Question 1

Will my portal show my customer how much baggage is included before they pay for a flight?

Accepted Answer

Yes, in most cases your portal can show the baggage allowance before your customer pays, because the airline sends that information along with the fare. When a fare comes back from the supplier, it usually carries the cabin and checked baggage that the airline includes with that particular fare, and your portal can display it on the flight result and again on the review page before payment. This matters more than it used to, because airlines now sell the same route as several different fares, where the cheaper one carries less baggage than the one just above it, and your customer needs to see that difference to choose properly. Being honest about the limits, how complete this is depends on the supplier and on the airline. Some airlines publish a clean baggage allowance that displays neatly on the page, while others send it only inside the written fare rules, which read as a block of text rather than something your portal can put in a tidy line. Low cost carriers often include very little in the base fare and expect baggage to be bought as an extra, and whether your customer can buy that extra bag during booking, rather than later at the airport, depends on whether your supplier supports paid add ons for that airline. Before you go live, run a few searches on the routes you actually sell, on a full service airline and on a low cost one, and check what your portal shows at the result stage and on the payment page. If the allowance is missing for an airline you sell often, raise it with your supplier, since it is usually a matter of what their fare response carries rather than something your portal is holding back.

Question 2

Can my white label travel portal show prices in different currencies?

Accepted Answer

Yes, your white label travel portal can show prices in different currencies, if this option is included in your plan and supported by the connected travel suppliers and payment service. Customers may be able to choose a currency, or the portal may select one based on the market you serve. The amount shown in another currency is usually calculated using an exchange rate. That rate can change between the search and payment stages, so the final amount may differ from the first amount displayed. Some suppliers return prices in only one currency, and some bookings must be paid and completed in that same currency. The portal should make the final currency and total clear before the customer confirms the booking. Showing a currency does not always mean that you will receive the money in that currency. Your payment service may convert the payment before settlement, and the customer may also be charged a conversion fee by their card company. Refunds can be affected by later exchange rate changes, so the refunded amount on the customer's statement may not exactly match the amount originally paid. Check which selling, payment and settlement currencies are supported by your suppliers, payment service and glideFares plan before you make the option available to customers.

Question 3

If I use more than one hotel supplier, will the same hotel show up twice in my search results?

Accepted Answer

Yes, it can, and it is one of the first things to sort out when you connect more than one hotel supplier. Every supplier keeps its own list of properties, with its own internal codes and often its own spelling of the hotel name and address, so the same property can easily arrive from two places looking like two different hotels. The usual fix is hotel mapping. Before the results reach your customer, the portal compares properties coming from different suppliers by name, address, location and any shared reference the suppliers publish, then shows a single hotel with the room options from both suppliers grouped underneath it. Most of this is done automatically, but no mapping is ever perfect. Small guest houses, serviced apartments and recently opened properties are the ones most likely to slip through and appear twice. How well it works depends a great deal on what each supplier sends. Some provide a clean reference code that makes matching straightforward, while others send little more than a name and a town, and that is a limitation on the supplier side that nobody can fully remove. It is quite normal to keep a short list of manual corrections for the properties your agency sells most often. Before you switch a second supplier on for your customers, run a few searches in cities you know well and look carefully for the same hotel appearing more than once, then report any duplicates you spot so they can be corrected in your mapping.

Question 4

If my customer's payment goes through but the booking does not complete, will I know about it?

Accepted Answer

Yes, you will be told when that happens, and it helps to understand why it happens at all. A booking is really two separate steps, taking the money and confirming the seat or the room with the supplier. Almost always they run one after the other in the same moment, but if the supplier does not answer in time, or the fare is taken by somebody else while your customer is paying, the payment can succeed while the confirmation does not. When that happens the booking is not quietly dropped. It stays in your system with a status that marks it as unfinished, and it shows in your bookings list so your staff can see it for themselves instead of finding out when the customer calls. Most agencies also set up an alert so whoever is on duty is told straight away, because the sooner someone looks at it, the better the chance the same fare is still there. What you can do next depends on the supplier. Sometimes your staff can simply retry the confirmation and it goes through on the second attempt. Other times the fare has gone, and the choice is to move your customer onto the next best option or to refund. Refunds follow the rules of your payment provider and of the supplier, so the money can take several working days to reach your customer even when you release it the same day. Ask whoever set up your portal to show you exactly where unfinished bookings appear and who receives the alert, and agree with your team what they should say to a customer while it is being sorted out.

Question 5

Can I add my own markup to the prices my customers see on my portal?

Accepted Answer

Yes, in most cases you can add your own markup to the prices your customers see, and they will only ever see the final figure, not the supplier's price sitting underneath it. The usual way this works is that you set a markup rule in your admin area and the portal applies it automatically to every search result before the page is drawn. You can normally choose whether the markup is a percentage or a flat amount, and you can often set different rules for different products, so flights carry one rule and hotels carry another. Many setups also let you keep separate rules for the smaller agents who work under you, so each group of users sees prices that suit the way you deal with them. There are limits worth knowing about, because not every part of a price can be marked up. Taxes and supplier collected fees usually have to be passed through exactly as they come, and with some airline fares the rules of the fare itself restrict what can be added on top, so your markup may apply only to the base part of the price. What is possible here also depends on the supplier and on the plan you are on, so it is fair to expect some differences between one source of content and another. Before you go live, set your rules and then run a few real searches and take one booking all the way through to the confirmation page, so you can check that the amount your customer pays and the amount printed on the voucher are both what you expected.

