Platform Product Guide
CONTENTS
Switchfly................................................................................................................................................................... 3
Global Platform...................................................................................................................................................................................3
Countries Using Our Product..........................................................................................................................................................3
Currency................................................................................................................................................................................................4
Language..............................................................................................................................................................................................5
Date/Time.............................................................................................................................................................................................5
Multi-Brand............................................................................................................................................................... 5
Channel Management/Custom Style Sheets..............................................................................................................................6
Agency Groups....................................................................................................................................................................................6
White-Label Solution........................................................................................................................................................................6
Switchfly Technology Integration......................................................................................................... 7
Cobrands/Contract Groups.............................................................................................................................................................7
Administrative Portal.......................................................................................................................... 8
Agent Tools......................................................................................................................................... 8
Post-Booking Support......................................................................................................................................................................8
Modification Workspace.................................................................................................................................................................10
Additional Post-Booking Tools..................................................................................................................................................... 12
Accounting Tools— Financial Data Feeds................................................................................................................................. 12
Reporting............................................................................................................................................................................................ 13
Confirmation Email.......................................................................................................................................................................... 13
Multi-Source Inventory....................................................................................................................... 13
Markups and Commissions............................................................................................................................................................ 14
Discount Codes................................................................................................................................................................................. 15
Pre-Set Specials................................................................................................................................................................................ 15
Payments........................................................................................................................................... 15
Credit Cards....................................................................................................................................................................................... 15
Bank Transfers................................................................................................................................................................................... 15
Analytics and Website Optimization...................................................................................................16
Analytics.............................................................................................................................................................................................. 17
Funnel Analysis................................................................................................................................................................................. 17
A/B Testing......................................................................................................................................................................................... 17
Segmentation....................................................................................................................................18
Offer Optimization.............................................................................................................................18
Marketing Solutions...........................................................................................................................18
1:1 Marketing....................................................................................................................................................................................... 18
1:1 Marketing in Action..................................................................................................................................................................... 19
Merchandise....................................................................................................................................................................................... 19
Security and Fraud Prevention............................................................................................................19
Platform Architecture...................................................................................................................................................................... 19
Database............................................................................................................................................................................................. 19
Datacenter.......................................................................................................................................................................................... 19
Security and Standards................................................................................................................................................................. 20
Development Methoology............................................................................................................................................................ 20
Additional Configurations.................................................................................................................. 20
SWITCHFLY
Each product guide above has information specific to
that product. This guide will detail the overall system and
features which can be applied to each product.
Switchfly products and solutions are engineered to create
rewarding experiences for customers in five key areas:
•TRAVEL commerce platforms for airlines, hotels, and online travel agencies.
GLOBAL PLATFORM
•LOYALTY point redemption platforms for travel and financial services loyalty programs.
Clients around the world use Switchfly’s platform to create
individualized experiences for their customers. Currently
live in 50 currencies and 25 languages, we reach your
customers wherever they are, in the language they understand.
•PAYMENTS engine for digital wallets, payment services, and loyalty programs.
•SOCIAL media solutions for travel providers, loyalty
programs, and merchants.
•MOBILE platforms to enhance shopping, loyalty
redemption, and social media experiences.
N°. OF CURRENCIES
50+
COUNTRIES
25
21
24
5
18 10
9
25
20
13
14
11
16
22
23
17
15 20
8
6
3
1
25
N°. OF
LANGUAGES
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7
© 2016 SWITCHFLY
12
4
19
2
SWITCHFLY CURRENTLY HAS CLIENTS LIVE USING THE FOLLOWING CURRENCIES:
AED
United Arab Emirate Dirham
LKR
Sri Lanka Rupee
ARS
Argentina Peso
MAD
Morocco Dirham
AUD
Australia Dollar
MOP
Macau Pataca
BHD
Bahrain Dinar
MUR
Mauritius Rupee
BND
Brunel Darussalam Dollar
MXN
Mexico Peso
BRL
Brazil Real
MYR
Malaysia Ringgit
CAD
Canad Dollar
NOK
Norway Krone
CHF
Switzerland Franc
NZD
New Zealand Dollar
CLP
Chile Peso
OMR
Oman Rial
CNY
China Yuan Renminbi
PEN
Peru Nuevo Sol
COP
Colombia Peso
PHP
Philippines Peso
CZK
Czech Republic Koruna
PKR
Pakistan Rupee
DKK
Denmark Krone
PLN
Poland Zloty
EGP
Egypt Pound
QAR
Qatar Riyal
ETB
Ethiopia Birr
RUB
Russia Ruble
EUR
Euro Member Countries
SAR
Saudi Arabia Riyal
FJD
Fiji Dollar
SEK
Sweden Krona
GBP
United Kingdom Pound
SGD
Singapore Dollar
HDK
Hong Kong Dollar
THB
Thailand Baht
HUF
Hungary Forint
TND
Tunisia Dinar
IDR
Indonesia Rupiah
TWD
Taiwan New Dollar
INR
India Rupee
USD
United States Dollar
JOD
Jordan Dinar
VUV
Vanuatu Vatu
JPY
Japan Yen
XPF
Comptoirs Français du Pacifique
KRW
Korea (South) Won
YER
Yemen Rial
Currency
At Switchfly, currency comes in many forms. Presently,
we are live with over 50 currencies, allowing customer
transactions to be purchased in one currency and settled
in another. In addition, the term currency also means
loyalty program points. Our robust system allows clients
to configure their loyalty points as a form of currency,
offering their customers unparalleled redemption options.
Switchfly provides all the necessary tools for you to manage currency:
•Client-defined conversions—Switchfly’s clients have
access to tools that control the exchange rates between
supported currencies. Clients can define any desired
conversion rate between currencies, and update these
rates as necessary.
•Online conversions—Switchfly also offers automated,
daily conversion rates through API connections to Oanda
and Travelex. Our automated currency conversion tool
gives clients peace of mind knowing they always have
up-to-date information.
•Points and cash—Clients can also choose to use loyalty program points as a form of currency. You have the
flexibility to allow customer to pay in all cash, all points
or a mixture of points and cash. For more information on
loyalty points, please visit our Loyalty guide.
