Tech Providers Unveil Aggregate Tools

KDS at the Business Travel Show 2003 in London announced a partnership deal it signed with JetBlue Airways to integrate the low-cost carrier's fares into its corporate online booking system. The agreement enables travelers to book JetBlue without leaving the KDS interface, while most booking tools use third-party screen-scraping devices that require the traveler to book on the airline's own Web site reservations page.

The Feb. 4 to 6 show was dominated by exhibitors—both booking tool providers and travel agents—showing off their solutions for aggregating fares from Web and global distribution sources. Many were European adaptations of U.S. solutions from the likes of American Express, Rosenbluth International, TQ3 Maritz Travel Solutions, Worldspan and Omega World Travel. However, there also were home-grown products from KDS and P&O Business Travel, among others—and even the U.S. offerings showed a different emphasis than in the American market.

"In Europe, we will be using our integration tool mainly to book low-cost carriers," said Kurt Knackstedt, director of product marketing for Rosenbluth. "That is why we won't charge clients in Europe for this technology, even though we do charge in the U.S. because it is usually for analysis work."

Low-cost carriers account for 50 percent of traffic between London and Glasgow, 40 percent between London and Edinburgh and largely were responsible for economy fares from the United Kingdom to western Europe falling 30 percent in 2002, according to figures just published by Amex. At the same time, said Amex's corporate product marketing manager George Hayes, "there is a much lower incidence of Web-only fares from regular carriers in Europe than in the United States."

Finding a way to integrate low-cost carriers efficiently into corporate travel programs has been one of the main priorities for European travel managers in recent months. "It takes our travel agent twice as long to make a low-cost airline booking," Rachel McDonald, international travel manager for WorldCom, told a seminar on the subject at the show. Ian Flint, head of travel management consultancy Ian Flint & Associates, audited how long it took travelers of one client company to plan and book their own low-cost flights, and discovered the average time was 37 minutes.

All the integration tools demonstrated at the show relied either largely or entirely on screen-scraping Web sites, such as Expedia, to source non-GDS fares. While general opinion holds that screen-scraping techniques have become more refined recently, problems do remain. The Web sites denying access to the screen-scrapers is principal among these. One example is Opodo, the European equivalent of Orbitz. Business development director Eifrion Evans said he has "no problems in principle" with Opodo being scraped but it has to meet both technical and commercial requirements, such as the integration tool making clear to users that the fare is from Opodo. At present, neither Rosenbluth nor TQ3 is scraping Opodo.

Ryanair does have problems in principle. It has blocked Dolphin Dynamics' FlightScanner, among others, as part of a general clampdown on third-party access to its Web site. Dolphin claims FlightScanner is used by 3,000 travel agents in Europe to book Web fares. "What all this means is that the current generation of integration tools are not foolproof," said Andrew Solum, director of travel management consultancy Travel Industry Associates.

Travel management tech providers believe they are being denied access because they are being tarred with the same brush as other third-party screen scrapers that are more speculative and less likely to lead to bookings. These include "spiders" on Web sites that seek cheap fares for leisure travelers or are used by other airlines to monitor their rivals' pricing. "Airlines don't like spiders because they are being used more for window-shopping," said Amex's Hayes. "Travel management companies are going into the shop just once and with an intention to buy."

In spite of the blocking problem, attendees generally considered the new generation of solutions to have cracked GDS and Web fare integration. "They are very useful," said Damian Belgeonne, Flag Telecom director of administration and property services. "The solutions are getting cheaper and seem user-friendly."

Exhibitors claimed they largely have overcome the problem of screen-scraping solutions being disabled by changes to the Web sites they scan. "The solutions are also getting more elegant," Knackstedt said. "For instance, they are now prepopulating the Web site booking pages with the traveler's personal and card information. For now, this will be as good as it gets."

European low-cost airlines are showing little inclination to take on the added expense of GDS distribution, which would be a more sophisticated solution, but some are seeking direct connectivity. EasyJet, which has adopted a more travel industry-friendly strategy since purchasing Go and becoming Europe's largest budget airline, is considering whether to start providing application programming interface links that allow third parties to connect directly to its reservations system using XML language.

For the present, however, the immediate challenge for buyers attending the Business Travel Show was assessing the claims and reliability of the various solution providers. Some obvious questions that buyers should ask became clear, including:

• Can the solution be used to look and book?

• Does it display available flights only?

• In the case of corporate booking tools, are GDS and Web fares all displayed on the same screen?

• Can the travel agency amend the booking?

• Does the booking automatically generate management information?

Among the online booking tools, KDS announced its JetBlue connection as part of the launch of version 5.5 of its KDS Corporate Vision product, available this month. The upgrade includes a Neighbor Cities feature, which allows travelers to check fares at nearby airports, as well as the ability to book rail online and to display air and train options on the same screen (see story, page 18). North American clients of KDS include the Interpublic Group, Autodesk and Accor North America.

Worldspan, meanwhile, this month is rolling out its integrated solution—based on screen-scraping technology from FareChase—for its Trip Manager booking product in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Belgium and the Netherlands. Trip Manager has minimal sales at present in Europe but is being re-launched as part of a package that includes not only the booking tool but implementation and consultancy services. The charge per search on FareChase is 20 cents and it features GDS, Web and negotiated fares all on one screen.

Rosenbluth said it also is offering self-service fare integration through the latest version of Cytric, the online booking tool from i:FAO. Rosenbluth's res staff is using Xpedition from TRX, initially for clients in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.

TQ3 is using an adaptation of Cliqbook from Outtask, branded as Web Fare-It. The solution integrates with Sabre in the United States but with Amadeus in Europe, although TQ3 said it also will work off of Galileo and Worldspan by the second quarter. TQ3 claimed Web Fare-It is more customizable than rival offerings, featuring an option to control whether Web fares can be offered to travelers and which Web sites can be searched. It also claimed to generate more sophisticated management information from its Web bookings, such as the lowest and highest fares offered to the traveler and the fare that is accepted, allowing it to produce missed savings reports.

Amex has joined the fray with FareFinder, based on the Travel Fusion screen-scraping system, which currently is in beta tests. One of its selling points is that each flight option details the distance of the airports from their city centers.

P&O Business Travel last fall was one of the first U.K. agencies to market an integrated solution. One of its distinctive features is working off two screen scrapers, FlightScanner and Travel Console from AgentWare. The two are yoked together under the name FareProbe, which is available on the desktop of every res agent.