Starting from January 2008, travel agents can now access and retrieve Sabre Hosted carriers - American Airline (AA), Royal Brunei (BI), Pakistan Airline (PK), Jet Airways (9W), Siem Reap Airways (FT), Bangkok Airways (PG) and Gulf Air (GF) Secondary Passenger Name Record (PNR) via Abacus system.The 7 carriers will join the list of participating carriers that allow travel agents to view the carriers’ secondary PNR via Direct Access.

The PNR displayed to travel agents will be in a similar format as Abacus PNR. The existing carriers which already allow secondary PNR retrieval are Air India, Asiana Airlines, Cathay Pacific Airways, China Airlines, Dragonair, EVA Airways, Garuda Indonesia, Indian Airlines, Malaysia Airlines, Mandarin Airlines, Philippine Airlines, Silk Air, Singapore Airlines, Trans Asia Airways, Uni Airways.

The ability for travel agents to retrieve Secondary Passenger Name Record (PNR) will help to ease operational issues at the Airline Helpdesk or Airports check-in counters. It also minimize the number of enquires calls that were received by the airlines.Such improvements will subsequently improve the overall image of the carriers that are perceived by the travel agents.

For more information, contact Abacus International, Sandra Tan at Sandra_Tan@abacus.com.sg

Abacus and AIG jointly held an event on 27th Feb 2008 in Indonesia, Jakarta. The event saw a good turnout of approximately 100 travel agents. Held at AIG Indonesia’s Office Training Room, a total of 2 training session in the morning and afternoon were conducted.

The objective of this event was to announce AIG’s new travel insurance product (AIG Travel Guard) available in Indonesia, providing travellers with far greater flexibility and choices in their insurance purchase. Training sessions were also incorporated to better equip agents with the knowledge of booking Abacus TravelSecure via Abacus system.

Abacus TravelSecure e-Guide for Indonesia was featured to reinforce the ease of booking Insurance through the Abacus system. Plans are underway to have the e-Guide uploaded onto Abacus Indonesia’s website. This will allow travel agents to use it as a quick reference guide or to even utilize it to train new staffs joining their agency.

In conjunction and to mark the launch of AIG’s new travel insurance product, AIG is running the promotion ‘Dare to Dream’ with the aim of rewarding the champion agent who makes the highest number of Abacus TravelSecure bookings on Abacus system during the month-long promotion in March 2008.

AIG has generously sponsored the grand prize- A trip for 1 to Old Trafford to catch Soccer Club Manchester United in action worth approximately US$5,000. The full board prize trip includes return airfare, accommodation and meals. The promotion is opened up to all AIG agents in Indonesia booking through Abacus only.

For more details, please click here.

On 20 January 2008, Abacus Myanmar announced the winners of the Abacus Malaysia Airlines joint promotion that was held from October to December 2007.

The event was held at Sane Lan Soe Pyae where the overall winner was Mr Thein Phyo from Than Than Travels Ltd. While Mr Aung Zaw in Sun Far Travels & Tours Co., Ltd won the second place and Ms May Myo Myat in Columbus Travels & Tours Ltd. who won the third place.

For more information, contact Abacus Myanmar at info-pai@myanmar.com.mm

On 12th February 2008, Abacus Thailand organised the Crazy Rush – Shopping Racing at Tops’ Supermarket at RCA. A total of 146 participants from 73 travel agencies were selected based on their January 2008 booking volume.

Every agent was given Tops’ Supermarket Gift Voucher 2,000 baht to spend in the shopping competition. The top 3 winners who managed to spend exactly 2,000 baht or closest to it within 15 minutes, received additional Gift Voucher of 1,000 baht as the first prize.

Besides getting a free shopping spree, participants were entitled to enter the RC Flag rewards, where participants simply have to collect the syllables of the name of an Abacus staff that were all scrambled up in various envelopes.

A lucky draw was later held for the RC rewards after no winners emerged from the game. The participants had thoroughly enjoyed themselves and look forward to more of such activities. Contact Abacus Thailand for more information and you could be one of them too!

On 1st to 3rd February 2008, Singapore Airlines held a travel fair at Fashion Hall, Siam Paragon and at the Singapore Airlines’ call centre where all bookings made are all exclusively on Abacus system.

The event kicked off with a press conference where Mr Steven Ong, Managing Director of Abacus Thailand, Mr Erwin, General Manager of Singapore Airlines and Ms Vipawan, Singapore Airlines, Passenger Sales Manager were interviewed.

Over 500 visitors were at the 3-day vent where 12 participating booths put up special promotions to entice the potential travellers. The participating exhibitors were Express Inter, Paradise and Sun, KS&S, Thaisiri Tours, Global Union, Trans Global, Reliance Holiday, Amber Travel, Roongsarp Discovery, Six Stars, Tevee Airtour and Travel One.

The special promotions involved air tickets and travel packages by Singapore Tourism Board, Australia Tourism Board and Tourism Queenland.