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. 3d ago

    Trip Statuses Now Update Themselves Automatically

    Episode OverviewDavid Shull (CEO), Molly Johnson (Head of Product), and Brad Turner (Head of Design) walk through a stacked update week: trips can now automatically move between statuses like traveling and traveled based on trip dates, a new Planned Bookings report makes it easy to audit anything that slipped through uncommitted, and the agency back office gets its own dashboard home plus new commission documentation and rate-change tools. A long list of quality of life fixes rounds things out. Next week: more on payments and reporting. Episode Topics(06:11) Automated Trip Statuses. Trips now move between statuses like traveling and traveled automatically, based on trip start and end dates, using Tern's existing automation triggers.(15:50) Planned Bookings Report. A new report surfaces bookings still marked as planning so advisors and agencies can catch anything that should have been marked booked.(19:57) Reporting Filters. New filters for trip tags, client state, and consortia or marketing codes make it easier to slice booking and client data for lead tracking and tax reporting.(22:45) Agency Back Office Home. All agency admin workflows, suppliers, commission reconciliation, and payouts now live in one dashboard, separate from the agent experience.(24:00) Commission Documentation and Rate Changes. Commission types can now require documentation, and rate changes can retroactively apply to commission already received but not yet paid.(29:02) Quality of Life Upgrades. Auto-formatted date fields, traveler age shown at trip start, visible terms and cancellation policies on the itinerary, full-resolution photo downloads, and bulk apply counts. Show Highlights One of the most requested features ever (500+ merged votes) is liveNew audit tools help advisors catch bookings before they cost commissionAgency back office now has a single home for suppliers, commission, and payoutsCommission rate changes can now apply retroactively where policy allowsSmall but mighty fixes: dates, traveler age, and cancellation policies just got easier to find KeywordsTern, Flight Path podcast, automation templates, travel advisor workflow, product updates, CRM for travel agents

  2. Jul 17

    Group Trip Edits Can Now Sync to Every Subtrip

    Episode Overview David Shull (CEO), Molly Johnson (Head of Product), and Brad Turner (Head of Design) cover Tern's biggest group trips update yet: changes made to a group itinerary can now push down to every subtrip automatically, ending a long-standing manual workaround. They also walk through new AI capabilities that pull directly from an advisor's own template library and photo collection, a refactor of the booking drawer for logging commission, and a batch of quality of life fixes. The episode closes with a longer discussion on where AI is taking the build vs. buy decision facing agencies and hosts across the industry. Episode Topics (00:00) Week in Review. The team compares a heads-down build week against a meeting-heavy one.(02:46) Group Trip to Subtrip Syncing. Pushing edits from a group itinerary down to subtrips, the most requested group trips feature to date.(08:30) Retroactive Sync for Existing Groups. Opting older group trips into syncing with a guided review step.(12:27) AI Library Integration. The AI can now search, read, and apply activity and itinerary templates, plus auto-tag uploaded photos for search.(21:41) AI Task and Note Editing. New direct editing capabilities with more usage headroom on low-cost actions.(22:41) Booking Drawer Refinements. Clearer logging for expected payments, backdating, and editing commission payouts.(30:01) Quality of Life Updates. Unclaimed booking alerts, TLN integration updates, group trip deletion warnings, clearer property addresses.(32:54) Build vs. Buy in Travel Tech. Why Tern is building the technology layer for advisors and hosts across the industry. Show Highlights Group trip edits now push to every subtrip, ending duplicate manual updatesAI pulls directly from an advisor's own templates instead of generic contentPhoto library search improves through automatic AI tagging, no setup neededBooking drawer gets clearer language for logging and correcting commissionTeam unpacks why Tern is positioning as the technology partner for the whole industry

  3. Jul 10

    Agency Back Office Update Adds a Whole New Payroll Cycle

    Episode Overview Tern co-founder David Shull, Head of Product Molly Johnson, and Head of Design Brad Turner catch up after a July 4th break. The episode centers on Tern's overhauled agency back office: a new Back Office Home separating agent and admin views, automated commission splits for referrals and mentors, and a system letting agents self match unclaimed commissions instead of admins exporting spreadsheets. Also covered: new AI chat features and cleaner itinerary date and time display. Full details land at Tern's agency launch webinar on August 5. Episode Topics (00:00) Weeks in Review, catching up after the July 4th break and this quarter's board meeting.(07:14) AI Chat Updates, chat can reference your email template library, save and share prompts, debug automations, and pull Project Expedition tours into a trip.(15:25) Itinerary Display Fixes, consistent date and time formatting across every item type.(18:45) New Back Office Home, a dedicated navigation home for agency admins, separate from the agent CRM.(26:03) Booking Drawer and Commission Splits, one consistent booking review flow plus automated referral and mentor splits.(31:05) Unclaimed Commission Matching, agents review and self claim unclaimed commissions with agency level controls.(39:43) Week Ahead, integration work, this week's group subtrip sync launch, and new hires starting. Show Highlights AI chat reads your email templates and automations, and surfaces tours inside a trip.Back Office Home gives agency admins one dedicated space, separate from selling.Automated mentor and referral splits remove manual adjustment work for admins.Agents self match unclaimed commissions instead of admins exporting spreadsheets.Agency launch webinar set for August 5, with a full back office deep dive.

