A few dozen of Carlson Wagonlit Travel's corporate accounts are using the agency's year-old direct-connect technology amid growing travel buyer concerns regarding the pitfalls of supplier-direct channels. CWT executives said the company sees increased interest in the global distribution system bypass, which was developed by linking CWT's Symphonie platform with the DirectNet system furnished by Navitaire
(BTNonline, Aug. 7, 2003).CWT said the system now connects directly to reservations systems at five major airlines and expects additional suppliers to sign on. Northwest Airlines, a strong advocate of non-GDS channels but currently not among participating carriers, said, "We are interested in their product and are in discussion that we hope will lead to our participation in the future."
"With the moves airlines made, the Web fare issue went away, but what will happen in a year or two when GDS agreements expire?" asked CWT vice president of industry relations Matt Beatty. "We will see content fractionalization occur in the next 18 to 24 months. Corporate customers understand the value of having options."
For those clients up and running on the system—which CWT numbered around 25 and growing by a few each month—all eligible transactions funnel through the direct connections. Eligible transactions primarily are domestic, electronic tickets booked on American, Continental, Delta, United and US Airways. "It represents the bulk of a client's domestic bookings," said CWT global CIO Loren Brown. "We continue to discuss the system with other domestic mainline carriers, low-cost carriers and some international carriers."
When asked if enrolled clients had yet reaped financial rewards from carriers realizing cost savings by avoiding GDS fees, Brown said only that "this helps move some rationalization and efficiency into the supply chain." Brown last summer had said, "our hope is that airlines will reward clients who use it." System users also benefit from automated refunds and exchanges, which CWT said have been used heavily on the system.
Northwest Airlines' failed attempt to impose fees on tickets issued by travel agencies via a GDS renewed the industry's focus on direct-connect technologies and corporate concerns in migrating to new distribution channels
(BTN, Sept. 6). CWT, however, said its direct-connect functionality avoids several of those challenges.
As a system linked to a travel agency, DirectNet complements existing CWT fare searching capabilities rather than replacing them. As a result, clients do not lose crucial comparison shopping abilities, as they would when using an airline's own Web site. Moreover, with CWT controlling passenger name records through "super PNR" capabilities built into the Symphonie platform, clients can track their travelers and fully capture all relevant data.
Meanwhile, despite a 64 percent increase in DirectNet transactions year over year, representing "significantly more" than the 20,000 transactions per month CWT reported last December
(BTN, Dec. 8, 2003), the agency said the multiple direct connections have not impacted its GDS incentive payments.
Looking ahead, Brown said CWT sees opportunities to expand the system to other countries, with Canada a natural candidate as are any other foreign markets "dominated by a large major carrier." The agency also is exploring direct connections with hotel companies. "We would start with our owners and grow from there," he said, referring to Carlson Hotels Worldwide but providing no timetable.