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Archive Category: GDS CRS

Thomas Cook Signature targets youth/budget traveller market

Thomas Cook Signature has partnered with YHA Australia to offer budget accommodation throughout its UK’s high street travel retail network.

With this move, the company is targeting youth/budget traveller market for the first time.

The pact allow Thomas Cook, Co-op and Going Places agents to tap into this growing market, which was previously only the realm of youth/budget travel specialists, highlighted the companies. It was also mentioned that over 128,000 British backpackers visit Australia each year, each staying an average 68 nights and spending $7,660 AUD per trip making this the highest yielding segment, spending nearly twice as much as the average international traveller.

Mandy Monk, YHA Australia’s marketing manager for Europe, said the budget and backpacker segment is continuing to grow and despite common misconceptions these travellers have disposable income, a strong propensity to travel and are generally less effected by issues such as the Global financial crisis, making them an ideal target group in these more difficult times.

“We welcome the foresight shown by Thomas Cook Signature to tap into this lucrative segment through its independent agent partners,” said Monk.

Thomas Cook Signature’s 2012 brochure launches on 15 December.

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easyJet renews deal with Amadeus, eyes more business travellers

easyJet has signed a new and enhanced deal with Amadeus. The airline has taken this initiative in order to capture a bigger share of the managed corporate travel market.

easyJet was among the first few low cost airlines to make its inventory available to business travel bookers through the GDS providers in 2007.

The new deal features significant technical improvements as Amadeus and easyJet will work closely together to increase functionality and enhance the booking process for all travel agents using Amadeus.

The airline mentioned that it has made great gains in the European corporate travel market in recent years.

“We carried one million more business travellers last year than the year before and they now account for over nine million annually,” said Catherine Lynn, Director of Customer and Revenues, easyJet.

Lynn added that now more agents and corporate travel buyers will be able to book with the airline and the improved functionality means it will also be easier for them to do so.

“This deal recognises the important role that GDS systems and travel management companies play in the corporate travel market and will enable us to capitalise on this in order to gain a larger market share,” said Lynn.

This announcement is the latest development in easyJet’s campaign to increase the number of business travellers which currently stands at over nine million a year or 18 percent of easyJet’s passengers. In July this year, the airline shared that its decision to target ‘travelling on business’ passengers is paying off. It also started the process for recruitment of a corporate sales team as part of its ‘travelling on business’ initiatives.

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AFI to offer a snapshot of future airfares worldwide

Airfare shopping solution provider Vayant Travel Technologies has announced the release of Airfare Intelligence (AFI).

AFI is a snapshot of future airfares worldwide, according to the company.

Boyan Manev, director of product marketing, Vayant said AFI takes the customer specific origin and destinations (O&Ds) and calculates the total price (base fare, IATA taxes, YQ/YR, CAT12, etc.) on a per carrier basis. The results, which can be delivered up to multiple times per day, are then pushed to the customer in a choice of standard formats.

During the development of AFI, the company conducted sample studies of a few major carriers.

“We found that our unique view of the total priced fare showed significant revenue leakage in the tens of millions range,” said Brannon Winn, CCO of the company. “Even if a carrier were to recapture 10 percent of that we are still talking about over $1 million per year in incremental revenue for a mid-size carrier. That’s the kind of value AFI brings to the market.”

All pricing calculations occur outside of an airline’s host or a GDS, and therefore, do not affect Look-to-Book ratios. This allows airlines to lower host transaction fees and online travel agencies (OTAs) or meta-search engines to utilise their transactions for productive booking activity.

Referring to the marketing potential of this data, the company mentioned that AFI will allow for significant marketing campaigns to abide by the latest DOT regulations without a hit to booking productivity.

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Travelport introduces ‘Lowest Public Rate’ hotel programme

Travelport has recently launched a new hotel programme that gives Travelport GDS-connected travel agents guaranteed access to the lowest publicly available rates from a wide range of global hotel groups.

The offering has been launched recently on both the Galileo and Worldspan GDS.

“By offering complete rate parity, hotels participating in ‘Lowest Public Rate’ stand to boost their brand awareness and loyalty amongst travel agents, many of whom prefer booking through the GDS channel,” said Niklas Andreen, group vice president, Hospitality & Partner Marketing, Travelport.

The company stated that agents booking via Travelport’s ‘Lowest Public Rate Programme’ have the ability to find and book the lowest public rate of the day offered anywhere by the participating hotel, including pre-paid rates and special promotional offers regardless of whether the rate is flexible or has restrictions.

This means that no additional searching is required by the agent to find the best rate of the day.

According to Travelport, the ‘Lowest Public Rate Programme’ already has more than 40 participating hotel brands signed up, including Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG), Preferred Hotel Group, Leading Hotels of the World and Marriott International amongst many others.

