Craig Smith
It's been possible to book Amtrak through global distribution systems or Amtrak.com for some time, but only as of May, when Rearden Commerce announced the addition of Amtrak booking capability, could users of a corporate online booking tool book a train seat. Thanks to a technology deal Amtrak signed three years ago with Wandrianto allow international travelers access to the nationwide rail system, Amtrak promises to pick up the pace of other online corporate booking site integrations. Increased corporate demand for rail--particularly on the East Coast--has prompted domestic booking providers to talk to Amtrak about distribution in recent months. About half of the rail company's 29 million passengers last year booked via Amtrak.com. Ridership on its 21,000-mile route system was up 11 percent last fiscal year. Amtrak senior director of travel industry sales Craig White talked to Management.travelabout Amtrak's distribution track thus far and what the future holds. An excerpt follows.
What is your relationship with Wandrian and other third-party booking integrators?
Wandrian is our technology provider; we forged a relationship with them three years ago. They initially hosted a Web-based platform to allow international travel agencies to book us and allow us to distribute overseas. As the relationship progressed, we began to look at other avenues that might be worthwhile. We just signed a deal with RailEurope. As that relationship builds, we'll be able to give people a choice of companies to work with. One of the things that became more and more apparent is that rail is becoming more important to the corporate community [due to] issues with the air transportation system and companies becoming more intent on lessening their carbon footprint--and train travel allows for that. We've had more people wanting to integrate directly with our system, and that is where Wandrian comes into play. I'm not aware of any others doing what these two companies [RailEurope and Wandrian] are doing, with the breadth and scope that these two have. Each company is going to be able to provide different things and offering our customers a choice.
Have you developed direct connections for corporations or other providers?
It would be very difficult for us to set Web services for everyone out there who wants to connect to us, because our resources internally are somewhat limited and the support necessary behind that [is extensive]. It's best for Wandrian to fill that void. Now, the various corporate booking tools--and we're talking to other distribution channels and entities, as well--can access our inventory and services and make bookings by going through Wandrian. They have set up an API [application program interface] that makes it very quick and easy for all these companies to write to them. I believe it took Rearden only a little more than 90 days and they have full access to our Web services. That's the efficiency there. Wandrian provides that technological support. We already have the legacy links to all the GDSs that have been in place for more than a decade, but we're looking at changing to a Web services connection with the GDSs. Amadeus is moving to that and will be connecting to us through Wandrian in October instead of the legacy links.
As you negotiate with corporate online booking providers, are you requesting that the booking tools display Amtrak in the airline results display rather than separately?
Actually, what we're finding is that we don't even need to make that demand or request because they are doing that automatically. The corporations want it. That's been part of the difficultly in that we're not displayed together in the GDS. The traveler has to find it or have the travel management company do the rail booking, and that becomes cumbersome and not necessarily the best for the company in terms of their travel costs. The difficulty also is not being integrated into the back-office systems for the corporation's reporting; whereas with an airline booking, the company knows exactly where the traveler is. With us being in the booking tool, through the Wandrian link, it is fully integrated into the back-office system; we display side by side with air, and all of that information on the traveler--whether they're on Amtrak or an airline--is the same. Corporations will be able to track what their costs are and where their people are in the same way.
You mentioned growing interest from corporate online booking providers, but when will other online booking integrations be announced?
There is one other corporate booking tool that will be launching soon, and we're in discussions with others. It's important for us to do this. We've had a way to get to the travel agency community for quite some time through the GDSs, but we've just not had a real good way for the corporate traveler or manager to book Amtrak. We've been hearing about it for a long, long time, but now that it's coming into play, it will be better for everyone.
Do your corporate contracts include up-front discounts, and are those rates bookable online?
We have incentive programs with various corporations if they meet revenue thresholds. For travel on the Northeast corridor between select city pairs, we're often able to put together a program for them. It's more of an upfront discount program that has been in place for some time. Our whole integration with corporate booking tools will make that much easier to book.