Revnet shutdown: ACV to launch hotline for connector bookings, petition circulates

Air Canada Vacations (ACV) is working to establish a dedicated hotline for travel advisors to add connector flights as Softvoyage prepares to sunset its popular booking platform, Revnet, by summer’s end.

In a recent interview with PAX, Nino Montagnese, vice president of Air Canada Vacations, said the dedicated phone line will complement ACV’s existing email support service for connectors.

“We won't put the onus on [advisors] to email and wait. We're opening up a customer service line – or res line – specifically for connectors," he said.

Montagnese said details about the new support line will be revealed at ACV’s annual “Dream Makers” fall product launch roadshow, which kicks off in Halifax on Sept. 2, before making stops in Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver, Montreal, Quebec City and Toronto throughout September.

End of the Revnet road 

As PAX first reported, Revnet – a long-standing application that enables travel advisors to access and book travel packages, flights and hotels from multiple tour operators — will officially be decommissioned on Sept. 1, 2026, clearing the way for Tripbook (a tool that has been active for some time now, but has evolved with new functionality in recent years).

It’s a development the industry has been anticipating for some time now.

READ MORE: Revnet’s Sept. 1 shutdown fuels concern: “Bookings will become unnecessarily complicated,” says advisor

Word that Softvoyage was planning on retiring its legacy platform, which provides live inventory and pricing, including options for different durations and passenger combinations, first emerged last year.

Revnet provides travel advisors with access to inventory that can’t be booked in Sirev, a broader Softvoyage platform.

The bluescreen system, for example, supports bookings that include packages with connectors or multiple room categories, such as one room for adults and another for children.

It also allows travel advisors to see when commission is posted, which Sirev doesn’t do.

Last year, in response to industry backlash, Softvoyage made the call to retain some features of Revnet – its "Reservation," "Add Payment," and "Cancellation" functionalities, for one – until the end of 2025.

But now, it appears the platform is reaching the end of its road for good.

As previously reported, many travel advisors have been vocal in their opposition to Revnet’s shutdown.

The system, after all, provides many advantages, including the ability to add connecting flights from regional airports to Canada's major hubs (a valuable feature for advisors in Northern, Central and Atlantic Canada), search for alternative flight times and fare options, book multiple rooms with different occupancies and room categories, and access inventory unavailable through Sirev.

As Frances Gertsch of P.E.I-based Stewart Travel Group told PAX in a statement last month: “These capabilities benefit every tour operator.”

“The ability to book multiple rooms with different occupancies and room types online, rather than phoning in, is something many of us rely on every day,” she said.

Concerns at ACV

Air Canada Vacations, for one, is well aware of the concerns.

On July 23, in a notice posted to the tour operator’s “Inner Circle” Facebook group for travel advisors, the team said it has reviewed the situation to identify potential challenges agents may encounter during the transition to Sirev/TripBook.

Among the concerns are limited departure availability for certain tour products, the inability to book multiple room occupancies within a single reservation, no direct search function for Premium Economy or Business Class from the initial search screen, fewer flight options, and added complexity when booking from certain connector markets and cities.

“While these changes may affect some day-to-day workflows, our Contact Centre remains available to assist with booking scenarios and options that may no longer be readily available through self-service channels,” the tour operator wrote.

The team is concerned, however, that the loss of certain Revnet functionalities during peak booking periods could drive more advisors to contact support, resulting in longer wait times.

“While this is not the outcome we had hoped for, we felt it was important to communicate these changes well in advance so advisors can prepare accordingly,” ACV said.

The biggest challenge

From ACV’s perspective, Montagnese said the biggest challenge surrounding Revnet’s shutdown is managing connector flights.

“We have connector cities that have been challenging to integrate into distribution channels, but Revnet had them,” he said.

“On our side, we're working to better feature the connectors through the GDSs, but we're also putting processes together to better serve agents if they can't find what they need because Revnet’s gone.”  