  4. Jun 26

    Commission Reconciliation Just Got a Whole Lot Simpler

    Episode Overview:David, Molly, and Brad are back with a packed episode covering the biggest AI chat upgrades to date, a major new agency back-office feature, and a meaningful update to groups. This week's AI updates go deeper than new features: they address the frustration advisors have felt when the chat forgets their preferences, and start to answer the bigger question of how AI memory should actually work inside a platform built for travel. On the agency side, a long-requested feature around unclaimed commissions is heading into beta, and it closes a loop that agencies have been managing manually for years. Episode Topics:(0:00) Week in Review: Molly's QA life, Brad's AI usage rollout, David's Singapore trip with the APAC team(5:27) AI Can Now Search Your Photo Library: The chat can pull images directly from your branded content folders using metadata and folder names, putting the right photo in the right place without manual searching.(7:21) Save Your Writing Style to Chat: Advisors can now tell the AI to save preferences like tone, formatting, and style directly from a conversation, so it carries those instructions into future sessions.(8:18) How AI Memory Actually Works in Tern: David explains why AI doesn't "learn" on its own, what evals are, and how Tern is building structured memory objects so preferences persist across conversations.(14:19) Unclaimed Commission Feature Heading to Beta: Agents can now view unclaimed bookings at their agency, claim the ones that belong to them, and get notified on approval, cutting out the manual back-and-forth that agencies have relied on outside the platform.(21:15) Quality of Life Updates: Reorderable lodging rooms on itineraries, year-over-year reporting comparisons replacing month-over-month, and a new search infrastructure powering faster, smarter task search across the app.(25:46) Groups Subtrip Syncing: Beta progress update, including the new ability to opt existing trips into syncing behavior and controls that let advisors edit individual subtrip fields independently.(29:27) What's Coming in Two Weeks: Tern Pro AI usage limits go live July 1, more agency back-office features shipping shortly after, and continued itinerary improvements. Show Highlights:AI chat can now pull photos directly from your library by folder name and metadataWriting style preferences can be saved mid-conversation and applied to future chatsUnclaimed commission claiming is coming to beta, with approval workflow and email notifications built inYear-over-year reporting comparisons now replace month-over-month KPIsTask search now covers title, description, trip, and contact, and is significantly fasterGroup subtrip syncing beta is expanding with opt-in for existing trips and independent field editing

  5. Jun 19

    Agency Payout Rules That Actually Fit How You Work

    Episode Overview: Brad Turner (Head of Design) and Molly Johnson (Head of Product) host this week's episode, joined by Spencer, one of Tern's lead engineers on AI. With David traveling back from a team offsite in Singapore, the three dig into a packed week of shipping: agency supplier payout rules, a wave of AI chat improvements, and a long list of quality-of-life fixes. Spencer pulls back the curtain on how Tern builds and evaluates its AI features, including how advisors can get more out of chat today. Q3 planning is underway, and there's plenty on the horizon for both advisors and agencies. Episode Topics: (00:00) Week in Review Brad, Molly, and Spencer share what the first post-webinar week looked like, from shipping payout rules to thinking through what comes next for chat. (06:52) Agency Supplier Payout Rules Molly walks through the new ability to set commission payout eligibility rules by supplier type, so agency owners spend less time manually adjusting dates and advisors get cleaner expected commission reports. (11:13) AI Chat: Publish Trips and Reliability Fixes Spencer covers two chat updates shipped this week: the ability to publish trips directly from chat, and under-the-hood reliability improvements so chats handle deploys and errors more gracefully. (17:30) Quality-of-Life Updates Brad and Molly run through a full list of fixes and polish, including AI reconciliation line item deletion, year-over-year KPI comparisons, confirmation number visibility for unauthenticated clients, and a mobile chat submit button fix. (25:00) How to Get More Out of AI Chat Spencer breaks down how Tern optimizes chat behind the scenes and shares practical tips: use the light model for simple tasks, open chat from the trip you're working on, and start new chats more often instead of letting one run forever. (39:34) What's Coming Next Spencer is focused on search infrastructure improvements starting with tasks. Molly is deep in Q3 planning, with new advisor and agency features on the way. Brad is preparing for the Tern Pro upgrade rollout and a new booking import integration. Show Highlights: Agency owners can now set commission payout rules by supplier type, with the ability to override per specific supplierExpected commission dates now calculate automatically, so advisors no longer have to guess or do manual mathTrips can now be published directly from AI chatStarting fresh chats per task, instead of one long-running chat, extends usage and improves output qualityOpening chat from inside a trip eliminates the need for the AI to search, saving tokens and timeYear-over-year KPI comparisons now available, replacing month-over-month which wasn't useful for travel's seasonal patternsLibrary search is on the way: Spencer recommends naming your photos well now so the AI can find them later

