Welcome to our first round-up of business travel
distribution and technology topics as discussed on social media channels. Insiders
were debating these topics in recent weeks:
Business Access by Marriott Bonvoy
Cory Garner
Former American Airlines exec and head of his Garner
consultancy, Cory Garner brought up Marriott
International's offering automatic silver status to Bonvoy loyalty members who
link their personal accounts to their company's Business Access by Marriott
Bonvoy account. Further, gold status will be offered for members who book a threshold
number of room nights through their Spotnana-powered platform for corporate
bookings.
Ruben Leal
It's a loyalty program play for the corporate traveler to
"drive channel preference in favor of their own website," Garner said. He asked if airlines were paying
attention.
Rita Visser
The offerings "highlight the potential of
#TravelasaService to enhance loyalty and drive channel preference. Exciting
times ahead for the travel industry, [e]specially for the still underserved SME
market!" wrote Ruben Leal, who has worked in strategic sourcing and
global travel and expense management at companies including Netflix, Walmart
and Pfizer.
Paul Volcheff
"There is so much room for this opportunity out
there," wrote Oracle director of global travel sourcing & GPO Rita
Visser. "We have some (not all mind you!) partners who make our
travelers jump through hoops to get elevated status. If it's really that
important to them, make it easy!"
"Call me a naysayer, but as a Marriott loyalist do we
like this?" asked Paul Volcheff, strategic account executive, financial
services analytics for Salesforce. "Sure more Silver and Gold elites
aren't going to necessarily encroach on the benefits of those with Titanium or
Ambassadors, and this might move some lower frequency business traveler share
which I'm sure is the whole point, but I keep anchoring back to "if
everyone is elite, no one is elite" as I continually see more and more
"elites" crowd the space."
Garner/Accelya White Paper
Garner teamed up with Accelya to write the white paper
"Unlocking NDC: Early Results in Corporate Travel." Garner on LinkedIn said he buried an "easter egg"
in the report and asked readers to see if they could find it. He eventually
shared the answer in the post's comments (you'll have to go there to find out
what it is) but below are a few guesses from readers.
Nicola Ping
Global manager of travel distribution for Flight Centre
Travel Group Nicola Ping wondered if it was about the comment on
"relative speed where OBT & airline are the same tech stack compared
to where they aren't. The biggest OBT has no airline tech. The biggest airline
NDC provider has no OBT!"
Garner replied that it was a good one, but not the answer.
"When a #TMC has a single, cohesive tech stack that's either internally
developed or provided as a turnkey service by a third party like a Spotnana,
NDC moves forward more quickly," he said.
Neil Blaauboer
Was it "deduping"? asked Neil Blaauboer,
president and founder of TRVL UpSource. "I found it interesting to
consider its application regarding content options presented by multiple
channels."
Garner said no, it was not deduping, but that topic was
"perhaps the most important non-easter egg new insight of the white
paper."
AmTrav, United Airlines and NDC
Jeff Klee
AmTrav CEO Jeff Klee wrote on LinkedIn that
when the price is exactly the same for an airfare through a legacy connection
and a New Distribution Capability connection, the agency will choose NDC. He
calls that a "Tie-Goes-to-NDC Day." That happened about a month ago
for AmTrav and United Airlines for "all North American travel," Klee
wrote. "United's latest release included several long-sought enhancements
which we've been holding out for on behalf of our customers."
Robert Bray
Global travel lead at Google Robert Bray asked what
is the "deciding criteria to flip the tie-breaker logic?" Klee said
they ask, all things considered, "is the traveler likely to have a better
experience if they end up with an NDC ticket or EDIFACT one? That question
comes down to two parts. First, are there 'extras' available only in NDC that
are compelling enough to move the needle? (In the case of the United, that is
prepaid bags, Wi-Fi passes, lounge passes, and more reliable preferred/Economy
Plus seating). And the second question is, if the traveler needs to change, do
we think he or she will have an easier time of it with one ticket type or the
other?"
Felix Hernandez Perez
Andasun CEO Felix Hernandez Perez asked if United
now allows issuing of an "NDC ticket when the flight departure is within
the next 24 hours of booking?" Klee responded that yes, it is supported.
"It actually was always supported through the direct API. The restriction
was that bookings within 25 hours required instant payment/ticketing. That was
a problem for some of our customers who have approval flows or whose bookings
are sent through a QC process that might take a few minutes. Thankfully, that
restriction has been lifted."
One Order and RBDs
Ann Cederhall
Travel technology strategist Ann Cederhall asked if One Order is "a
transformation to a true customer centric system and how will RBDs go
away?" (RBD stands for reservation booking designator, a code used to
identify the booking class or type of fare for a flight, and One Order is an
XML-based standard intended to phase out the current booking passenger name
records and ticketing records, according to the International Air Transport
Association.)
Cederhall noted that the transformation to One Order
"is very much needed, but I have a concern that this is just a makeover of
the PNR and not real change."
Hyowon Kim
Sabre lead online customer performance
engineer Hyowon Kim said she's all for change, "but the problem
is that buzzwords and marketing often come before anything tangible. … I often
think and talk about the 'Order standard.' What will it look like? It won't be
easy to make it work, and without it, development can't truly move forward. So
who is working on it, and what progress has been made?"
Cederhall agreed, and further asked, "What will it look
like? How can people contribute? How can we make sure that we listen to
industries outside of ours? … Like I said, it is a repeat of NDC and you should
learn from your mistakes."
Kai-Gordon Weiland
Chief sales officer at Atriis Technologies Kai-Gordon
Weiland also brought up NDC, saying that what was promised was
"personalized offers, easy ancillary booking and after-sales
changes." The reality? "What has changed is predominantly the booking
channel from Edifact to NDC interfaces. … There are only very few airlines
offering ancillaries or services which are only available in NDC. Everything I
see could have eventually be[en] done also in Edifact. No revolution here. It
feels like a move from CD music records to streaming: NDC is the MP3 player, it
is just bridging the period to something much bigger. Airlines were not and are
still not ready to change all their systems for a revolutionary change. We all
hope to see #OneOrder will bring to us what the streaming of music and TV
brought us: a truly personalized and seamless experience."