OAG provides Portman Travel with SMS Flight Tracker Service
30 November 2004
OAG is delighted to provide Portman Travel, the UK’s leading independent travel management company, with a customised version of their FlightTracker service, which delivers time critical flight information to travellers via their mobile telephones.
A massive 80% of European business travellers take their mobile telephone with them when travelling abroad. As travelling can be an uncertain activity, for reasons that are largely outside the traveller's control, and when arrangements have to be made on the move, it’s easier to use your mobile than to scout around for a phone The FlightTracker SMS alert service was created by OAG to utilise this trend and help take the stress out of the journey process by text messaging to inform subscribers of changes to their flight schedules, as and when they occur.
Barry Fleming, Head of Customer Development, Portman Travel said,
“We were keen to work with OAG in launching Portman FlightTracker because it gives our travellers a greater sense of control and reassurance. In recognising the indispensable nature of the mobile phone to today’s business traveller, Portman FlightTracker exploits the ease of use SMS messaging offers to help deal with what is often the most stressful part of flying on business, knowing whether your flight is on time or not”.
The concept is straightforward. Let us suppose you are catching Flight BA016 to Sydney and you would like to receive flight status updates. You simply register for Portman FlightTracker directly via the Portman website or via your Portman agent. Once subscribed, you will receive a “Welcome” message confirming your flight details and registration. Four hours prior to the scheduled departure of the flight a message will be sent to your mobile phone updating you on its status (on time, delayed, etc.); if there are any changes then the message will inform you of the revised departure time. Further update messages will be automatically sent to you if there are then further delays of +/- 15 minutes. The guaranteed message delivery, called priority SMS, means that FlightTracker will always be first with the news.
FlightTracker is also useful if you’re meeting someone at the airport, because you can register additional mobile numbers to receive arrivals information, so if a colleague is collecting you from the airport, they can also be made aware of any changes to the status of your flight.
This unique new service costs just £1.50 (billed direct to your mobile phone); a bargain price for making travel less stressful and helping reduce the inconvenience associated with flight delays.
The service will be available for all travellers with a UK registered mobile phone. It operates across all UK networks and you can receive messages in all countries where there exists a local GSM network that has a 'roaming' agreement with your home network – so, if you are travelling abroad, you can also subscribe for your return flight!
To subscribe to Portman FlightTracker, you don’t have to take out a contract, or make any other long-term commitment, you can just opt in and out of the service as you wish. Travellers who wish to use FlightTracker from Portman, can email marketing@portmantravel.com where they will be sent details of how to register.
Portman FlightTracker is powered by OAG. There are numerous benefits of incorporating OAG FlightTracker as an added value service within your business. OAG have recently launched similar services with British Airways, Orange and Vodafone and expect to provide this value-added service to other major airlines, travel agents and mobile network operators across all global territories.
For further information about the generic SMS alert service - OAG FlightTracker please contact Isobel McKenna at imckenna@oag.com
For further information about OAG please contact Margareta Stanley at DBA on 020 7930 8033 or e-mail info@nchl.demon.co.uk