Rearden Commerce’s Mobile Personal Assistant, which previously has been available only as a premier feature of Rearden Personal Assistant and American Express’s aXiom online marketplace, has now been made compatible with any online booking tool and can be integrated with any corporate travel program. Although there is “a bit of a branding exercise,” says Tony D’Astolfo, Rearden’s vice president of global sales, the wider availability is “all about the technology.”
The Mobile Assistant will work with all mobile devices: “Downloadability is the key,” says D’Astolfo. “We just have to capture the PNR record and make it available.” Travelers do not make their original reservation on the Personal Assistant, thus bypassing any questions of compliance avoidance. But once the booking is made, the Mobile Personal Assistant pushes weather reports; offers to book ground transportation, restaurants and other services – and will help with finding new flights when those booked are cancelled or delayed.
“We’ve been thinking about compliance,” says D’Astolfo, “and don’t think mobile is a good place for the original booking but maybe for rebooking. It does have booking capability on restaurants, car rental … I think we’ll do it [for airlines] but limit the available choices.”
The last bit, says D’Astolfo, is mobile checking and boarding passes, which will be available “as long as the TSA knows you’re coming and its enabled by the airline at that airport… We think it will be used in other venues as well – anything that uses bar-coding.”