Atlanta - Travelport's Agility program was changed in the
Americas, but not as much as many travel agencies and travel agency groups
initially believed, a company executive said here.
Travelport waived the Agility fees for many North American
agencies, but not systematically.
Kurt Ekert, Travelport's chief commercial officer, said
during meetings in Atlanta (home to Travelport's U.S. headquarters) that the
company made "limited changes" to the program based on feedback it
had received last month. The primary change was that the new products were
taken out of Agility, and are being sold separately.
But when ASTA and many trade publications reported that
Travelport had waived its charges for the Agility program, they were incorrect,
Travelport said. The agencies that were told they would not be charged for
Agility until the end of their current contracts were given that information on
an individual basis.
"We are charging for it," he said. "We have
commercial conversations with every customer, and we are trying to make sure we
come to agreements that work for us and the customers. That's true of anything
we do."
On Jan. 4, ASTA issued a statement saying: "On Dec. 30,
2011, ASTA learned that Travelport had rescinded its previously announced plan
to impose fees on Travelport subscribers for a program called Agility that
included features already contracted for by subscribers with different fee
structures than Agility. This is welcome news."
ASTA added that it was prepared to take legal action against Travelport, but that "it appears to be unnecessary as the rescission
action respects agents' rights in their existing contracts while giving them
the opportunity, if interested, to get potential added value from new features
contained in Agility."
Ekert said that ASTA was in fact wrong in its
characterization of the fees for the program being rescinded.
"We got feedback from customers and changed what's in
and out of the bundle," Ekert said. "And we're dealing with customers
on an individual basis about what it means for them commercially. But no, we
did not make any programmatic change."
Ekert said that from the beginning, Travelport never
discussed the price of Agility and the commercial specifics between the company
and its travel agency customers.
"And we're not going to do that today," he added.
The bottom line, Ekert said, is "we are charging for
Agility as a bundle."
When asked if that bundle includes products that were
previously free, Ekert said, "There are products that were previously free
in the bundle. ... I'm not going to speak about any individual customers. We
never do that."
Ekert joined many Travelport executives in Atlanta in saying
the company had made mistakes in the way that it rolled out the Agility program
in the Americas, where the conversation became about its fees rather than its
content.
"I think what's important to us and to our customer is
getting missed," Ekert said. "And that is creating a platform for the
integration of new content and more efficient tools, and largely about
technology and how we extend that technology.
"Ultimately, we believe this comes down to the fact
that we have to prove the value of what we are providing to our customers. If
we do those things, commercial conversations should become less of a prime
issue."
As to why Travelport did not immediately respond to
incorrect information, Ekert said the company was solely focused on the conversations
it was having with customers.
"We want to get customers on the latest, greatest and
best offerings in he marketplace, and shame on us if we don't help them get
there," he said.
Source: Travel Weekly