Icelandair announced they will offer passengers the option of booking their next transatlantic flight through Facebook Messenger. The Facebook Messenger Stopover Bot is the newest example of the rising trend in Conversational Commerce. Available 24/7, the new bot makes it easier than ever to book an Icelandair Stopover by bringing the point of sale directly to the customer, allowing passengers to book flights directly from Facebook Messenger.

The Stopover Bot is also an efficient customer service tool that can, together with booking and search functionality, answer commonly asked questions with quick, content rich answers combining text, photos and even video.

Guðmundur Óskarsson, Director of Marketing and Business Development at Icelandair comments “We want to constantly improve the travel eco system for consumers, starting from the very beginning of their booking experience.

Placing Icelandair ahead of the game and making flight bookings available through Facebook Messenger marks our commitment to Icelandair customers. We know what platforms our customers use and want to embrace new ways to communicate and offer valuable interactions with them in that space.

Through this thinking we hope to position ourselves as more than just an airline but as a software company and the launch of the Stopover Bot is another step towards our aim of customers being able to book a flight anywhere at any time.

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Developed with research that shows the popularity of messaging apps and consumer insight surpassing that of social media, Icelandair worked with Travelaer in developing this first phase – the ability to book outside their website booking engine. The project’s second phase, additional functionality for enhancing the user experience, is currently in development.