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Switchfly allows customers to switch seamlessly between different
points of sale and languages. In the example above, a customer can to
switch between country-specific points of sale, as well as languages.
Language
MULTI-BRAND
Switchfly currently operates in over 25 languages and has
the ability to support any additional languages our client
base demands. Our language tool allows clients to localize
content for each point of sale while adhering to business
rules that can be deployed across all channels. This powerful tool allows the client to quickly implement new points
of sale. Switchfly currently has clients live in the following
languages:
Switchfly was built to enhance every interaction between
our clients and their customers. Our goal is to promote our
clients’ brands. Each deployment is individually configured and 100% branded for each client, so that consumers
cannot tell the difference between the Switchfly-powered
portions of your site and the rest of your site.
• ENGLISH
• ARABIC
• SPANISH
• INDONESIAN
• JAPANESE
• KOREAN
• MALAY
• THAI
• CHINESE (Simplified & Traditional) • GERMAN
• FRENCH
• ITALIAN
• DUTCH
• SWEDISH
• POLISH
• PORTUGUESE
• GREEK
• RUSSIAN
• TURKISH
• DANISH
Date/Time
Date and time information can be configured per point of
sale. Date and time configurations include:
• DATE FORMAT—Client defines the date format their
customers see. This can be customized per point
of sale.
• TIME ZONE—Clients defines the system time-zone to
ensure all reporting remains in sync.
• TIME FORMAT—Client may also choose their preferred
time format (for example, 1:00 p.m. vs. 13:00).
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© 2016 SWITCHFLY
Switchfly’s brand has no direct-to-consumer presence.
Instead, our platform is configured to look like an extension
of our clients’ own websites. Our configurable user interface (UI) allows for deep brand integration without expensive custom development. These configurable UI elements
include:
• The ability to customize your website to any
language in the world.
• The ability to allow consumers to pay with any
currency in the world.
• Customizable style sheets, images, buttons, and
UI templates.
• Completely translatable and localizable text strings.
• Completely localizable date, time, and currency
formats.
Channel Management/Custom Style Sheets
White Label Solutions
The combination of our white-label website, agent tool,
widgets, mobile optimized site, and API allows clients to
communicate and market to their customers through any
touch point. The same travel inventory and business rules
are available through each channel, to allow you to choose
the one that best meets your customers’ needs.
The Switchfly platform provides industry-leading configuration options to control the look and feel of our
white-label product. Clients can accurately re-create their
core brand and messaging on Switchfly by managing all
images, HTML templates, label translations, style sheets,
and other details. Coupled with our segmentation capabilities, these white-label configuration options allow clients
to target different audiences with unique branding and
The majority of our clients choose the white-label website combined with the agent tool because it is a simple
and cost-effective way to launch a fully functional travel
website with dedicated customer support. With this setup,
travel agents can modify or cancel reservations regardless
of whether the original booking occurred online or with
an agent. As with the rest of our system, segmentation
controls can steer customers toward specific and preferred
channels. For example, our system has the ability to preference the online channel by automatically adding a $20
surcharge to agent-assisted bookings.
A smaller number of clients use the Switchfly API to access
travel inventory, business rules, performance reports,
etc. The API provides access to all Switchfly functionality
except end-user interface controls. Clients tend to choose
this option when they already have a fully-built front
end-user interface.
Agency Groups
Switchfly supports agency groups as a simple rules
and permissions management tool. Each agency can
be customized with its own pricing rules and inventory
allotments. Agency groups can be arranged in any of three
types:
• Online Agent—Online consumers booking products via
your customized interface.
messaging.
White-label features:
•Over 2,600 translatable text fields to fit your brand
•Customizable HTML templates (e.g. header, footer,
navigation, etc.)
•SEO optimized marketing pages
•Style sheet control over look and feel
•Customizable confirmation emails
•Customized search-widget support
•Customizable interstitial (waiting page) messaging,
unique by destination, searched products, or a
combination of both
•Image asset management, including Akamai content
delivery support
•Custom JavaScript support
The Switchfly team works with clients to launch the initial
web pages. Post-launch, clients can edit existing pages
and add new ones through the Switchfly administrative
portal. The benefit of so many configuration options is
that custom development is usually not needed, allowing
clients to quickly add or modify web pages.
• In-House Agents—The in-house agent tool allows full
booking capabilities and call-center support. In-house
agents can access Online Agent bookings for post-purchase support and modifications.
• Outside Agents—Switchfly clients can repurpose their
platform to allow external travel agencies to access
inventory, usually with additional markups and
commissions.
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SWITCHFLY TECHNOLOGY INTEGRATION
Thanks to our robust platform and years of experience
implementing our products to over 50 different partners
in all areas of the world, Switchfly can quickly launch
client sites. Our platform has the flexibility to be deployed
as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), where Switchfly provides
all technology and the final customer-facing application
software, or as Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), in which
Switchfly provides all the back-end technology and connects to our clients’ customer-facing application via API.
We are a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) provider, which
means Switchfly hosts and maintains all applications on
our servers and delivers the service to our clients via
the Internet. The SaaS model has numerous advantages
compared to in-house software development. First, it
shortens time to market, as our system is deployable out
of the box. Second, it lowers total cost of ownership, since
our clients do not buy hardware or hire technical staff to
maintain the site.
By using Switchfly’s SaaS and PaaS platforms, you can benefit from:
DECREASED OPERATING
FREQUENT TECHNOLOGY UPDATES—
COMPLEXITY—There’s no hardware
With SaaS, your technology is always
up to date. Switchfly delivers six major
releases per year with client asset pushes
in between. Each release is deployed
with zero client downtime ensuring your
site is always up and running.
to buy or software to maintain,
minimizing time and financial impact on your IT department.
FAST AND EASY
P
IMPLEMENTATION—With shorter
launch times, you can beat your
competitors to market each and
every time.
COST SAVINGS—Low total cost of
DECREASED RISK—We have a
SECURITY—Compliant with PCI DSS
proven track record of more than
99.95% uptime for a platform that
is live and used by dozens of the
biggest names globally in travel
and financial services.
requirements for Level 1 (highest) Service Providers and European Union Safe
Harbor requirements to protect personal
information.
