Eurostar To Be Distributed Through GDSs, Self-Booking Tools

Eurostar for the first time will have full distribution through global distribution systems starting in the first quarter of 2007, officials said. The technological breakthrough will make it much easier and cheaper for travel agents to book the Channel Tunnel rail service. Perhaps even more importantly for corporate buyers, GDS access vastly will improve the currently dismal availability of Eurostar on self-booking tools. At present, French customers of KDS are almost the only self-booking tool users who can book a Eurostar seat.

In the United States, Eurostar has had a limited GDS presence since 2004, but making a booking largely has been a manual process for agents. In the United Kingdom, agents have had to use a 12-year-old stand-alone system called Elgar to book Eurostar, which significantly has dented productivity and thus increased charges to corporate clients.

The new Eurostar GDS Gateway, developed by Amadeus but linking to all GDSs, will give Eurostar primary screen access. That means agents and self-booking tool users will be able to compare Eurostar times and fares alongside those of competing airlines on London-Paris and London-Brussels routes.

"Everyone seems to welcome this development," said Paul Tilstone, executive director of the Institute of Travel Management for the U.K. & Ireland. "It will provide a greater opportunity for comparing Eurostar alongside airlines on self-booking tools and might well impact on the fees that agents charge for booking Eurostar. At the moment, Eurostar reservations are usually made by the rail department rather than the consultant at the point of sale."

Booking Eurostar through self-booking tools so far has proved tortuous. Self-booking tool providers have had to license a special XML link from French rail operator and Eurostar part owner SNCF. The licenses only are available market by market and will remain the only way to book through-journeys involving Eurostar and other continental European train operators. "It is not an ideal situation. We are working to improve this functionality," said Eurostar international and U.K. sales director Emma Harris.