Amex, NBTA Fight DOT Data Rule

<B>Amex, NBTA Fight DOT Data Rule</B>

The National Business Travel Association late last month joined American Express and others in urging the U.S. Department of Transportation to suspend its regulation that requires the GDSs to make available booking and sales data to airlines.

Meanwhile, Galileo International and others asked DOT to clarify its rules governing the tying of corporate air travel contracts with GDS selection and usage.

The parties submitted their filings in response to DOT's review of its GDS rules and whether they should apply to such airline-owned Web sites as Orbitz. Final reply comments are due Oct. 23.

Citing corporations' rights to data privacy, Amex and NBTA criticized the DOT's requirement that the GDSs sell booking data to airlines. Both suggested Section 255.10 of the GDS regulations, which outlines the rule, should be terminated immediately. NBTA pointed out that such data is unfairly used against corporations in negotiations, and Amex argued that when 255.10 took effect, "GDSs could only produce historical data, typically 60 to 90 days post flight," which was used simply for trend analysis. Now, Amex said, "real-time data" (BTN, March 22, 1999) enables carriers to participate in "anticompetitive activity."

On another topic, Galileo filed examples in which an airline's contract with a corporation hinged on usage of the airline's favorite GDS.

Galileo submitted to DOT photocopies of an American Airlines corporate travel agreement and a letter from Northwest Airlines to one of its corporate accounts. American's agreement indicated that the buyer would pay $12 per booking not made in Sabre.

Northwest's letter was a "disappointed" response to a client who switched off Worldspan, accompanied by new, presumably less attractive, contract terms. It noted that Northwest pays lower bookings fees to Worldspan, in which it has a 35 percent stake, than to other GDSs.

Saying it has observed a growing number of such arrangements, Galileo requested that DOT "state clearly that its existing rules prohibit" the practice.

Interested parties can find these and other filings on DOT's Docket Management site at dms.dot.gov. The relevant dockets are OST-97-2881, OST-97-3014 and OST-98-4775.