PowerPoint Presentation

Travel Innovation Group

Bulletin Number 15

From Michael Edwards, Managing Director

20 October 2020

INDEX

1. Introduction

2. Refund payment cycles

a. Lime and Aviate Flights GDS

b. Aviate Flights BSPLink

c. Lime (British Airways) and Aviate airlines Groups

3. We Are With You: market leading technology

4. Airline policies and news

a. Policy chart and updates

b. Airline partner news

INTRODUCTION

Never did I imagine we would be in mid-October, facing new lockdowns and the likelihood of travel

being further decimated for months to come - but this is the reality. The new Job Support Scheme lacks

teeth for our industry and as there appears no government appetite for sector support, it is going to be a

grim winter.

It is clear we all have our challenges. Having spoken to many of you, it is dark times and its clear we all

have to think differently and find new ways of working together for everyone’s benefit. Sadly, in these

most difficult of times this is a must rather than a choice for many. I am hoping due to our particular

position, the Travel Innovation Group can invigorate a debate with our tour operator partners to see

how – together – we can find new ways to save costs, become more efficient and create revenue. In the

next few days, I will follow up with further thoughts and communicate accordingly.

Here at the Travel Innovation Group, we have been restructuring (which sadly has led to a number of

redundancies) and maximising efficiencies to ensure we are able to continue to provide you, our

customers, with legendary service. That said, please give the team some understanding as we adjust to

the new structures, whilst continuing to action refunds and updating you as schedules, flight

cancellations, airline policies, etc. unfold. As always we will keep you updated on matters and assure you

at the heart of what we do is that We Are With You.

On an encouraging note, many of the airlines that held back refunds have now allowed us to make the

claims through the normal GDS channel. This means we have now transacted the back log of refund

claims for Emirates, Virgin and Etihad. This current refund cycle’s total value is circa £1.6million,

therefore we are working as hard as ever to get these to you by 2 November.

I am also pleased to share more positive news around our technology developments – built to help you

and enhance your experience of working with us (section 3) and some airline updates including more

flexible policies from key partners in section 4.

REFUND

PAYMENT CYCLES

a. Lime and Aviate (inc VAFS) Flights GDS

To date we have completed 12 refund cycles, with the tables below showing the

more recent. We are on track to make our Flights GDS refund payments, due on 2 November including

the significant backlog of Emirates, Etihad and Virgin Atlantic refunds as referenced in my introduction.

Processed for Refund

(email confirmation

sent to you by us)

Expected Payment date

(from airlines to us)

Refunds paid

to Tour Operator

(at latest by)

Cycle

complete

1 to 16 August

2 September

16 September

✓

17 to 31 August

17 September

1 October

✓

1 to 15 September

2 October

16 October

✓

16 to 30 September

17 October

2 November

1 to 15 October

2 November*

16 November

16 to 31 October

17 November*

2 December

*We will need these clear funds from IATA/the airlines before processing your Refunds to you. Refunds will be made back to the

original form of payment.

REFUND

PAYMENT CYCLES

b. Aviate Flights BSPLink

This table represents some of our higher volume airlines who are insisting on manually managing

refunds via BSPLink. Please be reminded that these payment timescales are an estimate and as evident

from the text following the table, are changeable depending on the airline’s circumstances.

Air Mauritius have informed us that they’re not accepting any refunds until December due to finalising

their voluntary administration, we anticipate in this case that we can begin to send our email

confirmations to you from December for any MK requests that you haven’t had processed up to then.

Unfortunately we have not yet seen any refunds from Norwegian, and do not have an estimate for

South African Airways.

Key airlines

Estimated payment from airline to Aviate from

processed date

(email confirmation sent to you

by us)

Refunds paid to Tour Operator

(estimated at latest)

SQ/VN

7-9 weeks +2 weeks

WY/UX/TP/MH

6 months +2 weeks

Ad-hoc +2 weeks

REFUND

PAYMENT CYCLES

c. Lime (British Airways) and Aviate airlines Groups

The below table shows only the most recently completed cycles. The previous cycles were completed to

schedule.

