A content agreement between Continental Airlines and Worldspan announced Monday came after the pair sorted out their differences on how to treat Worldspan's offline versus online agency subscribers, said Continental managing director of distribution planning John Slater. He said that a week earlier, Continental had come to terms with top Worldspan subscriber Expedia.
Expedia officials today would not confirm whether the company has a new Continental agreement. Expedia senior vice president of air, car and private label Barney Harford reiterated that an agreement Expedia announced last week to supplement its Worldspan relationship with a Sabre subscriber contract is designed to bring diversification to the agency as it grows
(BTN, May 10). "Other than someone like Travelocity, which is owned by a global distribution system company, it's entirely the norm for agencies to have more than one GDS relationship," Harford said. He did not elaborate on the benefits of diversification or explain why it has not been a priority for Expedia since its inception. Harford said access to content was not a major consideration: "We're fortunate enough, through our relationships with supplier partners, to have extremely good access to inventory."
Whether Expedia makes bookings in Worldspan or in Sabre makes no difference to Continental, Slater said, noting that Continental and Worldspan agreed to their terms before Expedia's Sabre deal. "Initially when we talked to Worldspan, we wanted to keep our dealings in the traditional realm, which was limiting for them and the online partners," Slater said in an interview this week. "Economics had driven us apart, and, after talking for a couple of months, we shelved it. Then there was some flexibility on both parts. We got together again two months ago, and decided to consider a more encompassing agreement."
Slater said Continental's content agreements with Galileo and Sabre run to 2006, and that the Worldspan agreement is "close to that." Now, Continental is looking to extend its current one-year Amadeus pact to the 2006 timeframe, he said.
A Worldspan statement indicated that the deal expands Worldspan's access to Continental fares, "including all publicly available fares and those fares available via Continental's reservations offices, its Web site at continental.com and third-party Web sites."