VIRGIN Australia has introduced new automated systems to tackle “churning” among travel agents, targetting those who repeatedly book and cancel the same flight segments.
The carrier yesterday announced a new PNR Churning Analysis system which will allow it to identify reoccuring bookings in an effort to maximise its seat availability.
“The repeated cancellation and rebooking of the same segment/s is considered by Virgin as churning,” the airline said in a statement to the trade.
“Virgin Australia does not permit excessive churning as per the Virgin Australia GDS Booking Policy,” it said.
Effective immediately, new internal system enhancements will automatically monitor for churning and issue alerts.
If a passenger segment has been cancelled and rebooked three times on the same flight, the PNR will be warned with a churning notification that requests “please ticket at earliest”.
If the passenger segment is still not ticketed, and is then cancelled and rebooked a fourth time on the same flight, a further alert will be issued through a vendor/SSR remark that says “churn violation identified, TKT immediately or BKG will be CXL”.
Agents are advised to contact their VA industry account manager of the VA industry support team for more details.
CLICK HERE for the statement.
Source: traveldaily