Question 6

Can I correct a passenger's name on a flight if my staff typed it in wrong?

Accepted Answer

Yes in many cases, but not always, and it depends on the airline. A small spelling correction, such as a missing letter or two letters the wrong way round, is often accepted while the booking is still live. Changing the name to a different traveller altogether is a different matter, and most airlines treat that as a cancellation and a fresh booking rather than a correction. The part that surprises agents is that it is usually not a button on your portal. Very few airlines allow a name to be edited straight through the booking system, so the correction normally has to be raised with the supplier or with the airline support desk, and someone waits for it to be actioned. Many airlines also charge for the change, and whether they do is set by the airline and the fare, not by your portal. Timing makes a real difference. The sooner your staff spot the mistake the better, because the options narrow once the ticket has been issued and narrow again once check in has opened. With some budget airlines there is no correction route at all, and the only way forward is to cancel and book again, which can mean losing what was paid if the fare was not refundable. The sensible thing to do is ask your supplier what the name correction process is for the airlines you sell most often, so your staff know who to contact and how long it takes. It also helps to make it a rule that names are read back from the passport before the booking is confirmed, because catching it in the first minute costs nothing.

Question 7

Can I control which staff members are allowed to cancel bookings or issue travel documents?

Accepted Answer

Yes, your travel agency software can be set up so that staff members have access only to the work they are responsible for. For example, a booking consultant may be allowed to search, create bookings and view customer details, while a manager handles cancellations, refunds or the release of travel documents. The exact controls available depend on your glideFares plan and how your portal is configured. Some actions may also be controlled by the travel supplier, especially after a booking has been confirmed or a ticket has been issued. A permission in the software does not mean that every airline or hotel will allow the requested change. Using separate staff access helps protect customer information and reduces the chance of an important booking being changed by mistake. It can also make responsibilities clearer inside the agency, because each person sees the parts of the booking process needed for their role. Managers should still review booking activity regularly and make sure access is removed when someone no longer works with the agency. Before your team starts using the software, decide who should be able to create, confirm, cancel and amend bookings, then check which staff permissions and approval controls are included in your glideFares setup.

Question 8

Can my customers create their own login to manage their bookings on my portal?

Accepted Answer

Yes, your white label travel portal can allow customers to create a personal login, but the exact features available depend on your plan and the services connected to the portal. A customer login can give travellers one place to enter their details and return to their booking information without starting again each time. Depending on the setup, customers may be able to view current and previous bookings, check confirmation details, download available travel documents and update basic personal information. Saved traveller details can also make a future booking quicker. Access to tickets, vouchers and live booking updates depends on what the airline, hotel supplier or travel API makes available. A customer login does not always mean the traveller can change or cancel every booking themselves. Many changes still need to be handled by agency staff because supplier rules, cancellation conditions and extra charges must be checked first. Some information may also appear only after the supplier has confirmed the booking and issued the relevant document. Before enabling customer accounts, check which self service features are included in your glideFares plan, which booking details your suppliers return, and which requests you want customers to send to your staff for help.

Question 9

Will a hotel booking made on my portal reach the hotel straight away, or does someone have to confirm it by hand?

Accepted Answer

Most of the time yes, a hotel booking made on your portal goes through to the hotel straight away, but there are rates where it does not. When a room is sold on what the industry calls instant confirmation, your customer pays, the booking is sent on to the supplier while they are still on the page, and a confirmation number comes back within seconds. That number is the hotel's own reference, so the room is held in the hotel's system from that moment and your customer can travel on the voucher without anyone in your office doing anything else. Some rooms are sold on request instead. Here the booking is only a request until the hotel replies, and the reply can come back quickly or, at smaller properties and in busy season, take a good deal longer. Your portal should show these bookings with a clearly different status, and your staff should not send out a voucher or treat the room as held until that status changes to confirmed. Whether a hotel is instant or on request is decided by the supplier and the contract sitting behind that rate, so the same hotel can be instant through one supplier and on request through another. Open a recent hotel booking in your portal and look at the status and the supplier reference recorded against it, and ask each of your hotel suppliers which of their rates are sold on request, so your staff know which bookings still need watching before the customer travels.

Question 10

Can I prepare a travel quote in my agency software before the customer decides to book?

Accepted Answer

Yes, travel agency software can usually help your staff prepare a quote before the customer is ready to book. Your team can search for suitable travel options, select the preferred flight or hotel, and present the main details in a clear document or page for the customer to review. The exact layout and sharing options depend on the features included in your glideFares plan. A quote is not normally a confirmed reservation. Seats, rooms, fares and cancellation terms may change while the customer is deciding because availability comes from the supplier through the API. The software may show when the search was made, but it cannot guarantee that the same option will still be available later. Some suppliers may offer a temporary hold, although this is not available for every booking. When the customer accepts, your staff should search or recheck the chosen option before taking payment or confirming the booking. The latest fare, taxes, baggage, room terms and cancellation conditions should be reviewed with the customer, especially if some time has passed since the quote was prepared. Check whether your glideFares plan includes saved quotes, branded quote documents and a direct way to turn an accepted quote into a booking.