The trade-only tour operators sales director, Adrian Smyth, sat down with Travel Bulletins Matt Hayhoe to give us the latest on the recent Big Reveal, bumper Vegas value, and building trust with its trade partners.
On Jetset's recent 'Big Reveal', which saw its JETS booking platform enhanced with a new interface and smoother booking process, Adrian explained: "The feedback from it, already, has been excellent. There's so many things that agents have really, really liked. Of course, there's some things that have needed to be explained to them, but we're always happy to do that, and it's been genuinely well received.
"The brilliant thing about the JETS system is that we've got our audience. We're not trying to mould a B2C system into one for the trade. It's entirely based on agents telling us what they want and need. We've gone out and spoken to our agents, we had a small focus group that interacted with it in the build stage and did some testing.
"We'll certainly expand that focus group for future releases, but it's still the biggest launch since PackagePal arrived. We're talking about the biggest feature change to JETS in 10 years."
Package Pal, launched in 2011, responded to a lack of choice in the flexible package market, and combines all the various bookable elements of the JETS system together. The 'Big Reveal' marked the biggest step change since, with new functionalities embedded in the wider JETS system.
Agents can access clearer flight options, with easily identifiable icons, and scale the platform all the way down to 'Mobile View' to make agent access easier than ever.
Map view has been enhanced with larger property thumbnails and repositioned/reordered filters and functions. Hotel availability is now accessible across all devices.
"There's a huge community out there that are transacting on the move. From home workers, who might work from mobile devices, or agents doing coffee shop mornings. We wanted to really embrace that demographic – we've got a huge homeworking community and they love JETS.
"Wherever you're accessing the platform, it works."
"It wasn't just a freshening up of pages... we've allowed agents to hold their options until 10pm on the given day before it expires. We've developed station transfers to support our Eurostar growth. Previously agents didn't have the ability to book station to hotel transfers and vice versa: now they do."
It's not just the platform that will see a boost: agents can offer upgrades on Vegas packages as part of Jetset's Vegas value-add.
"It's the first iteration of this concept: certain products will come with added value. It's financed by Jetset, and offers upgrades to premium economy, or complimentary shared transfers, totally complimentary with any Vegas bookings.
"Within future iterations, it will be different destinations. It might be differnet value adds. We've got the broad strokes, functionality-wise, tech-wise, and we'll move forward and bolt onto it in the future."
In celebration the operator's 55th anniversary, Jetset has teamed up with United Airlines to offer agents a marketing fund of £5,500.
"Why £5,500? Because we're 55! There's no claim necessary to be in with a chance: every agent who makes two United Airlines bookings will get an entry into a live draw on September 1st. Agents will be relatively free to spend that how they want: there will be certain conditions and consultations to have with us, but it doesn't have to be based on promoting United or Jetset."
Additional non-booking based entries will be up for grabs throughout the campaign term: agents can stay up to date with Jetset's social media platforms to stay in the know. Bookings up to August 31st are included in the prize draw.
The packed roster of agent initiatives makes the operators commitment to the trade clear, with Adrian summarising: "We're constantly trying to do things that will directly help agents and agencies. It's a good time for us, we want our staff to share in that and we want agents to share in that journey as well."