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Travelport and Hilton Worldwide sign agreement

Travelport and Hilton Worldwide have signed a long-term full content and technology services agreement.

The agreement includes the distribution of full availability, rates, rules and property information from Hilton Worldwide and its global brands, representing 3,750 properties and 615,000 rooms in 85 countries. Hilton and its brands will also continue to deploy advanced interfaces to Travelport’s Worldspan, Galileo and Apollo global distribution systems (GDS), and expand property, pricing and policy information for Travelport subscribers globally.

Highlights

Buyers Get Closer to Hilton Worldwide through Advanced GDS Interface: Travelport subscribers globally will experience new efficiencies and system response times when Hilton Worldwide migrates its global connectivity to Travelport’s Hotel Supplier Link – an advanced GDS interface for hotel suppliers.

The planned interface will allow travel buyers to conduct business transactions with Hilton using the “most fluid, high-speed connectivity for real-time rates, availability, rules and property information”.

Hotel Supplier Link, which employs the latest OpenTravel Alliance (OTA) universal transmission specifications for the global travel industry, is a tool for travel companies to exchange structured data, lower operating costs and eliminate the need for and costs associated with third-party solutions.

Lowest Available Rates Via the GDS: Hilton Worldwide brands and properties will soon partake in Travelport Lowest unrestricted Public Rates (LPR), a hotel distribution programme that boosts hotel sales and gives travel buyers access to expanded content. Hotel companies are able to distribute through the GDS instant, guaranteed access to their full range of public rates, including restricted rates, such as prepaid and nonrefundable rates. The best available published, non-restricted rates, including prepaid rates and rates with cancelation policies, are also made available through the programme.

Complete Pricing for Hotel Stays: Hilton is committed to implementing Travelport Complete Pricing Plus technology to enhance the travel agent shopping experience and help agencies increase traveller satisfaction by eliminating unexpected pricing discrepancies at hotel check-in.

Part of the Galileo and Apollo systems, Complete Pricing Plus allows hotel companies to return detailed data to travel buyers in response to requests for availability, rates and rules – prior to completing a booking. Total costs for entire stays are provided, including nightly rates, meals, cancel/refund policies, rate categories, commissions and credential requirements.

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Travelport, TravelSky sign joint product development agreement

Travelport and TravelSky Technology have signed what is being described as an “unprecedented joint product development agreement focused on advanced Passenger Service Systems technology for airlines worldwide”.

TravelSky stated that it has never before signed a development agreement of this magnitude with any GDS or airline vendor.

The first project under this agreement is a collaboration on a new and innovative Master Seat Maps module – which applies marketing and customer value to the physical seat characteristics of a given aircraft, shared Travelport.

Teams expert in airline hosting and related technologies will work in the United States and China, enhancing the 15-year partner and customer relationship between the two companies.

“Airlines are constantly looking for more effective IT solutions to meet new operational, customer service and industry requirements,” said Derek Sharp, president and managing director of Travelport’s Airline IT Solutions group. Sharp added that the focus will be on technology solutions that will “allow airlines to evolve their business models”.

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Travelport, FastBooking sign agreement

FastBooking and Travelport have reached an agreement through which FastBooking client hotels are displayed and bookable on www.travelportroomsandmore.com, Travelport’s recently launched hotel booking tool.

Travelport Rooms and More combines the metasearch functionality and user interface developed by Sprice.com, which was acquired by Travelport in May last year.

Travelport Rooms and More, which is aimed specifically at leisure and corporate/leisure mixed agencies, is termed as a one-stop comparison shopping and booking engine for travel agents providing access to a broad range of hotel providers worldwide. The name has been chosen to reflect that it includes more than just hotels from a lodging perspective as it also now includes resorts and hostels. It allows agents to not only shop and book and manage their reservations from a single solution for hotels globally, but also to manage, track and facilitate the receipt of their commission from a single source.

The partnership will boost the visibility of FastBooking client hotels among the 65,000 connected travel agency customers in the Travelport network.

“Our goal is to increase our hotels’ online business with travel agencies worldwide and to consolidate our position in this high-potential segment,” said Alain Hirschfeld, marketing director, business development, FastBooking. And the agreement with Travelport “is coherent with our strategy of developing a quality distribution network for our hotel clients,” added Hirschfeld.

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Virgin Australia opts for Abacus as its preferred GDS partner

Virgin Australia has signed a landmark deal with Abacus International. The airline has chosen Abacus as its preferred distribution partner.

This will allow Virgin Australia to leverage and promote Abacus as its preferred global distribution system (GDS) through joint sales and marketing activities throughout Asia.

As part of the agreement, Virgin Australia has also upgraded its connectivity with Abacus. Abacus agents will now have full access to Virgin Australia’s fares and inventory so that customers can now conveniently book Virgin Australia as well as its interline and code-share partners including Singapore Airlines on Abacus channels.