Switchfly delivers a unique value proposition for our travel
and loyalty clients: a single technology platform to power
multiple products under multiple brands deployed across
multiple countries.
The platform’s structure allows us to leverage shared elements across multiple products. Complicated and overlapping global technology needs are met by a single solution
that can be managed from a central location. More importantly, we create a consistent customer experience across
all products and touchpoints.
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© 2016 SWITCHFLY
ownership with a short payback period,
delivering high ROI.
When you’re a Switchfly client, you take advantage of the
features you need, when you need them. What’s more,
you can easily launch additional products once you are
live on our platform, allowing you to keep pace with your
customers’ needs as they evolve over time.
9A
ADMINISTRATIVE PORTAL
The Switchfly administrative portal contains over 2,300
configurations to help you manage your business. This
highly configurable platform allows clients to make changes to their website without additional development work
or relying on a release schedule. The permission-based
administrative portal allows clients to set rules identifying
which part of the application each agent can access. See
image 9A.
AGENT TOOLS
Switchfly’s platform provides agents access to a robust
suite of tools that allows them to assist customers through
every phase of the shopping and booking process. Additionally, Switchfly offers sophisticated post-booking tools that
allow agents to modify and/or cancel bookings that occurred
through any touchpoint, including online reservations.
Switchfly offers full sales support to call center agents.
Agents have the ability to:
er’s points and secure login credentials.
• Leverage booking fees based on channel—agent vs.
online.
• Utilize differentiated agent-specific payment options
including checks, cash, money orders, etc.
Post-Booking Support
Agents have access to a web-based portal for booking
management. Clients can navigate the Switchfly back office
and access bookings by date and by any of the following
booking statuses:
•BOOKED—Confirmed live bookings.
•CANCELLED—Bookings that have been cancelled.
•UNBOOKED—Bookings where the user made it through
the shopping process but did not complete the checkout.
•SAVED—Agents have the ability to save itineraries for
later retrieval.
•Additional loyalty features allow agents to access bookings unique to member accounts.
• Book individual components or book a dynamic package
• Support any booking, even if it occurred with a different
agent, online, or from an outside travel agency.
• Book on behalf of any loyalty member using the custom-
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ONCE AN AGENT HAS LOCATED THE CUSTOMER’S BOOKING, THE AGENT WILL BE PRESENTED
WITH THE FOLLOWING OPTIONS:
+
• ADD TO—Add any travel component to existing booking.
• TIE TO—Booking cross reference that allows agents to join multiple booking records.
• ACCOUNTING ADJUSTMENTS—Adjust any booking cost. This feature is based on the individual agent
permissions.
• Modify $—Adjust pricing to the end customer. This uses the same permission restrictions as above. This feature
allows the client to update pricing at the component level, whereas Accounting Adjustment is at the booking
level. This is beneficial to adjust component pricing for supplier billing reconciliation.
• Modify and Modification Workspace—Cancel Booking, Modify components/travelers, Sync, Cancel Component,
Add Product, Fee Management. Additional information about booking modifications is provided below.
• Send—Confirmations can be sent via email and/ or fax.
NEW!
• Memo—Free-form text space that allows agents to make notes within a booking.
• Cancel—Agents can cancel the entire booking.
The agent tool allows authorized agents to
cancel individual components of a travel
package, or cancel the entire booking. The
agent workspace systematically calculates payments owed or refunds due while
taking into account supplier and agency
cancellation fees. The image to the left
shows an example of a cancel/rebook of a
hotel.
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© 2016 SWITCHFLY
Modification Workspace
The Modify functionality centers on the concept of an agent workspace, where an agent can flexibly and intuitively price
modifications before committing to them.
Loyalty Booking
Cancellations with
points or cash
refund
Air & Ancillary products
can be Synced with host
(native), Cancellations,
Add-To booked itinerary
Work space allows agents to see currently booked
components on the left side of the workspace and
proposed changes on the right
Fee
Management
framework
Agents are able to price or propose changes to
their booking prior to the actual commitment
of the change
The image below shows an example of a booking that was modified outside the Switchfly platform in the native GDS, and
then the booking was synced back into Switchfly:
© 2016 SWITCHFLY
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The Switchfly agent tool allows the client to adjust the cost of the component in order to reflect additional monies collected
or refund due. This enables users to make changes (i.e., Ticket exchange) outside of Switchfly and collect any resulting fees
or price changes within the Switchfly payment framework. This feature also supports on-demand updates for flight schedule
changes. Below is an example of a cost adjustment:
The Switchfly fee framework supports a systematic application of fees. Program change and cancel fees can be configured
by booking or by product. Many Switchfly hotel suppliers provide hotel cancellation penalties, which can be systematically
applied when a booking is cancelled. Agents also have the ability to manually add booking, change, or cancel fees to a reservation. Finally, Switchfly supports a fee waiver feature that provides agents the ability to manage and report exceptions to fee
application. This functionality includes the ability to set monetary thresholds per agent:
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Additonal Post-Booking Tools
Switchfly supports features to manage and integrate
changes made outside of the Switchfly platform:
additional data points clients may need to run their operations efficiently. Below is an example of a few data points
available in the Financial Feed Report:
• QUICK ADD—Provides agents the capability to load any
air PNR from the host CRS system into Switchfly.
➊ Booking #
• SPLIT PNR FOR FLIGHTS—Allows agents to create individual PNRs from a single traveler itinerary.
➌ Supplier Currency
• REPORTING—Clients can report on agent performance as
well as bookings to action.
➎ Sold-at
• ERROR MONITORING—Agents will have access to tools
to ensure their system is always running at peak performance.
➐ Customer Cash Paid
• SYNC FEATURE
➓ Hotel information
oProvides the capability to read and update a PNR from
the host CRS system. Updates are synched to Switchfly
when booking changes are made directly with the host
GDS/CRS system or supplier.
oSupports on-demand updates for flight schedule
changes.
oSupports manual updates to booking costs to allow
agents to collect outside payments within the
Switchfly platform.
Accounting Tools— Financial Data Feeds
Switchfly provides a number of tools to help integrate
Switchfly bookings into the client’s back-office systems.
