Flight Path by Tern

Tern Software Inc
  • 5.0 (6)
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Updated Weekly

Welcome to Flight Path, your weekly insider’s guide to the latest in travel technology with Tern, the premier platform for travel advisors. Join us every Friday as Tern’s R&D leadership takes you on a journey through what’s new and exciting in Tern, unveiling the features and updates shipped each week. Hosted by Tern’s co-founder and CEO David Shull, Head of Product Molly Johnson, and Head of Design Brad Turner, Flight Path offers a unique peek behind the curtain of building the best platform for travel advisors. From in-depth discussions about new releases to behind-the-scenes insights into the design and development process, you’ll gain a comprehensive understanding of the innovation and hard work that drive Tern’s success. Whether you’re a travel advisor looking to stay ahead of the curve or a tech enthusiast curious about the latest advancements in travel technology, Flight Path is your go-to source for all things Tern. Tune in every Friday and let us navigate you through the future of travel. Hosts: David Shull: Co-founder and CEO of Tern Molly Johnson: Head of Product at Tern Brad Turner: Head of Design at Tern

  1. 2d ago

    Plan the Surprise Your Client Will Never See Coming

    Episode Overview: David, Molly, and Brad are back with a packed episode recorded live from the ASTA conference in San Diego. David joins on four hours of sleep after a booth that stopped fellow exhibitors mid-floor. This week covers two long-requested features now live, a wave of AI chat improvements, and a look ahead at group subtrip syncing, itinerary style updates, and the June 10 product launch webinar. Episode Topics: (07:14) Hide activities from travelers Advisors can now hide individual itinerary items from the client view. Canceled bookings drop off automatically. Surprise plans, future content, anything not ready for the client stays on your board, off theirs. (11:42) Insurance inside packages Manual insurance quotes can now live inside a package. Clients see accurate total pricing when they select coverage, no workarounds, no separate line items. (14:44) AI chat updates Dashboard chat panel is now opt-in from Customize. Cruise bookings can be built end to end through conversation. Contact addresses can be read, added, and updated via chat. Trip sorting by name and date is live. (23:08) Quality of life Agency supplier library gets a one-click CSV export. Supplier statements sort by most recent by default. Trip transfers auto-prompt a republish. Show Highlights: You now control exactly what travelers see on their itinerary Insurance finally works inside package pricing AI chat accessible straight from your dashboard Nine new Turn and Learn lessons live this week

    32 min

  2. May 22

    Tern's AI Guides You Through Your Work

    Episode Overview: David Shull, Molly Johnson, and Brad Turner cover a week of meaningful AI chat improvements. The biggest change: instead of typing answers back into the chat, advisors can now pick from clickable options and move through workflows in seconds. David demos this live, including a cruise search pulling ports, ships, and cabin options on command. Abby, Head of Customer Experience, walks through the relaunched Tern and Learn training hub, which now ships content alongside every weekly product update. Agency permissions, preferred supplier tags, and a quality-of-life roundup round out the episode. Episode Topics: (0:00) Week in Review Early advisor reactions in the Facebook group about the AI assistant saving hours on 60-day cruise itineraries. (4:46) Tern and Learn Update Abby walks through the relaunched training hub at turn.travel/learn and new agency owner courses shipping in near real time. (11:37) AI Chat: What Shipped Clickable multiple-choice responses, automatic chat renaming, and expanded cruise port knowledge. (14:06) AI Onboarding Demo David demos the onboarding skill live, showing the AI asking targeted questions and walking through a cruise search by port and date. (17:17) More AI Updates Trip details section awareness, default currency support, ship-specific search, and cabin options. (20:33) Agency Permissions New role-level controls over team data access and credit card visibility on trips. (22:49) Supplier Tags and Preferred Status Preferred supplier star indicator for agents and custom tags for filtering by region, consortia, or travel type. (26:03) Quality of Life Updates Trip board performance improvements, insurance refresh, and filtered contact list export. (29:43) Commission Improvements RTF file support, statement-level adjustments, and orphaned commission cleanup on deleted statements. (37:24) Week Ahead Insurance in a package, itinerary item hiding, rule-based commission dates, group subtrip syncing in beta, and ASTA Conference in San Diego. Show Highlights: AI chat surfaces clickable options so advisors stop typing answers mid-workflow Onboarding skill tailors the experience based on what the advisor wants to do first AI searches cruise ports, ships, and cabin options when building itineraries Preferred supplier tags guide agent booking behavior without cluttering client-facing profiles AI commission reconciliation now supports RTF files and statement-level adjustments Tern and Learn ships training content the same week new features go live Keywords: Tern, Flight Path podcast, CRM for travel agents, AI product tools, travel advisor workflow, itinerary builder, product updates

