Kupibilet - search for smart route tickets

Kupibilet is an online service for searching and buying airline tickets.

2018

Starting Smart Routes

On August 28, 2018, online travel agency Cupibilet announced the launch of its own ticket search algorithm - smart routes. The technology connects regular flights even to those airlines between which interline agreements are not concluded. The real-time coupibilet collects flights of more than 400 airlines, combines them and offers flight options.

The smart route mechanism allows you to buy tickets from almost anywhere in the world to any other - while the airlines themselves do not always provide this opportunity directly. In the case of popular countries in which buying tickets is not a problem, the advantage of technology is in price: smart tickets are much cheaper than traditional ones.

What it looks like for a passenger

A smart route is a few separate tickets with common connections. In fact, it turns out that a passenger as part of a "smart connection" acquires separate tickets - tickets for airline flights, between which agreements have not been concluded. The system combines individual tickets in such a way that despite the absence of special tariff agreements, prices are obtained acceptable.

Tickets from "smart routes" - independent individual flights. During a transfer in the first city, the passenger receives baggage and undergoes a repeated check-in process for the next plane.

Each docked ticket has its own fare rules, exchange and return conditions. When late for the next flight due to the fault of the airline, Cupibilet guarantees compensation for the cost of flying to the destination.

Sometimes the system offers more complex routes with transfers. If you have a visa and free time, you can spend time in the cities in which the transfer will be, thus adding another city to your journey.

As of August 28, 2018, smart routes are available on the site and in the Cupibilet applications for iOS and Android.

Mobile app Cupibilet for Android

Smart IDReader Integration

On February 21, 2018, Kupibilet announced that buying a plane ticket using Kupibilet mobile applications had become even faster. Users no longer need to enter passport data manually - it is enough to scan an identity document using a smartphone or tablet camera, and in a few seconds all the necessary fields will be filled out automatically.

"Cupibilet" learned to recognize passenger documents in seconds

The opportunity is realized thanks to Smart IDReader technology developed by the Russian company Smart Engines. The Coupibilet application automatically recognizes the document that is required to register a passenger for a flight. The passport of the citizen of the Russian Federation, the international passport, the external passport and the birth certificate can be it. If desired, the user can save the passport data in his personal account so that they are automatically substituted on the next purchase of the ticket.

According to the company, the document recognition procedure is safe for the user: Smart IDReader processes data in a video stream on the device itself and does not transfer images for processing to external information systems. The full recognition cycle in the video stream averages 1- 2 seconds. The technology is not resource-intensive and works, including on smartphones with low-resolution video cameras, and is supported by operating systems iOS Android all generations.

Automatic data recognition significantly speeds up the ticket purchase process and reduces the risk of human error. It is important for us that the integration of Smart IDReader allowed Cupibilet mobile applications to automatically extract data from Russian passports issued before 2011 when issuing air tickets. There is no machine-readable MRZ zone on these documents, and most other services recognize such documents uncertain or do not recognize at all. Without the support of recognizing old-style passports, the option when registering for domestic flights is useless, "said Igor Volkov, head of the mobile development department of Kupibilet.

The plans of the Kupibilet and Smart Engines companies include the introduction of automatic recognition of the type of document: the program itself will determine which document before it is the passport of the Russian Federation, a foreign passport or another document.

You can test the option by downloading or updating the Kupibilet app in the App Store^[1] and Google Play^[2].

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