Financial data feeds are available for external systems to
integrate, and automatically update their native CRM. This
provides clients with booking data in their native mid- and
back-office systems. These customizable CSV files are
exported to a secure, client specific ftp where the client can
parse the data daily.
Switchfly offers two types of financial data feeds:
1. Financial Feed Report
2. Financial Feed Per Room Night Report
FINANCIAL FEED REPORT is a daily snapshot of the
previous days booking activity. The report contains over 60
commonly used variables and relevant booking data points.
Additionally, clients have 50 customizable fields to record
➋ Supplier
➍ Supplier COG
➏ Loyalty Point Paid
➑ Start and End Date
➒ Traveler Info
11
+ 50 Customizable Fields
NIGHTLY RATES REPORT is a daily snapshot of the previous days booking activity on a per room, per night basis.
This provides clients insight on their booking profitability
calculated for each night booked on each room. The Nightly
Rates Report contains over 35 variables including 50 customizable fields:
➊ Booking#
➋ Room ID
➌ Stay Dates
➍ Supplier Currency
➎ Supplier COG
➏ Supplier Sold-at
➐ Supplier Markup
➑ Tax information
➒ + 50 customizable Fields
Switchfly also offers clients a PushPNR to be used for
clients who chose to host their own emails and to create a
‘manage my bookings’ page based on Switchfly booking
data. PushPNR is an XML message that contains detailed
booking data. The message is sent each time a reservation
is booked, modified, or cancelled.
Also available is our ReadPNR service, which can integrate
with your IVR system to screen-pop customer/booking
information to your agents. ReadPNR is a service that you
can use to request a detailed, real-time, current record of a
booking.
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Example of the dynamic reporting tool used to
view booking data by member tier
Example of the dynamic reporting tool
used to view hotel booking data
Reporting
Confirmaton Email
Switchfly offers over 150 static reports, which provide full
visibility into the state of your business. Each report can
be easily exported into Microsoft Excel for additional data
analysis. Some of the most popular reports include:
Clients can chose to utilize the Switchfly system to send
customer confirmation emails formatted according to our
custom email templates. These highly customizable templates can be styled to fit your brand. Using the Switchfly
tool, agents can also log in and re-send confirmation emails
that have been lost. While many clients choose to use our
email templates, others prefer to send the emails from
their own CMS. In this case, clients use the PNR and add a
hyperlink to their booking through our real-time booking
data feed.
• ROOM SALES—High level view of sales by source, agency, date, and supplier.
• BOOKING SUMMARY—Detailed booking information,
searchable by date.
• GENERAL LEDGER—Detailed accounting information
about bookings, searchable by date.
Additional customized reporting capabilities are available
through our account management team.
Switchfly offers a cloud-based business intelligence solution offers clients 24/7 access to a robust set of data tools
providing actionable insight into their Switchfly travel and
loyalty sites. Switchfly ‘Dynamic Reporting’ allows business
stakeholders to monitor and analyze key performance
indicators (KPIs) of their Switchfly site. Each client instance
comes with a standard set of reporting features created by
aggregating the needs of all Switchfly clients. Each client
instance can then be customized to meet specific needs
and program goals.
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MULTI-SOURCE INVENTORY
Switchfly allows clients to access unmatched breadth
and depth of hotel pricing and availability by leveraging
our multi-source hotel supply framework. Switchfly uses
Unification technology to identify matching properties
from multiple suppliers. We have unified over 1.2 million
unique hotel records into the platform to provide you with
the most coverage offered at the lowest rates. Unification
technology puts the power in your customers’ hands by
compelling suppliers to compete for their business. Real-time pricing calls ensure you are offering your customer
the cheapest price available with the broadest coverage
possible. Unification technology also provides clients with
the ability to compare pricing across suppliers and create
real-time price savings messages. Through unification,
clients can define business rules to determine which source
to display to the customer.
Markups and Commissons
SEARCH PARAMETERS
Sophisticated pricing tools allow clients to differentiate
inventory pricing based on multiple attributes, such as
preferred suppliers, preferred routes, or preferred destinations. Clients use this functionality to drive sales of specific
inventory, such as preferred supplier inventory, high-margin
products, and package deals that include their own negotiated rates.
• Origins, Destinations, or O&D pairs
Markups and commissions are tools that allow clients to
convert the net rate received from chosen suppliers into
a consumer-facing price. Markups can be added as either
a flat markup (e.g., $20), as a percentage (e.g., 20%), or a
combination of both. Switchfly clients can vary markups via
these variables:
• PRODUCT TYPE—Airline cabin, class of service, round
trip, or specific properties
• Booking window and travel window
• Length of stay and advanced purchase
PRODUCT
• TRAVEL PRODUCT—Flight, hotel, car rental, activity,
transfer, insurance
• SUPPLIERS—Specific inventory sources or partners, such
as car provider, hotel provider, airlines
• Online versus travel agent bookings—For example,
additional markups for agent assisted bookings
• Bulk or published rates can be handled differently
TARGET
DESCRIPTION
Booking Dates
Date inventory is searched
Travel Dates
Date of travel
Component Types
Air, room, car, activity, inurance, booking fee
Inventory Type
Bulk or published
Agent Type
Inside agent, outside agent, online consume
Minimum Booking Length
Minimum duration of trip
Booking Days in Advance
Booking days in advance
Departing Airports
Departing Airport
Arriving Airports
Arriving airport
Airlines
Valid airlines
Cabins
Valid cabin class
Fare Classes
Valid one letter fare class
Round Trip Only
Air component searaches must be round trip
Saturday Night Stay Required
Room component searches must be round trip
Car Chain Codes
Valid car rental companies
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Discount Codes
Gold
Switchfly offers clients the ability to configure discount
codes and offer these discounts to specific customers.
Clients can offer their customers discount codes that customers enter during their checkout process to receive their
price reduction. Discounts can be offered as a percentage
(e.g., 20%) or flat dollar amount (e.g., $20). Discount codes
can be customized to help our clients promote specific
products. You may choose to offer discounts for a combination of any of the following parameters:
CREDIT CARDS
FRAUD SCREENING
•DATES—Booking date or Travel date.