    38 min

  3. May 15

    Your AI Assistant Now Lives Where You Work

    Episode Overview: David Shull, Molly Johnson, and Brad Turner cover a packed week. AI chat gets its own home in the navigation with new capabilities to search cruise templates, build comparison breakdowns, and add port images in seconds. The team also walks through agency updates on supplier management, commission payout logic, contact deduplication, and cleaner client payments. Register for the June 10 agentic AI reveal to see the full picture. Episode Topics: (0:00) Weekend check-in Back office deep dive and a live AI preview at the Las Vegas Travel Agent Forum. (7:25) AI chat gets its own home Dedicated navigation icon with recent history, suggested prompts, and a full-screen experience. (9:57) Cruise itineraries and comparisons in chat Search templates, build full itineraries, and generate side-by-side cruise comparisons from a few messages. (14:14) AI adds port images automatically Chat populates images for every port on a cruise itinerary in one step. (18:26) AI free beta and upcoming limits No usage caps for now. Limits and upgrade options arriving over the next month. (22:00) Preferred suppliers and custom tags Mark preferred suppliers and add searchable tags that surface to advisors at booking. (23:45) Commission payout logic per supplier Set timing rules by supplier type so advisors stop entering expected commission dates manually. (26:43) Clearer client payment balances Invoices now show total cost, amount paid, and balance due, with on-property charges listed separately. (31:59) Contact deduplication org-wide One-click merge for suggested duplicates, now working across all advisors and shared contacts. (35:51) Required fields on client forms Red star indicators and automatic scroll to missed fields on submit. (38:30) Insurance per itinerary and reporting updates Insurance options per itinerary, an advisor sales pie chart, and balance due fields added to reports. (40:19) Trip names on calendar payments Payment entries now show the associated trip name alongside the activity. (42:16) Advisor and supplier survey Tern is surveying advisors on their supplier experience, with $250 gift card giveaways for participants. Show Highlights: AI chat has its own navigation hub with history and suggested prompts Chat builds cruise itineraries and comparison grids from a few messages Port images populate automatically through chat Preferred supplier marking and custom tags give agencies more control at booking Supplier payout logic removes manual commission date entry Client invoices now clearly show what is still owed Contact deduplication works org-wide with one-click merging

    44 min

  4. May 8

    AI That Matches Clients to Supplier Deals

    Episode Overview: David Shull, Molly Johnson, and Brad Turner had a week that felt bigger than most. A host agency came back after 14 months to demo their full workflow in Tern, and the before-and-after data on advisor sales moved the room. That energy carries through everything the team shipped: meetings now live inside Tern, AI chat can find the right client for a supplier promo and send a personalized email in one click, and agencies can finally assign workflow tasks to specific team members. Las Vegas Travel Agent Forum is next week, and there's more in the pipeline than the team is ready to say out loud. Episode Topics: (00:00) A host agency demo, 14 months in the making, shows real before-and-after conversion data. (09:11) Calendar meetings appear inside Tern, with one-click contact profiles and note taker controls. (16:29) Workflow tasks can now be assigned to specific team members or VAs at the template level. (21:47) AI chat improvements: send emails from chat, auto-populate hotel properties, create trips without a client name or exact dates. (25:01) Live demo: supplier promo email becomes a personalized client outreach, sent in one click. (33:47) Trip creation moves to a drawer layout. Agencies get a new setting to lock trips to agency access. (35:34) What's coming: group subtrip syncing, collaborator credit card permissions, Las Vegas Travel Agent Forum. Show Highlights: Calendar meetings now live in Tern with note taker controls built in AI can go from a supplier email to a sent, personalized client outreach without leaving Tern Workflow tasks are now assignable to team members and VAs at the template level New agency setting prevents advisors from removing agency access on their way out

