CheapOair profiles notable African Americans in Celebration of Black History Month

Online Travel Agency Curates Content to Pay Tribute to African American Culture

CheapOair®, a leading flights-focused hybrid travel agency, has partnered with several members of the African American community to share their stories of overcoming adversity, embracing their heritage, and contributing to the rich history of African Americans.

CheapOair’s Miles Away blog kicked off the campaign with an exclusive profile of two-time Emmy Award-winning violinist, Damien Escobar. Escobar is a native of Queens, New York and was the youngest student to be accepted into The Juilliard School at the age of 10. Following numerous hardships, Escobar found himself hitting rock bottom and living on the New York City subway in 2012. He has since worked his way out of his personal struggles and has used the power of his music to become one of the most recognized violinists in the world.

Through all of his success, Escobar remains committed to giving back to the community and is an activist for keeping the arts in public schools. He has worked with various charitable organizations and even founded his own charity, M.A.D.E – Music and Arts with Damien Escobar – to purchase violins for schools with limited musical education funding.

For the campaign, CheapOair also partnered Erick Prince, a photographer, philanthropist, and world traveler seeking to be the first African American to visit every country in the world. Prince uses his photography to share his view of the world and its people, through his lens.

Additionally, Miles Away highlighted Gloria Atanmo, a world-renowned African American solo female traveler, and Myra Parks, a woman from Los Angeles who moved with her family to rediscover their roots to Ghana.

The CheapOair Miles Away blog is dedicated to creating an inclusive community and is proud to celebrate the diversity, culture, and history of people around the world. To learn more about our featured African Americans and for additional content on Black History Month, visit the CheapOair Miles Away blog.

For more information on CheapOair, please visit http://www.CheapOair.com, http://www.cheapoair.com/mobile, or our social media pages, http://www.Facebook.com/CheapOair and http://www.twitter.com/cheapoair.

Going global: Fareportal and Amadeus extend partnership to deliver travel distribution services around the world

Leading online travel agency seeks to expand its marketplace scope and reach in North America and beyond with new long-term global agreement

Fareportal, the travel technology company powering CheapOair and OneTravel, has entered into a new and extended distribution agreement with global travel technology company and long-time partner, Amadeus, as part of Fareportal’s ambitious plans to expand on a global level.

Under the new agreement, the two companies have renewed their long-standing partnership whereby Amadeus has served as Fareportal’s global distribution provider in the US, Canada, Mexico, and the UK. Now the partnership scope has been extended to empower Fareportal’s vision and plans for global expansion, providing it with access to over 40 countries across Europe, Asia-Pacific and Latin America.

“This is an exciting milestone in our growth and evolution as well as a testament to our truly collaborative relationship with Amadeus over many years. This will enable us to take our brands and business to a new level, to grow and best serve consumers in North America and around the world,” said Werner Kunz-Cho, Co-Chief Executive Officer, Fareportal.

The new long-term agreement marks an ongoing story of success and collaboration between Fareportal and Amadeus, a relationship dating back more than a decade. The two companies have worked together to deliver industry-leading merchandising, search and shopping capabilities and choice to consumers. Fareportal is a leading innovator in the ancillary services category, bringing more options and flexibility to travelers.

Amadeus provides a wide array of services to Fareportal from distribution of air, hotel and car content to merchandising solutions for selling ancillary services and fare families to leading search and shopping technology. Fareportal was ahead of the curve as one of the first online travel companies in North America to implement merchandising services with Amadeus. They were an early adopter of ancillaries, embracing them as a critical part of bringing a better shopping experience, greater transparency and more choice and personalization to travelers. This is why Fareportal was selected by Amadeus as a partner to pilot its leading merchandising functionality.

“Ours is a unique, reciprocal partnership with Fareportal, truly one of the most innovative travel companies around today.  As they pursue their growth, we will be there to deliver the best global reach, technology and commitment. And while we are pleased our long-standing partnership has delivered value to Fareportal, they have also been instrumental in helping Amadeus become a leader in the online search and online travel segment. We are delighted that they recognize our investment and strategy to keep serving the most successful online travel companies worldwide,” Scott Gutz, Chief Executive Officer, Amadeus North America.

Going from startup to travel industry leader and innovator since its founding in 2003, today Fareportal is one of the largest online travel agencies in the world in terms of air segments booked annually. Fareportal was named among the top 10 on Travel Weekly’s 2016 Power List, posting $4.5 billion in sales in 2015.

Fareportal’s next-generation “hybrid” business model offers customers of CheapOair and OneTravel the best of all worlds – the expertise of booking with a live, expert travel agent via their contact centers or the convenience of booking online, on an award winning mobile app, by phone or via live chat.

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About Fareportal

Fareportal is a travel technology company powering a next generation travel concierge service. Utilizing its innovative technology and company owned and operated global contact centers, Fareportal has built strong industry partnerships providing access to over 450 airlines, 150,000 hotels, and hundreds of car rental companies that serve millions of customers every year around the globe. With a portfolio of consumer travel brands, including CheapOair and OneTravel, Fareportal’s airline partners can benefit from access to a broad customer base that books high-yield international travel and add-on ancillaries.

About Amadeus

Amadeus is a leading provider of advanced technology solutions for the global travel industry. Customer groups include travel providers (e.g. airlines, hotels, rail and ferry operators, etc.), travel sellers (travel agencies and websites), and travel buyers (corporations and travel management companies).

The Amadeus group employs around 14,000 people worldwide, across central sites in Madrid (corporate headquarters), Nice (development) and Erding (operations), as well as over 70 local Amadeus Commercial Organizations globally and has a presence in more than 190 countries.

The group operates a transaction-based business model.

Amadeus is listed on the Spanish Stock Exchange under the symbol “AMS.MC” and is a component of the IBEX 35 index.

To find out more about Amadeus please visit www.amadeus.com, and www.amadeus.com/nablog for more on the travel industry.