Continental Airlines in the "coming months" will provide to American Express customers booking and tracking of Web fares and all other publicly available fares through the Amex TravelBahn network.
In announcing the arrangement yesterday during the Association of Corporate Travel Executives conference in Las Vegas, American Express North America Corporate Travel executive vice president Pam Arway said the deal is similar to one signed last year with American Airlines. At the time, AA and Amex officials declined to describe how the program shaved the carrier's $400 million global distribution system costs
(BTN, Nov. 21, 2002). An Amex spokesperson said the company similarly would be mum on the new Continental deal.
Some sources have described the AA-Amex agreement as similar to AA's EveryFare program, which puts downward pressure on GDS costs with the help of key distributors
(BTN, Sept. 27, 2002). "TQ3 and Amex are two of the megas that have signed up for EveryFare," said TQ3 Travel Solutions Americas CEO Jack O'Neill at the ACTE conference. "AA, in its pricing philosophy, is choosing to discount some unrestricted fares, like 5 percent to 7 percent off Q fares, as well as Ls and Ns."
In describing its arrangement with AA, American Express focused on its TravelBahn network architecture that replicates and expands on functions available in traditional GDS configurations
(BTN, July 29, 2002). "Standardization across the network is something I'm very passionate about," Arway told
Business Travel News. "It is critical technology now because it's the future of how we see the industry functioning. We have heavily invested in the network during two of the worst years for the travel industry."