    38 min

  5. May 1

    Commission Reconciliation, Now Powered by AI

    Episode Overview: David Shull, Molly Johnson, and Brad Turner dig into what may be the biggest agency back office feature Tern has shipped: AI commission reconciliation. The team walks through how it works, what it actually means for the accounting teams and agency owners who spend hours on statement matching every month, and why Tern is uniquely positioned to build this kind of end-to-end flow. They also cover a wave of AI chat upgrades, including email search, form response reading, and contact creation, plus major Chrome extension improvements and a quality of life section covering smarter trip search and task page fixes. A big reveal is coming in June. Episode Topics: (00:00) Week in Review David, Molly, and Brad share highlights from the week, including a listener who built a $20,000 FIT proposal in under 20 minutes using Tern, and Brad's call with a major cruise line that revealed how little suppliers understand about how advisors actually work day to day. (06:20) AI Commission Reconciliation Molly walks through the new AI-powered reconciliation feature, explaining how it reads supplier statements in any format, auto-matches line items to bookings, and surfaces partial matches for human review. The team discusses what "training the AI" actually means, how data privacy works, and why Tern's vertical integration makes this flow possible in a way no other tool can replicate. (17:57) AI Chat Updates Brad runs through a full list of new capabilities added to the AI chat this week: reading trip request form responses, creating detailed contact profiles from notes or emails, and searching connected email inboxes to pull context into conversations and draft replies. David notes that full-body email search is also coming early next week. (27:00) Chrome Extension Updates Molly covers the latest Chrome extension release, which now supports importing full itineraries to existing trips or creating new ones directly from any website. She also highlights small loading screen touches added by engineer Gaal that have become a fan favorite. (31:56) Quality of Life Brad covers two improvements: trip search now surfaces results by confirmation number, traveler email, and traveler phone, not just trip title. The task page overflow bug that advisor Walter flagged has also been fixed. (34:30) Week Ahead Molly teases workflow task assignment coming next week, group subtrip syncing getting underway, and new agency supplier capabilities. Brad previews insurance in package pricing and canceled booking visibility on itineraries. David flags early previews of agentic AI features at Las Vegas Travel Agent Forum and ASTA. Show Highlights: A travel advisor built a $20,000 FIT proposal from idea to full proposal in under 20 minutes using Tern's Chrome extension and AI tools. AI commission reconciliation reads supplier statements in any format, auto-matches bookings, and flags partials for one-click review, cutting what used to be hours of manual work down to minutes. Your payout data is never shared or used to train external models. When Tern says "training the AI," it means building supplier-specific context so the model reads statements more accurately over time. The AI chat can now search your connected email inbox, read trip request form responses, and create fully detailed contact profiles from a note or an email thread. AI-drafted email replies in Tern are different because the AI actually knows the trip details, the contact history, and the context. It is not a generic response you have to rewrite. Chrome extension now imports full itineraries, not just activities, directly to new or existing trips. Trip search now works across confirmation numbers, traveler emails, and traveler phone numbers, not just trip titles. A big AI reveal is coming in June, with early previews at Las Vegas Travel Agent Forum and ASTA.

    35 min

  6. Apr 24

    Price Packages Without the Manual Math

    Episode Overview: David Shull, Molly Johnson, and Brad Turner cover one of Tern's biggest engineering lifts to date: itemized package pricing. Advisors can now track costs at the item level within a package, see them reflected on invoices, and handle optional add-ons without workarounds. The team also walks through new AI assistant capabilities in Notes, a support schedule overhaul that cut response times fast, and a set of quality of life improvements across branding, email templates, and expedition transfers. Episode Topics: (0:00) Week in Review The team shares how the week went before getting into what shipped. (1:01) Host Migration and Package Pricing Launch Molly walks through completing a large-scale host migration alongside the itemized package pricing launch. (5:49) What Itemized Package Pricing Does Items in a package can now retain their own cost, show on invoices, and drive optional add-on selections without manual workarounds. (9:01) Groups and Real-World Impact How this resolves a long-standing frustration for group bookings, where advisors had to manually calculate and move items in and out of packages. (13:21) Tech Debt, AI Agents, and Code Cleanup Why cleaning up legacy payment code made the launch smoother and matters more in an AI-assisted development workflow. (18:10) Chargebacks and Why Tern Built It This Way What advisors need to understand about chargeback risk, and why packages are deliberately scoped to single suppliers. (22:02) Support Schedule Overhaul Restructuring hours across U.S. and Philippines coverage dropped response times dramatically and created near-continuous availability. (25:22) AI Assistant: Tasks, Group Trips, and Email Search New capabilities in the AI chat tool: create tasks from a conversation, build group trips with drafted descriptions, and search emails by contact or subject line. (28:10) Trip Review Skill Demo The first AI skill in Tern scans your itinerary for issues like missing accommodations, mismatched dates, and headcount gaps. (33:15) Quality of Life Updates Resend invite for host agencies, a new branding settings page with auto-save, last name variables for email templates, and expedition transfer details surfaced automatically on client itineraries. (36:08) Week Ahead Better canceled booking support, insurance in packages, group subtrip syncing, and the first set of granular user permissions. Show Highlights: Itemized package pricing is live: item costs persist, show on invoices, and power client add-on selections without any manual workarounds AI assistant in Notes can now create tasks, build group trips with drafted descriptions, and search emails by contact or subject line First AI trip review skill flags missing hotels, date mismatches, and headcount gaps Support coverage expanded to 18-20 hours a day, cutting response times significantly Branding settings now auto-save, so changes are no longer lost on navigation

