Indian Airlines, Reliance Info Tie Up For...

[@ksh@T 20]

Indian Airlines, Reliance Info tie up for India's first mobile air ticket

New Delhi, November 22, 2005

Indian Airlines and Reliance Infocomm have joined hands to offer India's first mobile booking of a domestic airline ticket. The facility has been launched on R World, the data application suite of Reliance IndiaMobile.

Millions of Reliance IndiaMobile users across the country, who are also air travellers, can now book an IA ticket for domestic travel any time and from anywhere using their Reliance IndiaMobile phones. Even those living in far-flung areas who, for lack of easy means, may miss out on some the attractive offers can also now avail of Easy Fares using this m-ticketing facility. To begin with, bookings will be available against INR full fare and Easy Fare options.

The booking process is hassle free and very user friendly. After one has entered the origin and destination points and date of travel, full and discounted fares in economy and executive classes are displayed on the mobile screen. All one has to do is select the fare and payment mode and book the ticket. The PNR is generated and displayed. The ticket can be collected from the airport or an Indian Airlines office by producing the PNR and photo identification.

Reliance IndiaMobile users do not have to register separately for this service. They can use their existing RIM bill payment PIN for the purpose. They can make a secure online payment using their Master, Visa or Diners credit cards, which will be processed through the Citibank mobile payment gateway. Citibank's Mobile Payment Gateway is an adaptation of its highly successful and secure Internet payment gateway available for e-commerce sites in the country.

"As a national carrier, our aim is to service customers and expand our reach," Mr. Anil Goyal, Indian Airlines Director Commercial said of the m-ticketing facility. "The tie-up with Reliance Infocomm for m-ticketing assures nationwide reach through the easy-to-use R World functionality backed by sound technological capabilities on its ubiquitous telecom network. I am confident that people living in the interiors will now have better access to our reservation system and an opportunity to benefit from our low cost fares. "

"Our focus had been on developing applications and services that cut across various aspects of customer lifestyle, "said Mr. Navneet Saluja, CEO, Delhi Circle, Reliance Infocomm. "Our railway ticket booking through R World has received tremendous response. Reliance Infocomm is proud to contribute to the retail revolution sweeping the Indian aviation industry that is making air travel increasingly affordable. "

"Reliance Infocomm is the only service provider that has invested significantly in developing mobile data applications platform such as R World, which has become synonymous with the majority of mobile data offerings in India. The company has made huge strides to execute innovative m-commerce applications that are yielding rich dividends today, "he added.

Currently, the Indian Airlines ticket booking is a subscription service and is bundled with over 65 frequently used R World applications accessible after buying a monthly pass for Rs.25 or a day pass for Rs.3. A person can use this service irrespective of the time he has logged in every session.

Edited November 23, 2005 by Arun

[BPP 0]

Air deccan also has something like that ..book ticket using mobile

[tanveer 59]

Air Deccan has made tickets available at web worlds.

Here are the details of the IA news:

Reliance offers Indian Airlines tickets on mobile phones

New Delhi: Nearly nine million Reliance Infocom mobile phone users in the country can purchase Indian Airlines tickets through their cell phones with the company Tuesday launching a new facility called m-ticketing.

"The new facility will enable us to expand our reach and it will give our customers easy access to our tickets," Anil Goel, director (commercial) of Indian Airlines, told a news conference here.

"People with Reliance India Mobile connections across the country will now be able to purchase our tickets at any time from any place using a credit card."

In the initial stage, m-ticketing will cover only domestic destinations. There will be no extra charge on purchasing tickets through the new scheme apart from the subscription fee for Reliance's R-World facility.

"This is a new value-added service to our subscribers that will help bridge the digital divide between a computer user and a mobile phone user," said Navneet Saluja, the CEO of Reliance Infocom's Delhi circle.

source:News

Edited November 23, 2005 by Arun

[@ksh@T 20]

and well i dunno find air deccan service too good..they are at their normal rates...1 who has no credit card has use but otherwise fares are too much and 1 can get low fares from net!

[Arun 795]

Interesting to see some contradicting statements in the news statements...

from relianceinfo.com...

