American Airlines on Tuesday announced a new option for passengers to pay an extra fee in exchange for priority boarding, discounted change fees and more flexible standby options. Though the initiative sounds similar to other fee-for-service options airlines have become infatuated with in recent years, the new AA initiative is different in one key way: It is the first a la carte offering the carrier is selling exclusively through direct channels at the time of booking, making the new "Boarding and Flexibility Package" unavailable to corporate travelers, unless their agencies opt into the controversial American Airlines Direct Connect.
The Boarding and Flexibility Package is one component of AA's newly branded Your Choice suite, announced this week, which AA director of merchandising strategy Cory Garner described as "our umbrella brand for our optional services." The suite also includes such previously available optional services as inflight Internet access, Admirals Club day passes and confirmed flight changes, among others. However, those services still can be purchased before boarding, or in the case of inflight Internet access, on the plane.
Making the new Boarding and Flexibility Package different from those previously available options, Garner today said, "This is a choice that is offered at the initial ticketing event, so it's not something that can be added after the fact." He confirmed that if agencies and their constituents want to book the option, they must do so only after opting into the American Airlines Direct Connect initiative.
The American Society of Travel Agents and the Business Travel Coalition lambasted AA's Direct Connect plan as a way to flip the distribution model and ultimately charge agencies for content, a charge AA
has countered as false.
"This is one element of our Direct Connect plans," Garner said of the Boarding and Flexibility Package, claiming more to come. "You're starting to see the specific products rolling out under what we've been saying for quite some time: that we'll be reserving merchandizing through our Direct Connect. We think that's the best way to go about marketing to customers going forward. We also think that's the best way to work with GDSs, ultimately."
Asked if any agencies are enabled right now to sell the offering, Garner said, "At this point, no," but added, "At the end of July, agencies that are using Direct Connect will be able to sell this option. It would be up to the agencies themselves. Even on AA.com, we had to do some programming to upsell this to customers, so every agency will have to determine whether doing the development to offer the upsell is the right thing for their company to do."
Meanwhile, AA plans to add many more Your Choice offerings, Garner said, including those only available through the Direct Connect. "This is another step in an evolution that's been taking place for years now, and something we see as giving the customer more choice, more control, more visibility, more ways to personalize their travel," he said. "This is a point along an upward trend."