Membership supports destinations and workforce development, as well as engagement of staff and clients

New York, NY – September 2, 2015 – Fareportal, one of the fastest-growing travel technology companies, announced today its membership with Tourism Cares, the charitable arm of the travel and tourism industry.

Tourism Cares brings the entire travel and tourism industry together to make a greater impact on important issues, such as investing in emerging tourism destinations or those in crisis, and supporting a strong workforce. Tourism Cares helps the industry make the most of its giving and volunteering, for the benefit of employees, destinations and the traveling public.

“Fareportal supports several charities worldwide and we are honored to be a member of Tourism Cares, the travel industry’s charitable community,” said Corissa Leong, vice president of human resources. “Fareportal’s philanthropy division has previously provided financial donations and organized company charity events with several charitable organizations such as AIDS walk, Citymeals-on-Wheels, Covenant House, Humane Society, KEEN NYC, Punta Cana Foundation, Salvation Army and Wounded Warriors.”

Tourism Cares membership complements any corporate giving effort, offering a range of services and benefits: powerful outcomes and the satisfaction that come from working together; employee engagement and volunteering; B2B recognition and visibility; storytelling and advocacy; peer sharing of best practices; disaster response programzs, coordinating the industry when the needs are greatest; and even consulting and custom programs tailored for individual companies.

“We are thrilled to have Fareportal as part of our community,” notes Mike Rea, Tourism Cares CEO. “The stronger our membership, the greater our impact can be. It’s an honor to work with companies and employees so dedicated to giving back.”

About Tourism Cares:
Tourism Cares is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that preserves and enriches the travel experience for future generations. Tourism Cares channel the philanthropic passion and commitment of the travel industry to protect and restore valuable destinations we all care about—and support those destinations as engines for prosperity and pride in their communities. Domestic programs focus on industry-wide volunteer events, capacity building for the non-profit stewards of tourism sites, and scholarships and mentoring to support a talented workforce. Globally, Tourism Cares’ efforts include corporate social responsibility partnerships, strategic investments, and advocacy and education across the travel industry. For additional information or to contribute to Tourism Cares, visit www.tourismcares.org.

About Fareportal:
Fareportal is a travel technology company that powers hybrid (online/traditional) travel agencies. Utilizing its innovative technology and company owned and operated contact centers, Fareportal has forged strong industry partnerships with over 450 airlines, 150,000 hotels and 100s of car rental companies to serve millions of customers every year. With a portfolio of consumer travel brands including CheapOair and OneTravel, Fareportal’s airline partners benefit from access to a broad customer base that books high-yield international travel and add-on ancillaries at a rate higher than the industry average. To learn more, visit www.Fareportal.com.

CheapOair taps consumers to vote for the Most Effortless, Most Affordable And Most Enjoyable City of the Year on www.CheapOair.com/Owards

New York, NY – Wednesday, August 12, 2015 – CheapOair, a leading hybrid (online/traditional) travel agency, announced today the finalist cities for the inaugural CheapOair Owards, an awards program that celebrates American cities that best embody CheapOair’s overall mission and vision of making travel effortless, affordable and enjoyable.

The finalists were chosen by a panel of internal travel experts with centuries of collective travel and travel booking experience, which included CheapOair’s travel agents, executive team and the brand’s CEO and founder, Sam S. Jain. “CheapOair strives to make booking travel an effortless, affordable and enjoyable experience for customers, and we feel that each finalist city chosen embodies that very vision,” said Jain. “Determining each finalist was not a simple task among hundreds of exciting and accessible American cities, but I am thrilled about these finalists and look forward to the consumer voting and results.”

Residents and fans of the finalist cities can vote for their favorite city in each category by visiting www.CheapOair.com/Owards starting today until Saturday, October 12, 2015. The city that receives the most votes in each category will receive the CheapOair Gold Oward during the inaugural Owards celebration on Wednesday, October 20, 2015 in New York City.