  6. Jun 12

    What Agentic AI Actually Does for Your Advisory Business

    Episode Overview: Fresh off their biggest webinar yet, David Shull, Molly Johnson, and Brad Turner sit down for the behind-the-scenes debrief. This episode unpacks what didn't get enough airtime during the live event: how agentic AI works differently from regular chat AI, why a single email demo moment stopped the webinar chat cold, and what it means for advisors that personalization no longer requires manual context-loading. The team also walks through group subtrip syncing in detail, the new mark-as-booked AI workflow for agents who just need to get paid, and a candid conversation about AI usage costs and what Tern is absorbing to make this accessible. Next week brings a special guest while David heads to Singapore. Episode Topics: (00:00) Post-webinar check-in: energy levels and webinar-week survival (05:37) Behind the scenes: what almost broke during the live AI demos (09:13) The email demo moment that hit home for advisors everywhere (11:31) Webinar highlights: what each host remembered most (15:20) Group subtrip syncing: a deep-dive demo of the beta feature (22:00) Packing lists and destination guides, now fully personalized by AI (26:18) Mark as booked via AI: how new agents can submit a booking in a few clicks (30:00) AI and pricing: reading, writing, and creating packages (32:08) AI usage transparency: what agentic AI actually costs and why (41:01) Scheduled agents: what David wants advisors to try first (43:19) Week ahead: payout date logic beta, unclaimed bookings, and David's Singapore trip Show Highlights: Agentic AI pulls client context automatically, so packing lists and destination guides are personalized before you type a word The email integration demo moment landed because it named a pain advisors assumed they'd always have to live with Group subtrip syncing lets advisors update 300 subtrips at once from a single group itinerary The mark-as-booked AI workflow lets new agents submit a booking with a receipt and a few approval clicks Tern blended its AI and note taker usage allocations into one pot and absorbed the added cost without raising prices Scheduled agents can now automatically draft follow-up emails based on trip returns, birthdays, and supplier promotions

  7. Jun 5

    We Redesigned the Itinerary (And Shipped 6 AI Updates)

    Episode Overview: David Shull, Molly Johnson, and Brad Turner recap a packed pre-webinar week on Flight Path. The team walks through a full itinerary redesign with new header layouts and font options, six new AI chat capabilities, and a candid conversation about AI pricing, usage efficiency, and what Tern Pro means for advisors. The episode closes with quality-of-life improvements across bookings, commission reconciliation, and consortia preferences. Next up: the AI launch webinar on June 10 at 3:30 PM Eastern. Episode Topics: (00:00) Week in review The team shares a fragmented but productive week, with hiring momentum and webinar prep dominating the schedule. (04:01) Itinerary redesign Brad and Molly walk through four new header display options, three font choices, and a series of fast-follow fixes shipped within days of launch. (12:33) Bulk consortia preference updates Advisors can now filter their client list and mass-update opt-in preferences across Signature, Travel Leaders Network, and Virtuoso, replacing a clunky export process. (15:39) New AI chat capabilities Six updates: file upload in chat, voice input, automatic context from the current page, manual context pinning, pricing and payment schedule generation, and rotating AI tips. (23:30) Tern Pro and AI pricing David explains why AI costs behave differently from traditional software, and what Tern is doing to keep AI accessible while building a sustainable business. (33:47) AI efficiency improvements Two major optimizations: a light model option that uses roughly a third of the credits of premium, and caching that cuts first-message costs by 4 to 6 times. (44:01) Quality-of-life updates Accreditation selection moved earlier in the booking flow, a last-updated sort on the commission report, and significant AI reconciliation improvements for large supplier files. Show Highlights: Itinerary headers now support full-bleed images, larger images, or minimized headers, with serif, sans-serif, or standard font options AI chat now accepts file uploads, voice input, and automatic page context so advisors spend less time explaining and more time getting things done Caching reduced first-message AI costs by 4 to 6 times, launched mid-week in direct response to advisor feedback AI reconciliation now handles large supplier files and retains all line items even when a supplier match is missing Webinar: June 10, 3:30 PM Eastern

  8. May 29

    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

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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
    96
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Tern Software Inc
  • Show Website
    Flight Path by Tern

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