Expedia.com Expedia Becomes First Travel Site to Deliver Personalized Travel Information to Customers’ Desktops via MSN Messenger
BELLEVUE, Wash. – March 25, 2002 – Expedia.com® (www.expedia.com), the world’s leading online travel service, today announced that consumers of its U.S. service can now receive personalized travel information directly within the recently updated MSN Messenger application via an Expedia® tab. To further add convenience for its customers, Expedia also announced support for .NET Alerts, a free opt-in service where travelers can choose to be alerted of their flight status at the time that best fits their needs, and via the device of their choice – cell phone, PC or Mac, or pager.
The Expedia tab within Messenger allows consumers to view important travel information in one central location within their instant messenger application. Consumers can personalize their Expedia tab by adding Fare Tracker capabilities to view the lowest published fares on their favorite routes, and can track currently booked itineraries in the “My Trips” section. They will also see current deals on flights, lodging, vacation packages, car rentals, and cruises, and can check the status of their flights directly from the Expedia tab. Expedia.com is the first travel site to deliver this type of travel information to customers’ desktops via MSN Messenger.
“With this new tab available through MSN Messenger, we are extending the Expedia experience of the browser and bringing it to travelers’ desktops,” said Suzi LeVine, director of product marketing at Expedia, Inc. “Our customers have busy schedules, and Expedia is ensuring that personalized travel information is available at their fingertips.”
“This is a great example of how Microsoft technology provides useful services to consumers,” said Bob Visse, director of MSN. “We’re pleased Expedia has chosen MSN Messenger, a service 46 million people use on a daily basis, to provide useful and relevant travel information to consumers.”
In addition to the new Messenger tab, customers can now choose to receive flight status alerts from Expedia using the Microsoft .NET Alerts service. When booking a flight, customers can select both how far in advance of their flight time they wish to be alerted, and choose one or more devices where they want to receive the alert, including cell phone, PC or Mac desktop, or pager. In addition to choosing which devices will receive their .NET Alerts, customers can specify intelligent routing rules that dictate how those alerts are handled. For example, users can choose to have an important alert, such as a delayed flight, sent to their desktop when their Messenger status is ‘Online’ and have the same alert routed to their cell phone when their Messenger status is ‘Away’ or ‘Offline.’ The flight status alerts service is available for any leg of a trip.
“Expedia helps travelers throughout their whole trip, and while that certainly means helping them with booking, more importantly in this case, it means helping them get to their flights on time,” LeVine said. “We want to make their trips go a little bit easier, and notifying travelers of a possible delay enables them to adjust their schedules accordingly. Business travelers can continue working and being productive if they have some extra time, while leisure travelers can have peace of mind when heading to the airport.”
Installing the Expedia tab
First, travelers will need to have the latest version of MSN Messenger available for free from http://messenger.msn.com. From within the MSN Messenger application, a traveler simply clicks on the blue tab boxes in the bottom left corner to select Expedia from the available tabs. The Expedia tab is currently available to users in the U.S. and the UK.
MSN Messenger provides consumers with the easiest and most complete real-time communications experience through instant messaging, file sharing, text paging to MSN Mobile devices, PC to phone calls, and, within Windows XP, voice conversations, videoconferences, data collaboration sessions, and remote assistance sessions.
Setting up .NET Alerts
After travelers book a flight, from their itinerary, they will be presented with the option of adding an alert to their flight. If not already a .NET Alerts subscriber, they simply click the “Alert Me” button, sign up for the service, and choose the devices on which they wish to receive notifications. Then, from the flight details, they choose when they want to receive the notification – for example, either one, two, or three hours prior to the flight. Expedia travel alerts are currently available in the U.S.
About Expedia, Inc.
Expedia, Inc. (NASDAQ: EXPE) is the world’s leading online travel service and the 7th largest travel agency in the United States. To meet the needs of travelers around the globe, it operates Expedia.com in the United States and localized versions throughout Europe and Canada. Expedia.com helps travelers travel right with a wide variety of travel products and services, such as Expedia® Special Rate hotels and vacation rentals with the guaranteed lowest prices. Expedia’s quality and leadership have been recognized in awards such as PC Magazine’s “Readers’ Choice” and “Editors’ Choice” Awards, Forbes’ “Favorite General Travel Site,” and Yahoo! Internet Life’s Best overall travel site. Expedia is a majority-owned subsidiary of USA Networks, Inc.’s (NASDAQ: USAI) Interactive Group.
Expedia.com customers are supported by a credit card guarantee (U.S. site only), an industry-leading privacy policy, and live agents via e-mail and an 800-number available 24 hours a day/seven days a week.
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