The registration and purchases subsystem of cruisepak.com have been upgraded. There shouldn’t be any issues with the registration process now and we are sorry for any inconveniences this upgrade may have caused.

If for some reason there are problems with the authentication servers down in Atlanta, one can always go to our facebook page located at http://www.facebook.com and get the latest status.

I personally apologize greatly for the two hour outage yesterday. Note however that there are remedies to guard against this. And that is by purchasing an offline license. This type of license allows you to CruisePak while not connected to the internet. In response to this outage, We’re going to drop the cost by 50% to $64.00 for a single computer. Yes, We’ll be flexible for multiple computer installations.

You might be thinking….why have an offline license at all. The reason is that CruisePak contains a heck of alot of Personally Identifiable Information. We have to have a trail in order to know who is using the product just in case legal issues arise. (Yes, I’ve got stories about CruisePak v3.4 back in 2005). Thus, we attach a small verification fee to the product which amounts to a lunch for two of us…but is a significant amount to foreign entities.

Again, I apologize for the outage yesterday but also hope you’ll guard against future outages by considering an offline license.

Now enter Silverlake, TPG (and Microsoft) into the mix. Silverlake owns the Galileo GDS. Texas Pacific Group (TPG) owns the Sabre GDS. By purchasing Yahoo, either of these companies instantly becomes competitive with Google with regards to the potential travel search market.

Google has stated in the past that it would not compete with travel agencies….only produce results (with pricing) that point to travel agency sites. The entrance of Yahoo (owned either by TPG or Silverlake when it all shakes out) could dramatically change the Google stated non compete statement.

What does this mean for online travel agencies…..alot.

If we thought Travelocity, Orbitz, and Expedia dramatically decreased our online business revenue, we haven’t seen anything yet. Google and Yahoo count for 86% of ALL search. Throw in Bing and the number goes to nearly 100%. If Travel search now becomes a retail travel pricing search…where one can book direct by clicking on a link, then even the Travel Vendors have something to worry about.

Things may be prodding along in travel right now…but behind the scenes, things are moving like lightening and could alter the way travel is sold sooner than later.

If you DO NOT have an offline license, and either you lose power, your internet goes down or the facility where our authentication servers reside loses power, YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO ACCESS CRUISEPAK.

However, due to Hurricane Irene, we have enabled the ability for all LICENSED users of CruisePak to use the software offline, without need of internet access. To enable your copy of CruisePak to be used offline, please do the following:

1. Start CruisePak.

2. Select Help -> Offline License Manager from the main screen (client
screen) menu.

3. On the Offline License Manager screen, click the Load button.

4. Exit out of CruisePak and restart.

Special Notes
—————-

a. You must do this before you lose power or your internet goes down.

b. This procedure only applies to licensed users, not evaluation users.

c. The ability to use the software offline, without being connected to the internet will expire on 9/30/2011

d. If you are a multi-user of CruisePak, you MUST do the above process on all computers in which CruisePak is installed.

e. IF YOU ALREADY HAVE AN OFFLINE LICENSE, disregard this message.

Good luck and Best Regards,
Paul F. Sirpenski

The legal action expands a dispute between AMR Corp. (AMR)’s American and global distribution systems that historically have compiled fare and schedule data from various airlines and distributed them to travel agents. American wants to bypass those companies, including units of Travelport and Sabre Holdings Corp., and substitute its proprietary technology.

“Travelport, Orbitz and other industry participants have undertaken … Read the Rest Of The Artice.

Background: For those of you who aren’t so familiar with “parent company” names, Travelport is really Galileo / Worldspan; a widely used Global Distribution System (GDS). Also note that a global distribution system makes money by charging a supplier a transaction fee each and every time you book something in that global distribution system for that supplier. Travelport also runs Orbitz.

Opinion: The really interesting part of this entire fiasco is that here is an airline, who doesn’t pay commissions to agents, suing a company for not listing their product. This is analagous to you not listing Carnival…but listing all the other cruiselines on your website as available for retail sale. Does Carnival have the right to sue you?

In reality though, this is about Travelport being forced to use a particular technology…..just because American Airlines says to do so. Sabre is really in the same boat but as well but you haven’t heard much about it. Note as well Google is hidden in the mix here as well. Google IS USING American Airlines new technology…..that Hewlett Packard created…and that gives American Airlines the moxy to try and mandate the new technology on the traditional GDS companies.

The problem here is really for American Airlines. They implemented a new technology in partnership with the behemoth Google, and they (AA) expect the other GDS companies to drop everything, invest capital, and migrate to the new system as well, thus making AA’s investment in the new technology pay off (Return on investment or ROI). But if the GDS companies don’t adopt the new technology (because they don’t have to due to market share), AA is in a real jam. AA will then have to support two huge technology platforms and Wall Street isn’t going to like that.

Thus the lawsuits.

Opinion: This could be the birth of a new Global Distribution System….or more likely, another area where google wants to dominate search. As you may have noticed, google only controls search for agencies….not specific travel products. For consumers to get to the real products, a consumer must go to one of the “links” google displays in it’s search results (only if they don’t type in the Agency URL directly). That gave google quite a bit of control. However, the business was still transacted on the individual sites.

This new development however, opens up the possibility of total agency bypass. Instead of consumers having to go to an individual site first….and then search for pricing, they could simply have to click on a link (like images) in google to get access to pricing. Google may not actually do the booking…however, they will probably implement paid hierarchy when displaying agencies who can service the booking.

Sure, Expedia, Travelocity, Orbitz have the most to lose. But we all know who is going to really lose…the little guy who contracts inventory and booking capability from Revelex, Passport Online, or Travelport. Unless the mid to smaller agencies have developed strong brand in the mind of their consumers, the devastation this will wreak on agencies online business will make vendor direct marketing initiatives pale in comparison.

Now of course google has made “promises” in order to get through government antitrust review…but those promises are always time sensitive. And in any case, google has to now develop the software….which ironically, will take just as long as the promises take to expire. Then they’ll release and all heck will break loose.