been significantly expanded.  RESX now provides an enhanced set of parameters which can be used to bias air availability responses for preferred carriers within the system, based on specific markets and through the weighting of fare values. You may see more air itineraries with Preferred Carrier icons as a result of this enhancement.  This function allows your company to help you make decisions when booking air travel that may improve the overall negotiation power with preferred vendors.

Electronic and IT Accessibility Standardization (Section 508 Compliant)
Functionality was implemented for alternate text labels for most RESX Travel Profile fields.  These alternate text labels can be used by alternative assistive technologies (e.g. JAWS) to verbally read the application to users with disabilities such as visual impairment.  This functionality is part of a phased approach towards enabling a section 508 compliant user interface to provide users with disabilities full access to be able to complete reservations and update profiles in RESX