Within tour operator circles, ACV has been among the most publicly vocal about the challenges that could emerge once Revnet is retired.

Why ACV took the lead was because “we wanted to understand what Revnet was being used for so we could determine how we could combat it on our side,” said Montagnese.

While Revnet is a “legacy” tool, “we all need to evolve to the new tools,” he added.

“We all want new tools to have the functionality we [already] have,” he said. “It's now up to the trade to find ways to get that functionality that they had elsewhere, and it's up to us tour operators to provide it in some way.”

“I would imagine that every tour operator is in the same boat.”

“Advisors will spend more time on hold”

Still, travel advisors like Gertsch can't shake the feeling that booking travel could become more complicated in the months and years ahead.

“Anything outside a very simple booking – such as multiple rooms, connector flights, alternate flight options, or destinations beyond Mexico, the Dominican Republic, and Jamaica – will require a phone call to the Air Canada Vacations call centre, or an email to connectors@vacv.com, which means we'll be waiting for someone to call back with a quote,” Gertsch told us previously.

Gertsch shared a screen shot with us to illustrate her point.

Using Sirev, for ACV packages from Charlottetown, only Mexico, the Dominican Republic, and Jamaica appear as options (even though other destinations could be available with connecting flights through hubs such as Toronto or Montreal).

A dedicated phone line for connectors could help ease pressure on existing call volumes.

But Revnet also allows multiple-room bookings to remain on the same airline reservation.

Without it, “those rooms may be booked on separate airline records, increasing the risk that members of the same travel party could be separated during irregular operations,” said Gertsch.

SAVE REVNET petition circulates

Meanwhile, an online petition titled “SAVE REVNET” has been gaining traction among supporters.

As of Tuesday morning (Aug. 18), the petition had collected 806 signatures toward its goal of 1,000.

The petition was created by Ricky Panchal of Scarborough, ON-based World Traveller RP.

In a statement to PAX, Panchal echoed the argument that Revnet can do certain bookings that “Sirev/Tripbook currently cannot do as easily or sometimes cannot do at all.”

“Revnet connects directly to booking inventory and gives agents live availability and pricing,” said Panchal.

As for connecting flights, “this is a big one for agents outside major hubs.”

“Revnet can find connecting itineraries that don't always appear in Sirev,” he said.

“Revnet is like the old-school abacus us agents can utilize when the shiny new calculator isn’t working properly. Taking tools away from us just makes our job harder and more time consuming as we have to call suppliers and sit on hold – especially with suppliers now charging fees for assistance over the phone.”

Tools are “evolving,” says Softvoyage

In a July 15 bulletin, Softvoyage said its booking tools are "evolving," highlighting that one key enhancement: that the "Option 10 Revnet" feature has now been fully integrated into Tripbook and activated for all tour operators.

The company is urging all travel agencies to centralize their operations onto a single, modern interface ahead of Revnet’s final decommissioning on Sept. 1.

Agencies can also now apply up to four credit cards when making a booking with supporting tour operators. (Revnet, however, allowed six credit cards).

“Because your daily life is evolving, we are committed to constantly advancing our technologies to always better support you,” the company said.

Langevin: Sirev will become "more efficient"

In an email to PAX on July 24, Dan Langevin, chief commercial officer at Softvoyage, called Revnet’s decommissioning “a difficult decision.”

“Due to the obsolete nature of this technology, maintaining high performance and meeting service level expectations has become increasingly challenging,” he wrote. “This maintenance limits our ability to focus on new developments.”

Langevin also noted that “very few bookings are currently made via Revnet.”

Furthermore, he said the most important functionalities have already been replaced and are available through Sirev and Tripbook.

“We will continue developing our web application to become more and more efficient in providing the trade with state -of-the-art tools,” he said.

Langevin’s message to the industry?

“We appreciate your patience and understanding as we upgrade our systems to serve you better,” he wrote. "Ultimately, Sirev will become more efficient, offering better and faster tools for the industry.”

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