The finalists in the three categories include:

Most Effortless City of the Year:
– Berkeley, CA
– Boulder, CO
– New Orleans, LA
– Portland, OR
– Salt Lake City, UT

Most Affordable City of the Year:
– Birmingham, AL
– Buffalo, NY
– Burlington, VT
– Detroit, MI
– Savannah, GA

Most Enjoyable City of the Year:
– Albuquerque, NM
– Ann Arbor, MI
– Honolulu, HI
– Newport, RI
– Pensacola, FL

For more information and to view the full list of city finalists, visit www.CheapOair.com/Owards, follow CheapOair on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, and tweet using the hashtag #Owards.

About CheapOair
CheapOair is the first hybrid (online/traditional) travel agency that enables consumers to book travel online, on mobile apps, by phone or live chat. CheapOair (http://www.cheapoair.com, 1-646-738-4820) bridges the gap between an online and traditional travel agency with trained travel agents available to help find deals and offers to destinations worldwide on over 550 airlines, 150,000 hotels, and 100s of car rental companies. Partner airlines benefit from access to CheapOair’s broad customer base that books high yield international travel and add-on ancillaries at above the industry average. Follow CheapOair on Facebook and Twitter to learn how to travel the world for less.

CheapOair also wins two additional gold, nine silver and five bronze awards in the 13th annual competition

NEW YORK, NY – Jun 30, 2015 – CheapOair, a leading hybrid (online/traditional) travel agency, announced today that its customer service department was honored as the Gold winner in the highly competitive Customer Service Department of the Year category in the 13th annual American Business Awards. This marks yet another accolade in CheapOair’s long line of customer service awards, following prior wins in 7th annual International Service Excellence Awards and 9th annual Stevie Awards for Customer Service 2015.

“CheapOair aims to make booking the perfect trip effortless, affordable and enjoyable, no matter whether travelers book online, via our app or by calling one of our customer care centers located around the world,” said Werner Kunz, chief operating officer at Fareportal, the company that operates CheapOair. “Providing superior customer service is at the heart of our company’s vision and we are particularly proud to add the American Business Awards to our long and growing roster of customer service awards.”

Nicknamed the Stevies for the Greek word meaning “crowned,” the American Business Awards are the nation’s premier business awards program. More than 3,300 nominations from organizations of all sizes and in virtually every industry were submitted this year for consideration in a wide range of categories, with more than 200 executives worldwide participating in the judging process to select this year’s Stevie Award winners.
CheapOair also won Gold in the Direct Response Video of the Year category for its latest “Perks” TV commercial and Julia Zamorska won Gold in the PR Executive of the Year category. Fareportal also won a total of nine silver and five bronze awards.

Winning three gold awards puts Fareportal in the fine company of organizations such as: MWW Group (four golds), AT&T, Girl Scouts of the USA, Gulfstream Aerospace, and Isagenix International (three gold wins) and Accenture, Bell Helicopter, Broadstreet, Carbonite, Cigna, Cyracom, IDEXX Laboratories, Hewlett-Packard, Lifesize, Marriott Vacations Worldwide, Roth Staffing Company, Signet, and SoFi (two gold wins each).
For award acceptance videos, please see: Direct Response Video of the Year award acceptance speech here and Customer Service Department of the Year award acceptance speech here. For a post-awards interview about the Customer Service Department of the Year win, please see here.

About CheapOair
CheapOair is the first hybrid (online/traditional) travel agency that enables consumers to book travel online, on mobile apps, by phone or live chat. CheapOair (http://www.cheapoair.com, 1-646-738-4820) bridges the gap between an online and traditional travel agency with trained travel agents available to help find deals and offers to destinations worldwide on over 550 airlines, 150,000 hotels, and 100s of car rental companies. Partner airlines benefit from access to CheapOair’s broad customer base that books high yield international travel and add-on ancillaries at above the industry average. Follow CheapOair on Facebook and Twitter to learn how to travel the world for less.