Amadeus Upgrades Its Rate-Loading Capabilities

Amadeus today said it has launched an enhanced Web-based technology solution that files buyers' negotiated fares in its global distribution system, enabling more accurate and quick posting.

The FareXpert Filing Platform and XML Fare Data Interface help airlines, consolidators and travel management companies implement negotiated fare results in a graphical user Web interface to access the Amadeus Fare Quote Database, while providing a rate-loading channel that bypasses the conventional method of loading negotiated rates via the Airline Tariff Publishing Co.

The company claims the new solution enables negotiated fares to be booked immediately after loading, while other solutions on the market experience delays between the loading process and the availability of the negotiated fares in the global distribution system.
While they may be faster, Amadeus' and other global distribution systems' internal negotiated-rate-loading technology may not be the most efficient alternative.

"Because of the complexity of these corporate fares, a lot of times those GDS systems can't support all the stuff that the airlines negotiate," said independent consultant and executive vice president of business process outsourcing firm WNS Travel in North America Steve Reynolds. "They'll have flight restrictions, date restrictions and hour restrictions, and those rules sometimes aren't in the GDS, so they are always playing catch-up. To a certain extent, ATPCo. may be a somewhat easier way to go because they tend to be ahead of the airlines game. You can put all that stuff in ATPCo. and then in turn feed the GDSs."

Another potential pitfall for buyers of opting for a system like FareXpert Filing Platform is that internal airline approval times for negotiated rates usually take about a week, but sometimes drag on for months, Reynolds said. "The corporations get frustrated at times that they've negotiated this discount and two-and-a-half months later they still haven't been able to take advantage of it, because they are still waiting for it to get loaded."

While other global distribution systems have ATPCo.-bypass capabilities, agencies have been reluctant to implement them because contractual liability shifts to the TMC, which assumes responsibility for rate loading. "Agencies are going to be reluctant to use it. They like the ATPCo. model because the airlines have to load that and if the airlines make a mistake, they are liable for it," Reynolds said. "If the agencies load it and make a mistake, they are liable for it. If you screw up on loading a contract and if a discount gets too much or too little, it can end up being a pretty significant penalty."

Tammy Troilo-Krings, CEO of Columbus, Ohio-based TMC Travel Solutions, has opted to have rates loaded via ATPCo. to shield the company from liability. "When agencies started utilizing ATPCo., the primary reason for that shift was to relinquish the liability, so to take that on again and assume that liability is the more motivating factor not to do it," she said.

Meanwhile, the use by Amadeus of a "simpler" XML environment for rate loading foreshadows future developments that ensure more accurate fares for buyers, Troilo-Krings said. "In the future, we'll see that is going to be much more valuable in the general sharing of database information from how we are able to capture information within the GDS, now that they are using XML in their primary purpose of management of fares and inventory," she said. "Once we see them start utilizing XML in their service environment, that's going to be the biggest value to what they deliver to agencies because we are very familiar to that environment in our own world."