Rob Bray
Head of Travel
Google
Here's where it starts: Google does not have a mandated travel program. As a result, driving a tech-forward, content-rich program has to happen to stay relevant. The problem was, Google wasn't getting that and, at the time Google head of travel Rob Bray went to his core providers American Express Global Business Travel, SAP Concur and Sabre, there was no notion in the marketplace of being able to "run faster" or access deeper integrations with the Amex GBT-Concur partnership Complete. He needed more focus from his partners; he needed progress to happen faster. He knew he had to bring buyer leadership and a timeline to the table to make that happen.
He told his partners: "I'm happy for you guys to do what you need to do on the back end to
protect your shareholders, but this is the outcome we need to have to
stay relevant. And frankly, you need it to stay
relevant."
At that point, Google travelers were booking in preferred channels only 44 percent of the time. The biggest reason Google travelers left the channel was the age-old conundrum: They could get a better deal elsewhere.
Travel content fragmentation has reared its dreaded head with a vengeance in the last several years as airline retailing strategies and New Distribution Capability has splintered it across direct and indirect channels. And while Bray had a specific focus on NDC, he new he had to deal with more than airline content. He had to deal with technology limitations and suppliers that didn't always work smoothly together, and often they didn't work quickly.
"Google has a speed they want to operate in," said SAP Concur head of travel products and TMC services Brian Hace, who was the key point of contact for Bray on the Concur side of the partnership. "He acknowledged the travel industry might not operate that same way, but this was Google's expectation. There were uncomfortable conversations, but as a buyer Rob brought us together [in a way that] individual suppliers couldn't point at everyone else, and we talked through what commitment they could make."
Bray brought that buyer leadership into bi-weekly calls with his suppliers. These meetings didn't only include his three core players, but also included airlines. As Hace also recalled, Bray said there were occasional "tense weeks" because "when [they] are all on the same call, it's very difficult to point fingers."
Working Within the Supplier Ecosystem
Bray was intent on working with the traditional GDS, OBT and TMC set-ups and not having direct pipes to airlines or other content. He wanted to "build this concept of public roads versus private roads," he said. "It's better to build public roads into these airline APIs than private connections that only Google can benefit from."
Amex GBT global client group VP and general manager Melissa Beauchamp weighed in on that point. "Rob has really driven not only the conversations with GBT, he's also driven the conversations with airlines directly to build for the industry and not only for Google. As Google, however, Rob has also brought urgency to the table, so he is leveraging that for what he sees as a broader goal."
Each supplier involved in the build "is invested in the user experience," Bray added. "Does it take longer than [building] the direct connection [into the booking tool]? Yes, but we have to be a realist. Amex GBT [and] Concur want to work on this legacy stack. They want the aggregator involved. If I want to be a customer of theirs, which I do truly, I need to work with their ecosystem." And so do thousands of their customers, which Bray has emphasized throughout his work.
The governance model around Google's phased NDC rollout so far has resulted in 11 carriers across 13 points of sale now offering that content.
How does Google determine if a carrier's NDC content is ready, in terms of servicing and exchanges? Bray uses a 300-point scenario testing plan for each carrier, so Google can "test the life" out of their product before they go live. "There's some that we'll accept, and there are some that we won't," he said.
Some of those points include making sure that the content flows, the agent is able to interact, they are able to process a refund and they are able to get a connection with the airlines, Bray said. If a carrier has "launch blockers," Google doesn't permit the connection.
The company had to work closely with American Airlines, United Airlines and British Airways specifically because they had a few structural issues when Google was going live. Bray asked for the cell phone numbers of a few key people on the content teams instead of a 1-800 number in case there were issues. "Our airline partners really leaned in heavy there," he said. "They were awesome to do that for us."
Having buyer leadership in these moments is critical, Hace said. "SAP Concur isn't going to be able to get the immediate attention that a direct client like Google will get. He's been very effective in that way and has acted as an accelerant for all of us."
"We're really happy with the progress on the connectivity side," said Bray. "What that means for my travelers is I no longer hear that saying, 'I found a cheaper fare elsewhere.' Anybody who's either fragmenting fares today or implementing surcharges, we're live with [them]. I can guarantee to my travelers that you won't get a cheaper fare elsewhere."
The work Bray has done to attain parity has resulted in program adoption of 65 percent by late July. "We're well on track to our 75 percent goal this year," he said. In all, Bray started down this path in late 2024, got things going in 2025 with Ryanair done in January, then American and United done in April 2025, with a new airline added each month or so since, he said.
Bray's program so far has seen about 7 percent savings on domestic NDC fares versus EDIFACT fares. Internationally, he's seeing 15 percent savings on some routes. "The last time I went to [request for proposals], I'd be lucky if I came around with 2 percent," he said. "So, for us, they are very, very, attractive numbers. … We're working with the airline partners and [internal] departments at Google to validate those savings so we can capture them on our P&L each month."
Adding in Complete
In addition, Bray has helped define roadmaps and worked through how a large, complex travel program like Google will configure on Amex GBT and Concur's new offering Complete. He's doing this while maintaining a direct relationship with Concur and taking advantage of the innovation pace and deep integrations that the Complete partnership aims to provide. Bray said that the program has parity with Concur's new booking experience, with Complete to be rolled out in the coming weeks.
"He helped us as we had early conversations on Complete and we started working with GBT," said Hace. "I think we all aspire to move faster as an industry so the whole industry can change and we can get to really interesting experiences out there. He's also been honest when we're falling short, and we've had to rally on those points."
Where Bray wants to get better is with sourcing. "How are we going to source in an NDC environment?" he said. "Because that's really where your savings are captured, and that's where they materialize for the year. We have some ambitious targets for our next RFP cycle to have a fully NDC sourcing environment. How are we going to put in the structural guardrails around that? The switch to fully dynamic fares scares the life out of travel managers, so we need to have some kind of top and bottom baselines that we'll accept within the sourcing exercises."
Still, he acknowledged that whether it's through a direct connect or a GDS, "it has to work," Bray said. "Someone has to aggregate all these things and surface them to the travelers. [Model Context Protocol] will help there, but we've got to make sure that they exist and that we have a healthy Sabre and we have a healthy GBT and a healthy OBT because the work they're doing is incredible. I'm really pleased with it."
GBT's Beauchamp drove home a different angle on Bray's leadership and governance toward achieving his, and his suppliers', goals: "Rob has a currency within Google to be able to say to his leaders, 'trust me.' He leads with data and he is always prepared. That's an internal organizational leadership and advocacy that suppliers don't always get, and it acts as a multiplier when, as suppliers, we are asked to invest in change."