“Choosing the right partner for the region is instrumental to underpinning the expansion and growth plans of our growing international alliance network, and that is why we chose Abacus,” said Justin Montgomery, general manager - Sales, Virgin Australia group of airlines.

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Illinois Appellate Court affirms Travelport’s preliminary injunction against AA

Travelport has shared that the Illinois Appellate Court has affirmed “Travelport’s preliminary injunction against American Airlines”. The injunction preserved Orbitz’s ability to sell AA tickets.

The company also shared that the Appellate Court also recognised Travelport’s position that the AA contract allows all Travelport agents to fully utilise AA’s content. The ruling further supports one of Travelport’s damages claims against AA given AA’s improper termination of Orbitz’s ticketing authority.

According to the AP, the first judge in the case denied Travelport’s request to block American from dropping Orbitz, but a second judge sided with Travelport. On Wednesday, the appeals court upheld the second judge’s decision.

According to Travelport, as the Appellate Court confirmed: “Travelport has standing to complain that American breached the [parties’ contract], and its implicit covenant of good faith by barring Travelport from earning income from booking flights through... Orbitz.”

Referring to the Appellate Court’s recognition of its contractual rights, Travelport’s Chief Legal Officer and Chief Administrative Officer, Eric Bock said, “Those rights are critical to protecting our agencies’ ability to have and fully use AA’s content.”

“Travelport will continue to pursue its claims against AA before the trial court. In the meantime, Travelport will continue to work constructively with AA to ensure that consumers, corporations and travel agents continue to benefit from the most transparent travel booking processes possible,” stated the company.

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Myths Concerning GDS-TMC Agreement Restrictions

In U.S. federal antitrust lawsuits, in the press and before the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), some airlines have aggressively claimed that they as well as new-entrant travel technology firms, such as Farelogix, are frustrated in their efforts to offer or facilitate direct connections to travel management companies (TMCs) in competition with Global Distribution Systems (GDSs) because of highly restrictive agreements between GDSs and TMCs.

Such claims, if true, would have serious implications for efficiency and innovation in the marketplace for travel distribution services that would generate negative outcomes for consumers.

There is not much publicly known about these GDS-TMC agreements to be able to verify such claims with any degree of certainty. As such, the American Society of Travel Agents and Business Travel Coalition sought the expertise of the Law Offices of Mark Pestronk, P.C.

Travel industry expert and attorney Mark Pestronk, Esq. has reviewed and consulted with travel agencies and TMCs on hundreds of such agreements. Mr. Pestronk knows in great detail what these agreements contain and do not contain across decades of experience. The focus of his analysis below is on the largest TMCs, which comprise some ninety percent of air sales.

Claimed GDS – TMC Agreement Terms

Pure Myth

These alleged terms and conditions never existed in the travel industry.

1. Agreements that apply productivity pricing to penalize agencies that begin using another channel for bookings.

2. Agreements that require a shortfall-penalty for each non-GDS booking below a fixed percentage of total bookings.

3. Agreements that impose systems of penalties and threats to deter agencies from trying to book through new or innovative channels.

4. Agreements that effectively block innovative alternative distribution technologies from connecting to GDS-developed front-, mid- and back-office peripheral systems.

Existed At One Time

The first two highly restrictive terms and conditions listed below were made illegal by DOT in the early 1990s, a time in GDS history in which airlines owned and controlled the GDSs. When the GDS industry segment was deregulated in 2004, GDSs were free to but did not reintroduce such restrictive contractual elements prevalent under airline ownership of GDSs thus establishing that market forces were working as anticipated. The final two kinds of clauses listed below were present until several years ago but have now become extinct.

1. Agreements that contain an express provision that requires the travel agent to use one GDS exclusively.

2. Agreements that require a minimum number of monthly bookings in order to avoid being in breach of contract.

3. Agreements that include a clause stating that if the travel agent does not meet minimum volumes, it must compensate the GDS for the shortfall in bookings.

4. Agreements that include provisions that prohibit travel agents from aggregating information obtained from a GDS with information obtained from any other source.

Prevalent Today

Versions of the terms and conditions below are common in agreements found in most industries, and in particular, in agreements between airlines and corporate purchasers of commercial air transportation services. They reflect adjustments due to changes in value received and pose no special problem in competitive markets. Moreover, the first one is not a significant deterrent to using non-GDS channels, and the second one is not affected at all by non-GDS bookings.

1. Agreements that require a pro rata refund of the signing bonus if there is a shortfall in bookings.

2. Agreements that impose penalties on travel agencies if they do not meet certain market share percentage thresholds for booking through a GDS vis-à-vis another GDS competitor.

(By Business Travel Coalition. This GDS-airline agreement analysis is part of a larger BTC review of direct connect, which can be found at http://bit.ly/nlMMKh).

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