TravelBizBuzz

If I were a Sam's Club member, I'd be interested in checking out its travel site (since I never knew they had one), and aparently Expedia has checked it out already -- and has taken into account the mega-retailer’s 47 million members. What an opportunity to snag some travelers who want to book with Sam's!

Following its partnership with NYTimes.com and other non-travel companies, Expedia announced today that it now powers travel bookings for Sam’s Club, a division of Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

Clearly online travel agencies (OTAs) are facing more competition from the supplier-direct sites, so is partnering with non-travel-specific companies Expedia's way to combat this competition? Time will tell, and time will also indicate if other OTAs will look for creative ways to gain customers.

The details: Sam’s Club members may book travel on http://travel.samsclub.com, or they may contact a Sam’s Club travel specialist at 1.800.955.7267. Expedia is powering Sam’s Club Travel through Worldwide Travel Exchange (WWTE), a division of Expedia that helps companies enhance their own travel offerings with co-branding or private-label solutions.

In this case, Sam’s Club went with a co-branded label that says “Sam’s Club Travel, powered by Expedia.com,” an Expedia spokesperson explained to me in an interview.

The benefits: In addition to Sam’s Club obtaining more inventory and booking technology for its travel business, “this partnership builds out the geographic and demographic base of travelers Expedia serves,” said Tony Gonchar, VP of distribution marketing for Expedia in a press release.

In fact, “Sam’s club has a good foothold in some North American markets where Expedia has growth opportunity,” the spokesperson says. In other words, “Expedia stands to gain customers who may not have previously booked travel through Expedia.”

-- Lindsey Rushmore, Editor In Chief, Travel Distribution Report --

Posted by TDR at 02:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (479)

I thought I was still dreaming when I heard my radio announce this morning yet another US Airways bid on Delta. But sure enough, US Airways has raised its offer: Delta’s unsecured creditors would receive $5.0 billion in cash and 89.5 million shares of US Airways stock. That’s an offer valued at $12.7 to $15.4 billion.

US Airway’s justification? “While our original proposal offered substantially more value to Delta’s unsecured creditors than the Delta stand-alone plan, we are making this revised offer to eliminate any doubt that a merger with US Airways offers Delta’s unsecured creditors significantly more value,” said US Airways Chairman and CEO, Doug Parker, in a statement today.

My take: Give Delta some breathing room! This back-and-forth is like a pathetic dating chase veering on the edge of stalking. Not only has Delta indicated in detail why it believes US. Airways is a particularly bad match, but the carrier has also made it clear that it wants to pull out of bankruptcy in solo status.

Wake up, US Airways: You may be killing your hopes of any merger with Delta if you continue to persist so aggressively. Words like “hostile takeover bid” and “unsolicited merger proposal” are not kind ones.

I also couldn’t help but chuckle when I read that US Airways put a Feb. 1 deadline on its unsolicited offer. “It is time for this process to move forward,” Parker said. As if US Airways is waiting on Delta to make up its mind or something.

Or maybe Delta is just playing a really superb game of hard-to-get!

--Lindsey Rushmore, Editor-In-Chief, Travel Distribution Report

Posted by TDR at 03:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)