Expedia.com Worldwide Travel Exchange to Power Lodging and Car Rental Services on Alaskaair.com
BELLEVUE, Wash. – Oct. 15, 2001 – WWTE™ today announced it is partnering with Alaska Airlines to provide hotel and car rental booking capabilities to the alaskaair.com Web site. Due to the partnership, more than 40,000 hotel properties and all major national car rental companies are now available on alaskaair.com. Launched in July, WWTE is a division of Travelscape.com, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Expedia, Inc. (Nasdaq: EXPE).
“Alaskaair.com customers can now enjoy one-stop travel shopping and have access to the most competitive rates in lodging and car rentals from WWTE's inventory,” said Steve Jarvis, Alaska Airlines' staff vice president of e-commerce. “WWTE also enhances alaskaair.com because of the speed in which their product could be deployed and integrated into our site.”
WWTE is unique because of its wide array of services and integrated offerings of both published and negotiated inventory, including hotel rates with discounts of up to 70 percent for nearly 400 domestic and international destinations. WWTE also supplies the phone and email-based customer service for the lodging and car rental booking for alaskair.com customers.
“Providing WWTE's services to a top carrier like Alaska Airlines allows us to continue the momentum we established in July in supplying our partners with a product that's proven among travelers,” said Greg Slyngstad, senior vice president of destinations for Expedia, Inc. “Alaska Airlines has always been at the forefront of travel technology – it was the first North American carrier to offer flight booking over the Internet. The WWTE product offering is a great complement to their already terrific air ticket services.”
About WWTE
WWTE is a division of Travelscape.com, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Expedia, Inc. (Nasdaq: EXPE). WWTE provides private label booking solutions for travel suppliers and other primary travel sites looking to enhance their product offerings. Services currently available include hotel and car rentals, and feature both negotiated and published rate inventory. In addition to live agent and email support 24 hours a day/seven days a week, WWTE purchases are supported by a privacy and security policy.
About Alaskaair.com
Alaskaair.com made history in 1995 when Alaska Airlines became the first North American carrier to sell tickets online and again in 1999 when it became the first carrier in the world to allow customers to check in for flights online via the Internet. Earlier this year, the respected Internet research firm Forrester recognized alaskaair.com when it ranked Alaska Airlines number one in how well the nation's major airlines serve customers over the Web. Alaska Airlines was recently voted “World's Best Domestic Airline” by readers of Travel+Leisure magazine. Alaska and its sister carrier, Horizon Air, together serve 75 cities in Alaska, the Lower 48, Canada and Mexico. For more news and information, visit the Alaska Airlines Newsroom on the Internet at http://newsroom.alaskaair.com.
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Expedia, Expedia.com, the airplane logo, and WWTE are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Expedia, Inc. in the United States, Canada and/or other countries. Other products and company names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.
Al de Leon, Edelman Public Relations, (312) 233-1218
al.deleon@edelman.com
For more information on WWTE, email:
Info@wwte.com