Group booking cancelled

(email confirmation sent to you

by us)

Expected payment date

(from airline to Lime)

for Deposit Paid, Fully Paid

& Ticketed

Refunds paid to Groups

agent (at latest)

Cycle complete

16 to 31 July

24 August

7 September

✓

1 to 16 August

2 September

21 September

✓

17 to 31 August

17 September

7 October

✓

1 to 15 September

2 October

23 October

16 to 30 September

16 October

6 November

1 to 15 October

2 November*

23 November

16 to 31 October

16 November*

7 December

*We will need these clear funds from IATA/the airlines before processing your Refunds to you. Refunds will be made back to the

original form of payment.

WE ARE WITH YOU:

MARKET LEADING

TECHNOLOGY

Innovation is one of our core principles, and a key contributor in our We Are With You difference.

Our technology is market-leading as we continue to innovate already unique software to evolve with

our users and adapt to our industry. I’d like to share just a sample of the newer or upcoming

functions that Flights systems across TIG offer:

a. API

Our powerful integration offering a fully automated airfare and (selected) ancillaries booking solution

to businesses that rely on further systems to manage their wider travel offering. Our single source

connection opens up our entire live inventory including hundreds of airline partners and a range of

nett fare types across GDS and NDC channels. integrated seamlessly with your bookable website,

back or mid-office system - our API provides control from availability to ticketing, booking data, in-

depth fare rules and product information.

We’re currently connected with suppliers such as Dolphin, Anteeo, Inspiretec, Goranga Tech and

Penguin, and able to develop to other systems as required.

If you’re interested in the increased efficiency and revenue potential that our API solution offers,

complete this form or contact Naomi Moizer our Partnership and New Business Manager.

WE ARE WITH YOU:

MARKET LEADING

TECHNOLOGY

b. Cache

Some of our customers approached us for distribution solutions that complement their high volume

business model. Following several months of development we are now live with our low fare search

cache, which enables high-volume searches without losing speed to market.

We’d be happy to hear your suggestions on ways that we can support you in growing your flights

business – when the opportunity returns that is. Contact Naomi Moizer to discuss your vision or

hurdles.

c. Ticketing robots

Our ticketing robot brings added automation to our ticketing function. At present our GDS users are

using an ‘instant ticketing’ robot option which replaces their need to pull bookings into our Flights

system for ticketing, with the ability to queue from their own GDS into ours on the day they wish to

ticket.

Within the next couple of weeks we will enhance this function for GDS users, offering a ‘scheduled

ticketing’ option where ticketing can be queued from their GDS (as with the ‘instant ticketing’ option)

far in advance of the Ticket Time Lime TTL. Behind the scenes, the booking is registered by our robot

which tickets it within a pre-agreed window before the TTL. This functionality is particularly beneficial

to businesses offering an instant purchase model but wishing to take advantage of the airline’s longer

deadlines.

Full information on the scheduled ticketing robot for GDS users will be released via email when it is

available, followed by a release for non-GDS users shortly after.

AIRLINE POLICIES

AND NEWS

a. Policy chart and updates

We have collated a very top level comparison chart across our 10 highest volume carriers in this section, intended to

provide an overview of which airlines include more generous clauses in their COVID disruption policies, and faster

refund methods.

Please note that each airline will have their own criteria within each clause, which can be found in the airline’s full policy

which is accessed via our Lime and Aviate websites. These full policies should always be referred to, along with the fare

rules, when creating new bookings or taking action on existing bookings.

Airline

Full refunds permitted

(in circumstances other than airline

cancellation/major schedule change)

Refunds via GDS

(as opposed to via

BSPLink

, which

can take much longer)

Fare difference covered

by airline when rebooking

(if rebooking same cabin

to same destination)

Bonus for

rebooking

Complimentary

COVID-

19 cover

included

Air Canada

✓

X X X