•PRODUCTS—Discounts can be applied to a complete
package or any individual component, or any individual
component within a package. Products include activity,
air, car, insurance, and/or room.
•PRICE—A minimum total price in order for discount to be
applicable.
•INCLUSIONS—Clients can define that the package
purchased by the customer must include activity, air, car,
insurance, and/or room.
Pre-set Specials
Pre-set specials allow clients to configure complete vacation packaging options for their customers. Rather than
dynamic packaging, where users select their flight and
hotel, pre-set specials allow clients to configure their entire
trip, and offer the package to their customers at a discount.
PAYMENTS
BANK TRANSFERS
Credit Cards
Credit cards are the most commonly used form of payment
in online e-commerce. Our ‘best in breed’ approach allows
clients to define the optimal payment gateway for each
form of payment. While connecting to your preferred merchant bank is quick and easy, Switchfly currently maintains
the following gateways:
Assure Pay
(Plantpayment) Ipay
Authorize.net
Paypal
Boldcron
Pure Commerce
Dialect
Realex
(Moneris) Eselect
Shift4
Enett
Worldpay
Globalcollect
Switchfly has built a sophisticated payments framework
to make it simple for your customers to purchase their
product with the localized forms of payment they’re used
to using. This framework allows you to leverage our existing
payment gateway partnerships and allow your unique
payment suppliers to plug into our network. The fastest and
easiest implementation is to allow Switchfly to connect to
your merchant bank. In many cases, we may already have
established this interface since Switchfly currently connects
with dozens of payment providers worldwide. Switchfly’s
payments product offers three solutions:
Additional credit card options include:
•CVV2 (SECURITY CODE)—Clients can configure whether
Switchfly will collect the CVV2 number during payment.
Clients may also choose to collect, and then mask after
the user has completed entering his code.
•INSTALLMENT PAYMENTS—Switchfly offers clients the
ability to configure credit card installment payments.
End customers can have a flat amount added to each
credit card statement until the balance is paid in full.
These subsequent payments can also be configured with
additional fees.
Bank Transfers
Bank transfers are monies that come directly from the
customer’s bank account. Switchfly offers both online and
offline bank transfers:
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•Online bank transfers redirect users from your Switchfly
site to a third-party bank site where the customer can
login and ‘push’ funds directly from his bank account into
the Switchfly system. These funds are then used by the
customer to complete the booking.
•Offline bank transfers provide customers with a
post-booking document that the customer presents at
his bank to pay for the transaction. Bookings are essentially put into a ‘hold’ state until the user completes
payment. The client can configure the time-frame the
customer has to complete his booking.
ANALYTICS AND WEBSITE OPTIMIZATION
Data and analytics are provided to support all of the
Switchfly products. Certain data and analytics features, like
our hotel unification logic process, run automatically while
others, like the segmentation rules engine, are configured
in our system. This pre-configuration allows the client to
define how you want to personalize the products you offer
to specific customers. Switchfly uses data to help you forecast your business, the traffic you need to drive, and the
behavior of different customer segments.
Switchfly presents data to give you confidence that your
product is priced properly for each customer and for
each unique search parameter—whether that customer is
searching for a family vacation or a business trip, paying
in cash or with virtual currency, purchasing a package
or a standalone product. We use data to reduce friction
throughout the shopping and booking process, as well
as to help you create a Switchfly configuration set that is
optimized to your business needs.
Most importantly, we use collected data to increase the
profitability of your Switchfly products, both increasing
your revenue and decreasing what you spend in order to
generate that revenue. Switchfly logs customer search data
across our entire network, and stores pricing information to
develop customer search/booking patterns.
OUR INTELLIGENT ALGORITHMS THEN USE YOUR INDIVIDUAL CUSTOMERS' PROFILES TO DELIVER
THE OPTIMAL PRODUCT TO THEM.
60B
travel
prices
processed
annually
60M+ live
customer actionable
searches
customer
annual
profiles
network
effect of
big data
© 2016 SWITCHFLY
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Analytics
Funnel Analysis
Switchfly leverages a third-party web analytics tool to track
the performance of not only every client webpage, but
every significant feature on each site we power. We use
this data to help you forecast your business and determine
the optimal site configurations for your customer base.
The result is an increase in conversion rate and subsequent
revenue to you, coupled with a decrease in the amount
of marketing dollars you have to spend to generate that
revenue.
A key feature of our analytics methodology is funnel
analysis. We use this analysis to identify points of friction
on our client sites, measure that friction against established
industry benchmarks, and systematically remove those pain
points throughout the customer shopping and booking
process. This tool provides a clear path to determine the
minimal amount of interaction a customer needs to complete his purchase, which in turn drives higher conversion
rates. See illustration below.
Funnel Analysis
BY PAGE TYPE
BENCH MARK
NETWORK
40%
Itinerary
25%
29%
Traveler Information
35%
84%
Payment
Checkout
70%
93%
Confirm
90%
Upwards of an 8%
increase in look-to-book
A/B Testing
Switchfly has over 50 clients using over 2,300 different system configurations. To ensure each client site is configured
for optimal performance, we have built a sophisticated A/B
testing feature. Our testing interface allows clients to test
any configuration within our platform to determine the best
possible settings. Beyond simply testing client configurations, Switchfly has also built A/B testing into the following
features:
• REVENUE MANAGEMENT—Provides clients the ability to
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© 2016 SWITCHFLY
test a control model against a test model. We test static
markups against the automated system to provide a
continuous optimization algorithm.
• HOTEL CHOICE MODEL—We test 20 different variables in the hotel sort to ensure the client’s result set is
optimized and ensure that we are delivering the correct
results, in the order most likely to result in a purchase.
• USER INTERFACE—Switchfly offers A/B testing on all UI
features, placements, and styling to ensure your customers have the most straightforward path to purchase.
SEGMENTATION
MARKETING SOLUTIONS
Member segmentation allows clients to identify different member segments and target each one with specific
pricing, messaging, and inventory. Clients can target very
specific or broad member bases using predefined segmentation keys, allowing your segmentation strategy to be
seamlessly implemented on the Switchfly system.
