With global distribution systems involved in what many
believe will be a lengthy process to integrate New Distribution Capability, SAP
Concur is piloting an initiative to give its corporate travel buyer customers
direct access to NDC content, bypassing the GDS channel entirely.
Underway since June 1, the pilot is live with six travel
management companies, including U.K.-based Business Travel Direct and Travel
& Transport Statesman. Concur was not at liberty to disclose other agency
partners. NDC content is available from Lufthansa and British Airways, with
American and United content set to roll out soon, according to the technology
company.
The NDC booking capability is being delivered through
Concur's booking tool by leveraging the company's Travel Select Access feature,
which for the past 15 years has offered direct bookings for low cost carriers
and other non-GDS content, via a partnership with aggregator TravelFusion.
That non-GDS booking capability now is being expanded to
include NDC content from additional airlines, with travel managers able to go
into Concur's configuration settings and choose which individual carriers' content
to enable via Select Access.
Notably, Select Access presents all content, including NDC
and bookings otherwise available through the GDS, in one channel, with all bookings—NDC
and otherwise—circumventing the GDS, Concur said.
That single-channel approach has been somewhat
controversial, with critics arguing in favor of a two-channel model in which
only NDC content that isn't available via GDS is booked outside the GDS. But
presenting booking options from two content sources for a single carrier
creates a confusing and inefficient service experience for the traveler, which
may cause them to accept needlessly high fares, noted Concur SVP of supplier
services Charlie Sultan.
"We believe that simplifying the traveler experience by
keeping all of a supplier’s content in a single channel is the quickest and
best possible approach for our corporate customers, said Sultan.
As to how TMCs might react to reduced ticket volume via the GDS—and
a reduced GDS revenue stream as a result—Sultan noted that the TMC still acts
as a key link in enabling the Select Access process and must be credentialed by
the relevant airline. Presumably, it will be each agency's call whether to
impose a "handling" charge or other fee on bookings that take place
outside the GDS.
Further, one of the TMCs participating in the pilot is
working with Travelport to continue to provide support and service for bookings
made through Select Access, Sultan said. However, he did acknowledge that the
direct booking model could present difficulties. "Some TMCs aren't equipped
to handle servicing these NDC bookings, and for them, if one of their customers
wants to turn this on, that would be a significant challenge," he said.
Additional airlines and TMCs could be added to the program,
pending demand, Sultan added.
Ultimately though, Concur is viewing the service as more of
a bridge, enabling travel buyers to access NDC content until such content is available
via the GDSs, as opposed to a long-term paradigm shift.
"We've heard from a majority of TMCs that they
want to wait for [NDC] to come to the GDS. That's what we consider to be the
large, scalable solution, but there's a lot of complexity to that process. We're not sure how long it will take," Sultan noted. "Lots of customers
are saying, 'We don't want to wait,' so for those companies, we're offering
other solutions."
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