    36 min

  7. Apr 17

    The AI That Builds Trips With You

    Episode Overview: David, Molly, and Brad cover Tern's fastest-moving area right now: AI. David demos AI chat building trips from scratch, generating activities from client details, and reading your task list to tell you what to work on today. Molly walks through a new payments update plus fixes across group trips, commission statements, and agency settings. Brad covers Chrome extension updates, insurance fixes, and design refinements. Next week: itemized package pricing, AI reconciliation in open beta, and workflow task assignment. Episode Topics: (00:00) Welcome and week in review David, Molly, and Brad catch up on their weeks. Molly shares what she's learning running a 900-agent migration herself. David talks about following up on the Project Tradition retail parity announcement and watching advisors use tours and activities to drive extra revenue before summer. (08:45) Payments update: customizable installment labels Advisors can now rename installment labels, including calling the first payment a deposit, matching how they actually communicate with clients. Molly explains the two use cases that drove the request, and Brad reveals his mom was one of the people who flagged it. (11:41) Chrome extension update: set items as optional on import When importing an activity or item via the Chrome extension, advisors can now toggle it as an optional add-on before it lands on the itinerary, cutting out a step for anyone building itineraries from third-party sources. (13:01) AI demo: creating trips, activities, and contacts from notes David demos the global AI chat, showing how it reads a notes intake, proposes a trip name and travelers for approval, then builds out activities based on the conversation, including dietary preferences and cruise details pulled from the note itself. (19:49) AI task search and filtering The AI can now search, read, and filter tasks, including filtering by date range. Molly tests it live by asking "what should I do today?" and gets back a prioritized list of overdue tasks and client inquiries. (21:49) Quality of life: group trips, commission statements, and agency defaults Group trip updates include clearer labeling for canceled or archived travelers and a new column showing when each subtrip was created. Commission statements now have a sticky status filter. Multi-agency users now land on their default agency automatically in settings. (26:36) Partner integrations: insurance and Project Expedition fixes Insurance quotes now lock to the trip state at time of quoting, preventing errors when trip details change before purchase. Project Expedition transfer timing logic is now specific by departure type, resolving a confusing error for train and cruise departures. (30:01) More quality of life: itinerary scroll fix and design refinements A scroll-position bug when adding items to long itineraries is fixed. Brad and Spencer quietly shipped smaller icon sizing across buttons, a tweak Brad and Ursula had been waiting to make for months. (32:11) Week ahead Itemized package pricing going live, AI reconciliation moving toward open beta, workflow task assignment shipping, and David hitting the road for a host agency keynote. Show Highlights: The AI can now build a full trip from a notes intake, including travelers, dates, and a proposed activity list, all with advisor approval before anything is created Ask the AI "what should I do today?" and it returns a prioritized list based on your tasks and client inquiries Advisors can now label installments as deposits, matching the language they already use with clients Chrome extension now lets you set imported items as optional add-ons at the point of import Insurance quotes now lock to the trip state at time of quoting, preventing purchase errors Commission statement filters are now sticky, so your open-only view stays set when you return AI tool count is at 8, with 70 more capabilities on the roadmap for the coming weeks