Once the site is launched, the inventory is loaded, and the
offers are optimized, it’s time to drive revenue by promoting your new product to consumers. Switchfly helps by
supporting mass marketing, 1:1 marketing, and everything
in between, allowing you to spend marketing dollars where
they generate the most bang for your buck.
As an example, you might offer top-tier members discounted pricing with a preferred inventory supplier, for
a limited time. Additionally, segmentation allows you to
offer co-branded credit card holders, preferred pricing, and
customized messaging. Finally, clients can up-sell premier
status to members by messaging specific benefits. Other
ideas include test offers and engagement levels by member
type or loyalty program tier.
1:1 Marketing
Our segmentation capabilities enable deep integration with
existing member segmentation strategies. Switchfly allows
clients to differentiate pricing, messaging, and inventory based on multiple segmentation levels. Examples of
high-level segmentation strategies include:
1:1 Marketing allows clients to target promotional offers to
individual customers or discrete groups of customers. The
tool leverages your CRM data to offer discounts that are
applied at the individual member level. So now you’re able
not only to identify your most profitable customers, but
to target promotions specifically to them, whatever tier,
status, destination, or products they purchase. And once
those campaigns are in place, Switchfly provides access
to promotion results that are fully exportable into Excel.
Sample lists of the types of data available in the promotional reports include:
•Discount by product
•Loyalty program member tier (Platinum, Gold, Silver)
•Total customers targeted
•Cardholder status (Cardholder, Non-cardholder)
•Total logins
•Behavioral segment (Affluent, Recent Activity,
Business Traveler)
•Total bookings
•Geographic location (Asia, Western Canada, UK)
•Promotion parameters
•Total value of the campaign
OFFER OPTIMIZATION
When clients share their member profile information,
Switchfly optimizes offers to drive maximum conversion
rates. Whether you want to offer only five-star hotels to
your elite members, or send your customers a 20% discount on their birthdays, you can use Switchfly to put the
right product in front of your customer at the right time.
Also, through our pushPNR feature, Switchfly also incorporates real-time booking information into our clients’ CRM
systems. This provides clients access to valuable data in
their native system, even though the transaction took place
in the cloud. For more information about our segmentation
capabilities, please visit our Loyalty Product Guide.
The results provide clients visibility into their customer
segments, price elasticity, seasonality, and promotional
effectiveness.
© 2016 SWITCHFLY
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20B
20A
1:1 MARKETING IN ACTION
Platform Architecture
When a member logs into a Switchfly-powered web site,
we associate that member ID with existing promotional
campaigns. If there is a match, then the applicable discounts are applied to the point price displayed. For example, if a member searches for a hotel that is usually 10,000
points, but then logs in and is eligible for a 5% discount
based on campaign rules, the member will see that same
hotel for 9,500 points, clearly messaged directly at the
point of purchase. See image 20A.
Switchfly combines years of travel industry expertise with
cutting-edge Software as a Service best practices refined
at some of Silicon Valley’s largest and most innovative companies. The result is a SaaS platform that is efficient and
scalable, with a multi-tenant code base running on shared
hardware and discrete client database instances. Our extensive connector framework seamlessly integrates over 90
different travel industry, CRM, and payment systems with
configurable business rules to maximize the efficient use of
inventory.
Merchandise
Clients can use Switchfly functionality to sell high-end
merchandise inventory to their valued customers. Merchandise on Switchfly can be sold for cash or for points
and is integrated with main Switchfly system. This means
all loyalty configurations on any part of your Switchfly site
can be easily applied to merchandise. See image 20B as an
example of the shopping path for a vendor using merchandising functionality to sell wine for airline miles.
SECURITY AND FRAUD PREVENTION
At Switchfly, security always comes first. Client sites can
be implemented with a third-party fraud screening tool to
ensure your site is protected. CyberSource, the leader in
e-commerce fraud screening, provides the “Decision Manager” product and can be implemented in Cash, Points, and
Points + Cash environments.
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© 2016 SWITCHFLY
Database
Each Switchfly client has a discrete PostgreSQL database
instance. Our databases are backed by an EMC storage
array network, and Lifekeeper for failover. PostgreSQL has
legendary reliability and stability, and we are proud to be
a sponsor of the PostgreSQL User Group in San Francisco. For our Big Data requirements, we implement an EMC
Greenplum solution on a 10-Gbit backbone with 10 Tb of
data.
Datacenter
Switchfly maintains a state-of-the-art facility with Savvis,
a SAS-70-compliant Tier 1 data center provider. The facility
boasts 24/7 security, video surveillance, and on-site support personnel, as well as redundant network links, backup
generators, and full geographic failover support. Our hosting setup ensures that system uptime is at least 99.95%. In
addition, Switchfly maintains a hot-disaster recover site at
QTS to ensure business continuity under any circumstance.
Switchfly is able to quickly serve our localized markets
in North America, South America, Europe, Asia, and the
Middle East by leveraging content distribution networks
like Akamai, which ensure the fastest network delivery.
Redundant monitoring solutions from Pingdom, Keynote,
and Tealeaf are used to ensure the highest level of service
across our platform.
Security and Standards
Switchfly follows the Open Web Application Security
Project best practices for developing, testing, and reviewing
code. We have been validated as PCI level 1 compliant with
the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI
DSS) version 2.0 requirements for Level 1 service providers
and we are compliant with European Union Safe Harbor requirements to protect personal information. Switchfly also
complies with the American Express Data Security Audit
standards and the Statement on Standards for Attestation
Engagements (SSAE16).
Development Methodology
Switchfly follows best practices from Agile Development
(XP), as well as pair programming and direct client input.
We develop in weekly iteration cycles, allowing us the
flexibility to adjust to changing requirements and to learn
quickly from our velocity. Switchfly delivers six major releases per year with client asset pushes in between, ensuring clients have access to new features in a timely manner.
We use Jenkins and Clover for our continuous integration
build and code coverage metrics, TestNG for unit-testing,
the Selenium2 framework for automated regression testing,
and SOASTA Cloudtest for performance testing. Together,
these programs and processes ensure the highest code
quality and minimize defects in the system.