"Our focus had been on developing applications and services that cut across various aspects of customer lifestyle, "said Mr. Navneet Saluja, CEO, Delhi Circle, Reliance Infocomm. "Our railway ticket booking through R World has received tremendous response. Reliance Infocomm is proud to contribute to the retail revolution sweeping the Indian aviation industry that is making air travel increasingly affordable. "

While he had admitted something different in the public news conference here...

from webindia123.com

Speaking on the tie up, Reliance Infocomm CEO, Delhi Circle, Navneet Saluja said, ''Our focus had been on developing applications and services that cut across various aspects of customer lifestyle.'' Earlier, Reliance Infocomm had also tied up with the Indian Railways for a similar application. However, the tie up failed to deliver the expected numbers.

[anujit 0]

Yeah I'm not too comfortable buying tickets etc through RWorld. Mobile technology has a long way to go before people will be willing to purchase things worth Rs, 10,000 and more through a mobile.

For one its too damn hard to select a plane/train, create a reservation for the travellers, book the tickets and pay! Just like its too damn hard to send emails through RWorld! Whereas its relatively simple, cheap and low risk to buy a ringtone. SMS POLY XXX to YYYY and you have the ringtone!

Then of course there are security and psychological issues.

I dont see the airlines tickets scheme going too far either.

[SexyGurl 0]

Actually, this service is almost "free" .... not Rs. 25 as reported in the press.

It's under Membership plan .... which is Rs. 25 per month. So, for those already having the Membership plan, it's free.

And for those, not under Membership plan, it's just Rs. 3/- for becoming a 24-hour long member of R-world.

--> Reliance should make the Railways service also under Membership. It should charge it's fees from the Railways (or the credit card companies), not from subscribers.

[kesav 127]

Unfortumately It'll be other way round. Till IA booking becomes popular they'll keep it in membership plan. Once it becomes popular then they'll move it to pay on entry like railway booking. Reliance is using R-World as money minting machine. There'll be no respite for the budget mobile users like me.

[SexyGurl 0]

Ideally, reliance should open up R-world for placing privately developed and sold applications (which could be accessed using something like a URL).

Or alternatively, reliance *MUST* allow WAP access widely.

(Though, off course, currently, WAP, even in totality has less useful content that the normal R-world applications).

[abhay 0]

reliance has time , bandwidth , recources & money to do all there kind of semi-unwanted stuff, but dosent have the capacity to provide what every indian netizen actully wants ! what a waste

[abhay 0]

true broadband ! first and foremost on the list

well after that!

voip, video , and the list goes on as the speed increases

[SexyGurl 0]

so, what's your wishlist as a netizen?

I am rather satisfied with Reliance's performance, as far as the data services are concerned.

[SexyGurl 0]

As of date, reliance does not have the capability to provide you True Broadband at your home. (one would really need fiber-to-building to have really good broadband).

(Some people call DSL - 256kbps broadband ... I don't).

True Broadband is available at Reliance webworlds (with video conferencing). .. and also for other apps.

I don't think you need Broadband of VoIP ... a normal net connection should be ok. Many people are already using it.

[abhay 0]

I don't think you need Broadband of VoIP ... a normal net connection should be ok. Many people are already using it.

48451[/snapback]

its enough but not recommended. have been calling on 56k and 256 k i know the difference.

and yes i also dont call 256 k real broadband !

real broadband for me is min 1 mbit with unlimited access

[Dilbert 0]

Yeah rightly pointed out..... we have a long way to go before people actually start buying things woth 10000 bucks thru mobile.

Even a time-strapped, convenience desiring consumer like me have started using booking tickets online just a few months back.

I use net-banking but I do not trust mobile banking...

Yeah these services seem too ahead of their time; as of now the operators should stick to the basics I guess...

Offering a higher bandwidth & better speed for a start as far as data transfer is concerned..

While voice service needs really radical changes...Oh thats another topic & another post altogether...:0

[abhay 0]

agreed! i also am frequent in doing ecommerce! but i take enough care to make the transation through a trusted source like ebay, indiatimes, paypal etc etc etc

never used mobile banking though as of now