    33 min

  8. Apr 10

    Optional Transfers, Add-Ons + AI Updates

    Episode Overview: In this week's episode of Flight Path, David Shull (CEO and co-founder), Molly Johnson (Head of Product), and Brad Turner (Head of Design) dig into a packed week of quality-of-life shipping, a look at what is being built behind the scenes, and a candid conversation about the future of AI in travel advising. From optional transfer add-ons and smarter booking failure notifications to AI commission reconciliation and a new generation of conversational AI being built in Tern, the team covers both what is live now and what is coming. The episode closes with an exciting tease of an itinerary redesign and a look at how Tern is thinking about giving advisors an entirely new way to delegate work. Episode Topics: (00:00) Welcome and Week in Review David, Molly, and Brad share what had them all running on empty this week, from a major host transition to board prep to a quiet design handoff from Ursula before her vacation. (08:07) Optional Transfer Add-Ons via Project Expedition Advisors can now set transfers as optional add-ons on client itineraries, with flight and cruise details auto-filled and a one-click booking experience on the client side. (11:33) Project Expedition: No Markup, Same Price David explains that Tern now offers the exact same retail rates as booking direct through Project Expedition, making the integration a pure time-saver with zero cost difference for clients. (14:34) Quality of Life Improvements Molly walks through a series of community-driven fixes: corrected flight timeline bars, auto-exclusion of canceled travelers from group emails, cleaner team page views for agency admins, and a restored confirmation number field in unclaimed booking search. (16:24) Booking Failure Notifications and Resolution Brad breaks down a sneaky-hard improvement: advisors now receive detailed booking failure notifications with actionable next steps, including the ability to correct and resubmit without going back to the client for reauthorization. (22:05) AI Commission Reconciliation in Alpha Molly shares early results from AI-powered commission reconciliation for agency owners, including supplier-specific training for Disney and Arch Rome statements, and what it means for accounting teams spending most of their time on manual data entry. (27:49) The Broader AI Vision for Advisors David and Brad discuss how 70 to 75% of advisor workflow tasks could benefit from AI assistance, including a vision for personalized, context-aware payment reminders drafted in the advisor's own voice. (30:14) Delegating Work to AI Agents Brad goes deep on the first-principles vision for AI agents in Tern, including how advisors will eventually be able to assign recurring tasks to an agent that handles the first pass and checks back in for approval. (38:06) Real-World AI Feedback Loop David shares a story about an advisor who submitted feedback on the AI chat feature and had their specific use case addressed within 48 hours, illustrating how quickly the team is iterating. (41:08) Week Ahead Preview Molly teases continued progress on itemized package pricing (coming out of beta), AI commission reconciliation improvements, and client-facing itinerary polish. Brad drops that support for hiding canceled items on the itinerary is now in engineering. Show Highlights: Optional transfer add-ons are live, with auto-filled details and one-click client booking through Project Expedition Tern now matches Project Expedition retail pricing exactly, making the integration a no-brainer for advisors who were previously hesitant AI commission reconciliation is in alpha with supplier-specific training already underway for Disney and Arch Rome 70 to 75% of advisor workflow tasks could be touched by AI assistance, starting with personalized payment reminders drafted in the advisor's voice A new generation of conversational AI is taking shape inside Tern, including the ability to create trips directly from notes Itinerary redesign is coming

    40 min
See All (89)

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
6 Ratings

About

Welcome to Flight Path, your weekly insider’s guide to the latest in travel technology with Tern, the premier platform for travel advisors. Join us every Friday as Tern’s R&D leadership takes you on a journey through what’s new and exciting in Tern, unveiling the features and updates shipped each week. Hosted by Tern’s co-founder and CEO David Shull, Head of Product Molly Johnson, and Head of Design Brad Turner, Flight Path offers a unique peek behind the curtain of building the best platform for travel advisors. From in-depth discussions about new releases to behind-the-scenes insights into the design and development process, you’ll gain a comprehensive understanding of the innovation and hard work that drive Tern’s success. Whether you’re a travel advisor looking to stay ahead of the curve or a tech enthusiast curious about the latest advancements in travel technology, Flight Path is your go-to source for all things Tern. Tune in every Friday and let us navigate you through the future of travel. Hosts: David Shull: Co-founder and CEO of Tern Molly Johnson: Head of Product at Tern Brad Turner: Head of Design at Tern

Information

  • Creator
    Tern Software Inc
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    89
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Tern Software Inc
  • Show Website
    Flight Path by Tern

You Might Also Like