ADDITIONAL CONFIGURATIONS
Switchfly has built an extremely detailed SaaS framework that can be configured numerous different ways. We highly suggest
meeting with one of our product experts, who will guide you through the implementation process. Below is a list of potential
configurations:
FEATURE
CATEGORY
FUNCTIONALITY
Add and compare
Platform
For agents only, displays a button on room availability that allows adding more hotels/rooms from the
current search, and forces the quote view on the agent
dashboard
Adjustments require GL memo
Platform
Require GL Memo when entering accounting
adjustments
Agent signup commission
Platform
Allows agents to add additional commissions
Allow Modify
Platform
Allow access to Modify agent tool
Allow FIT to cancel components on
availability
Platform
Only on the itinerary and not after it is actually booked
Allow outside agent memos
Platform
Allows outside agents the ability to see and add
booking memos Outside agents cannot add supplier
memos
Allow SSO access
Platform
Allows Single Sign On access
Alternate payments
Platform
Allow alternate payments such as real-time bank
transfer
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FEATURE
CATEGORY
FUNCTIONALITY
Add and compare
Platform
For agents only, displays a button on room availability that allows adding more hotels/rooms from the
current search, and forces the quote view on the agent
dashboard
Adjustments require GL memo
Platform
Require GL Memo when entering accounting
adjustments
Agent signup commission
Platform
Allows agents to add additional commissions
Allow Modify
Platform
Allow access to Modify agent tool
Allow FIT to cancel components on
availability
Platform
Only on the itinerary and not after it is actually booked
Allow outside agent memos
Platform
Allows outside agents the ability to see and add
booking memos Outside agents cannot add supplier
memos
Allow SSO access
Platform
Allows Single Sign On access
Alternate payments
Platform
Allow alternate payments such as real-time bank
transfer
Add and compare
Platform
For agents only, displays a button on room availability that allows adding more hotels/rooms from the
current search, and forces the quote view on the agent
dashboard
Adjustments require GL memo
Platform
Require GL Memo when entering accounting adjustments
Agent signup commission
Platform
Allows agents to add additional commissions
Allow Modify
Platform
Allow access to Modify agent tool
Allow FIT to cancel components on
availability
Platform
Only on the itinerary and not after it is actually booked
Allow outside agent memos
Platform
Allows outside agents the ability to see and add
booking memos Outside agents cannot add supplier
memos
Allow SSO access
Platform
Allows Single Sign On access
Alternate payments
Platform
Allow alternate payments such as real-time bank
transfer
Apply booking fee to add to
Platform
If enabled, booking fees will be applied to all add to
bookings
Apply credit card fees on subsequent
payment only
Platform
Do not apply credit card fees when booking. Only
apply on subsequent payments
Apply modification fees only once per
day
Platform
Apply modification fees only once per day
Auto populate traveler in test mode
Platform
If true, will auto-populate with a dummy lead traveler
in test mode
Auto retry push pnr
Platform
If the pushPNR fails we will try to resend
Booking fee
Platform
Add booking fee by component
Booking to customer
Platform
Will offer customer email or fax
method to send confirmation
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© 2016 SWITCHFLY
FEATURE
CATEGORY
FUNCTIONALITY
Booking xml to secondary url
Platform
Allows to shop in one GDS and book in another
Can modify quick add details
Platform
True if agent can enter quick add details by hand
False if they must come from CRS
Can waive fees in path
Platform
This feature will allow users to waive the booking
fee on itinerary cfm in the booking path Fee waivers
require agent permissions in addition to this configuration
CC bin numbers
Platform
Valid values, accepts a comma delimited list of BIN
numbers
Check balance for booknig cancellation Platform
contracts
Will check the balance paid against the booking and
not charge a fee greater than amount paid
Clear itinerary optins
Platform
Allows customer to remove all components from
shopping cart
Client booking fee display
Platform
Add To package option only applies to package pricing displays
Collect date of birth
Platform
Passenger's date of birth is required to be collected on
the checkout page
Collect device fingerprint
Platform
Turn on /off collecting of the device fingerprint
Collect government financial id
Platform
Requires collecting financial id (eg. Brazil CPF or US
SSN) on the payment
Collect issuing bank
Platform
Collects Issuing bank name (free-form), and Issuing
bank country fields on the payment page for credit
card payments These fields are mandatory
Collect official traveler id
Platform
Collects the traveler identification
Collect official traveler id country
Platform
if selected, the country will be collected at checkout
Collect official traveler id label
Platform
If selected, then enter a comma separated list of labels
to display to the traveler at checkout
Commission inclusive exchange rates
connector
Platform
The remote service that returns exchange rates including that include a commission so that prices can be
adjusted accordingly
Credit card payment option
component template
Platform
Template override for credit card
payment option component
CSS cobrand parent
Platform
Enter a cobrand name to use its CSS files Styles can
be overwritten in Cobrand > CSS Identical, empty or
unrecognizable cobrands will not be used
CSS packages to disable
Platform
Enter comma-delimited CSS file packages to disable;
reference names used in asset_packagesyml
Currency
Platform
Set the default currency for your Switchfly system
Custom itinerary component template
Platform
Template override for custom itinerary component
Date format
Platform
Customize the date format
Default Language
Platform
Setup the default system language
Deposit module
Platform
Enables the dposit module
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FEATURE
CATEGORY
FUNCTIONALITY
Discounts
Platform
Enables discounts
Display booking fee total
Platform
Display booking fee total
Display connector errors to inside
agent
Platform
Show connector errors to inside agents
Display credit card type
Platform
This configuration allows clients to display the credit
card type
Display discount code in itinerary page
Platform
Displays the discount code component in the itinerary
page instead of the payment page
Emails required on checkout
Platform
Requires an email address before a customer can
checkout
Enable online cancel disable within
days
Platform
This setting will enable/disable the config that make
the itinerary ineligible for online cancellation within the
number of days selected
Enable persistent cobrand cookie
Platform
Enable persistent cobrand cookie
Enabled client js access
Platform
CEnable client access to the client JS cobrand pages
Exchange rate feed
Platform
Allow access to Oanda foreign exchange rates when
setting rate snapshot exchange rates
fee waiver threshold level 1
Platform
This will allow you to set the maximum values that an
agent can waive a fee in system currency for each of
the 5 fee waiver levels One of these fee waiver levels
