<B>Mtgs. Site, AA Link</B>
By Chris Davis
In the first direct dealings between a major airline and a meetings Web site, American Airlines has agreed to post a calculator of its zone fares for group and meeting travel on EventSource.com's site. The move could pave the way for direct bookings of group airfares through the site, officials said. It also highlights the seemingly waning interest the major carriers have in developing a tool to book such meeting fares directly over their own sites.
The calculator enables users to immediately determine the cost of air travel on AA, based on the number of attendees and their respective origination points, the meeting location and date. As EventSource has no partnership with any global distribution system, however, users cannot book airfares over the site.
While other meetings Web sites--notably Passkey.com and B-there.com (Meetings Today, Sept. 20, 1999)--have announced deals with GDSs, and stand-alone software packages--notably Isis Corp.'s Gold System--also have such capability, this is the first time an airline itself has linked up with one of the rapidly growing field of meetings management Web sites.
"It's been somewhat of a failing of the meetings industry," said Jeff Rasco, president of Wimberley, Texas-based meetings technology consultancy Rasco & Co. "There aren't even many offline management solutions that can tie into the airlines' systems, namely because it's a monumental hassle."
"Sites like EventSource want to be Web consolidators and offer what can drive the most eyeballs to the site," Rasco said. "Airline and hotel sourcing can be a big part of that."
EventSource is working with other major airlines, all of which have some sort of zone fare product, to post their own calculators on the site, said founder and vice president of business development Brian Langer. He also confirmed that the site has spoken with GDSs in exploration of a possible deal.
"There will be further agreements incorporating other major airlines, because we're an unbiased source aligned with buyers," Langer said. "We want to give a range of options that gives every supplier the opportunity to sell to the demand that we create for buyers on our site."
The time is right for closer alliances between airlines and meetings management Web sites, said PlanSoft Corp. president and COO Ed Tromczynski. PlanSoft (www.plansoft.com) is one of EventSource's primary competitors. "There's a real benefit here for corporate groups trying to analyze airline load and airfares into cities, and comparing and contrasting as part of the destination selection," Tromczynski said. "We'll be there also, and we're looking at partners to bring that service to the Web. I have thought forever that there should be a closer relationship with the airlines."
For the airlines themselves, involving third parties like the meetings management Web sites could be a way to avoid the potential problems inherent in developing corporate group booking functionality themselves.
There are three risks for the carriers to do so: Developing the technological capability to book corporate meetings at negotiated rates is involved and expensive; it's unclear that a tremendous demand exists for the carriers to develop such functionality; and there is a real possibility that such a move could antagonize the commission-cut-weary travel agent community, as corporate meeting travelers very often book through agents.
"We are supportive of all ticketing sources, including the agency community, and that move could be perceived as threatening, and that's a large factor," said George Coyle, American's product manager for group and meeting travel. "Our objective is not to take customers away from the agency. If a large corporate account base said this is something they had to have, it might be different. But we've only heard it from a few--not enough to launch such an animal. This can backfire on you and jeopardize relationships."
That said, Coyle said he would not hesitate to include American in the mix if a third-party developed such online corporate group booking engines, be it a meetings management Web site or a travel agency site.
"If somebody does develop that technology, we'll be a participant because we want to move our product line," he said. "The marketplace evolves."
Northwest Airlines also is not developing group booking functionality for the corporate market, said senior manager of meeting and incentive sales Gail Bill--although the association market will be able to, since those fares tend to involve a flat fare or discount for a specific meeting. Also, many association attendees will book such travel on their own, unlike corporate attendees, who typically use a travel agency.
The demand in the corporate community simply isn't enough to justify the technological development needed for Northwest's site to handle the multiple discounts corporate meetings can involve, Bill said.
"For some reason, that creates a problem in the Web," said Bill. It's not a problem when you're booking it within Northwest's internal system, but for some reason it is with the Web. That's why we can only do it with the association market, because that's only a standard dollars-off discount. When we use a zone fare product, we can't put two different types of discount into the Web. I don't know if that ever will change.