Microsoft Expedia.com Launches Associates Program
REDMOND, Wash., Feb. 11, 1998 — The Microsoft® Expedia
™
.com online travel service today announced the Expedia Associates Program under which the advanced travel booking engine of Expedia.com is linked into participating members’ Web sites through a co-branding agreement.
Expedia Associates Program member Web sites are now equipped to offer their users the full functionality of the Expedia.com travel booking engine, putting the ability to plan and purchase air, car and hotel reservations at their users’ fingertips without needing to link elsewhere on the Web. Throughout the travel booking process, both the member’s and the Expedia.com brand will appear jointly within the co-branded pages. Charter members for the Expedia Associates Program include American Express Co., CondeNast’s Epicurious Travel, TravelWeb, Advantage Rent A Car, Infoseek Corp., Wired’s Hotbot, The Mining Company, Golf Media, National Car Rental and 24-7.
“We’re delighted to be participating in the Expedia Associates Program,” said Mike Mulligan, senior vice president of American Express Corporate Services Interactive. “We want to give our customers the best service possible, whether they visit our Web site or one of our travel offices worldwide for assistance with their vacation planning. Combined with exclusive features such as Last Minute Travel Bargains and helpful travel tips, the American Express TravelWeb site now provides visitors with an engaging and easy-to-use booking solution through Expedia.com.”
“Now customers can book travel from their favorite Web sites through integrated links to Expedia.com’s proven booking engine technology,” said Simon Breakwell, group manager for the travel business unit of Microsoft Corp. “These new relationships help us realize our goal of bringing the benefits of Expedia.com to as many customers as possible, and we will continue to expand the Expedia Associates Program to include other high-quality Web sites.”
Microsoft Expedia.com is the place to go on the Web to purchase travel tickets and book accommodations and car rentals. Expedia.com offers in-depth destination content and travel news as well as mapping, address finding and direction services. Since its inception in October 1996, Expedia.com has become one of the Web’s most successful electronic-commerce sites with travel sales for January 1998 exceeding $12 million. A recent study by new-media audience-measurement firm Media Metrix – The PC Meter Company, ranked Expedia.com as the fastest-growing online travel service for 1997.
About Expedia.com and Microsoft
The Microsoft Expedia.com online travel planning service (http://expedia.com/) is part of the Microsoft Expedia family of travel and mapping products and services. These include the Microsoft Expedia Streets 98, Streets Deluxe 98 and Trip Planner 98 CD-ROMs (http://www.microsoft.com/expedia/) and the Expedia Travel Network, a one-stop travel shopping mall offering vacation packages, cruises, resorts and travel merchandise from leading suppliers (http://expedia.com/etn/) .
Microsoft Expedia.com is built on Microsoft Travel Technologies, a platform suite comprising server, applications and content designed to create the best buying experience for
travel-related services online. Microsoft Travel Technologies is created with Microsoft BackOffice® family products including the Windows NT® Server operating system, Internet Information Server and Microsoft SQL Server
™
. Microsoft Travel Technologies supports interactive travel within an Internet or intranet environment, using any popular Web browser, and is compatible with the top computer reservations systems.
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software for personal computers. The company offers a wide range of products and services for business and personal use, each designed with the mission of making it easier and more enjoyable for people to take advantage of the full power of personal computing every day.
Microsoft, Expedia, BackOffice and Windows NT are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.
Other product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.
To view Expedia Associates Program member sites, point your Web browser to:
American Express
(http://www.americanexpress.com/travel)
CondeNast’s Epicurious Travel
(http://www.epicurious.com)
National Car Rental
(http://www.nationalcar.com)
Wired’s Hotbot
(http://www.hotbot.com)
The Mining Company
(http://www.miningco.com/travel/)
24-7 (http://www.contentzone.com/expedia.html)
Note to editors: Contact information for Expedia Associates Program members is available upon request. If you are interested in viewing additional information on Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft Web site at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/ on Microsoft’s corporate information pages.