can be assigned to an agent under agent permissions
fee waiver threshold level 2
Platform
This will allow you to set the maximum values that an
agent can waive a fee in system currency for each of
the 5 fee waiver levels One of these fee waiver levels
can be assigned to an agent under agent permissions
Financial snapshot version
Platform
Template 1 shows all components if not booked as
package Template 2 always shows package total Both
versions show taxes as a separate line item Templates
3 and 4 may use Itinerary Totals version 2
FIT can edit cc subsequent payment
amount
Platform
Enabling this feature will allow online consumers to
edit the credit card payment amount on the subsequent payment page regardless if they have a track
agent as part of their session, if the booking was
originally made by an agent user, or originally made as
a tracked user, or if the deposit module was invoked at
the time of booking This does not affect the payment
page at the initial time of booking (get_paymentcfm),
but will affect all post booking payments attempted
by online consumers on the get_subsequent_paymentcfm page
FIT disable hold days
Platform
Allows on online customer to put an itinerary on hold
Google analytics profile id
Platform
Enter the UA-XXXXXX number listed within the JavaScript provided by Google Analytics
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FEATURE
CATEGORY
FUNCTIONALITY
Government financial id is cpf
Platform
CPF validation will be applied to the Government
Financial ID
If no add-ons found redirect to checkout form
Platform
Skip cross sell for non-supported markets
In-house disable hold days
Platform
HOLD feature will be disabled (hidden button, hold
not allowed) within the specified number of days from
booking date to the initial date of travel Within means
less than or equal to
In-house hold days
Platform
Days a booking can be held without payment
Max agent login attempts
Platform
Number of failed login attempts allowed before locking out the user
Min days advance FIT
Platform
Minimum number of days between booking date and
booking begin date for an FIT
Min days advance outside agent
Platform
Minimum number of days between booking date and
booking begin date for an outside agent
Modify days after
Platform
days after return date a booking can be modified
Omniture account
Platform
Omniture Account ID
Omniture enable booking tracking
Platform
Enable Omniture Booking Tracking
Outside agent payment option
Platform
Agency deferred payment options
Parcel payments
Platform
Supports parcel payments
Payment connector name
Platform
Configure payment connector
Pre-populate profile details on checkout page
Platform
Populate traveler data from loyalty traveler profile on
checkout page
Pre-populate profile details on payment page
Platform
Populate credit card data from loyalty traveler profile
on payment page
Push admin change xml to url
Platform
Admin change xml to url
Recent searches cookie exp
Platform
Recent searches cookie expiration time in days
Require parcel payment selection
Platform
If the parcel payment module is enabled, this configuration will generate an error if no parcel payment
contract is selected on checkout
Reservation email
Platform
Ask for email to send reservation information
Send full credit card number in push
pnr
Platform
When true, PushPnr will send the full credit card in Pnr
Push, as long as the URL begins with https
Session timeout warning in minutes
Platform
Minutes before the end of a session when the user will
receive a warning
Should validate credit card info inline
Platform
This configuration allows clients to display inline validation for credit card information
Show allocation on itinerary
Platform
Show allocation on itinerary
Show allocation on payment page
Show allocation on payment page
Show booking link on confirmation
Platform
Shows a link to booking details on the confirmation
page
Show cancel link on booking view
Platform
Controls display of online cancellation link on booking
view
Show full itinerary details
Platform
Always show full itinerary details
© 2016 SWITCHFLY
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FEATURE
CATEGORY
FUNCTIONALITY
Show lead traveler on itinerary
Platform
Shows a link to booking details on the confirmation
page
Show cancel link on booking view
Platform
Controls display of online cancellation link on booking
view
Show full itinerary details
Platform
Always show full itinerary details
Show lead traveler on itinerary
Platform
Shows the name of the lead traveler on the itinerary
page
Show quick add on itinerary for
Platform
Comma separated list of agent types (inhouse,outside,fit) for which to show the quick add label when
displaying the itinerary
Subtrack cookie exp
Platform
Sets the amount of days before a subtrack cookie will
expire
Supported num children
Platform
Setting is only applicable for custom engine and external engines which Form post into Switchfly
Tax display
Platform
Applies to itinerary page and financial snapshot template 2
Terms agreement options
Platform
Terms and conditions agreement options
Test credit card capture exception
Platform
Set to true to force an exception after components
booked and points redeemed, eg simulate credit card
failure
Test mode
Platform
Changes client instance in testing mode
Test mode email
Platform
Where emails generated in test mode are sent to
Time dropdown format
Platform
Configure how time is displayed to end user
Time zone
Platform
Sets the time zone for the Switchfly platform (sync
with accounting)
Use all phone numbers
Platform
Cell, work and other
Use child ages
Platform
Ask for the ages of children
Use connector notifications
Platform
Will send email notification for unresponsive connectors
Use contract groups
Platform
Enables contract groups
Use cvv2
Platform
Requires customer to enter cvv2
Use cvv2 mask
Platform
Masks the cvv2 number with bullet/asterisk
Use infant ages
Platform
Ask for the ages of infants
Use lead traveler address
Platform
Auto populates lead traveler address on checkout
Use lead traveler cell phone
Platform
Auto populates lead traveler phone number on checkout
Use other phone number
Platform
Other for lead traveler
Use pre auth
Platform
If checked, the Switchfly system will request a $1 payment card authorization using the cobrand payment
gateway prior to booking travel components Not all
payment gateways support this feature A $1 authorization may fail to detect many issues that might cause a
decline of an auth for the full amount
Use pre auth for pass through
Platform
If checked and if a credit card is entered, the Switchfly
system will request a $1 payment card authorization
using the cobrand payment gateway prior to booking
travel components even if no components are merchanted
Use rooming list
Platform
Asks for names for all travelers
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FEATURE
CATEGORY
FUNCTIONALITY
Use titles
Platform
Ask for titles for all travelers
Use urchin tracking module
Platform
20k JavaScript which provides unique visitor identification for Urchin Reporting
Verify pnr email address
Platform
Check to collect PNR owner email an additional time
for verification
Voucher
Platform
Enables Switchfly vouchers
Voucher version
Platform
Select which voucher template to display to customer
© 2016 SWITCHFLY
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