I had the privilege of presenting to the fine folks of the FBTA last week. This is not my first time with the group, and knowing they can be a little feisty at times, I came prepared to bare all. There is no holding back with this group. They remind me a lot of the group from LABTA.

My presentation was all about airline ancillary services and the impact these might have on corporate travel managers and their travelers. Whether it’s a new bundled airline product freshly negotiated by savvy travel managers or a set of company-authorized a-la-carte optional services based on trip type or duration, a whole new world has opened up for today’s corporate travel managers… if they want it that is. I bet most will, but I suspect some will run for the hills because navigating in this new world where the corporate travel managers are negotiating the travel experience is new territory. The days of simply negotiating a discount in return for volume are long gone.  And simply getting your travelers an entry-level frequent flyer status just won’t cut it.

As is typical with this group, presenters only get through their first three slides before the “Hands of Challenge” arise. No different this day, but I expected and prepared for it. In reality, this is really what I love about this group—dialogue! Ok, maybe more like pointed questions, but I love it anyway. At first they seemed very school-like by raising their hands and politely waiting their turn to ask, but that only lasted a few minutes. We talked about how airlines are working hard to create an “experience” for their travelers rather than just a trip, and how travel managers now have the ability to influence their travelers experience by engaging airlines to customize product bundles based on type of travel—say a training venue versus a sales trip halfway around the world for the top salespeople in the organization.  Read the rest of this entry »

I have now read in its entirety the Sabre comment filed with the DOT. Wow! Seventy-seven pages of Sabre showing PowerPoint slides and screenshots of what’s to come… at some point… in the future… eventually. The part I found the most interesting was —————redact————————, especially when they discussed the future development of —————————————redact————————. They have really nailed it because I would have thought that taking the approach of —————redact————————————– would have yielded a better return on their technology investment. But hey, good for them.

Well, since Sabre has clearly presented their technology and product plans for the future of new-world distribution technology, I feel compelled to do the same. So here it is, The Farelogix Technology and Product Strategy for the Future: We are mainly investing in —————redact———————— to the tune of $—————redact———–. This will also us to revolutionize the way the airline industry performs —————redact————————————————-. We will be incorporating new and advanced fusion-based accelerator ———————————————redact———————— which will yield a significant reduction in cost of operations for airlines and travel agencies and by utilizing —————redact———————— will generate transaction response times of less than 2 milliseconds. Now that is a strategy!

So, there it is. Clear as day… or at least clear as Sabre’s strategy.

As always, your comments welcome.

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I started reading Sabre’s comment to the DOT regarding IATA’s Resolution 787 (NDC) on the airplane the other day.  It only took a few paragraphs for me to realize that their comment was not really about NDC, but rather a defensive commentary insisting they can—or will at some point in the future be able to—do everything when it comes to providing airlines with the distribution technology airlines and travel agencies desire.  OK, but “the lady doth protest too much, methinks.”

So Sabre, in its comment to DOT, rather than commenting on the merits or shortcomings of Resolution 787 like everyone else did, submitted a voluminous 77-page document outlining how they can—whoops, I mean, will at some point in the future be able to—do everything the airlines, travel agencies, corporations, and consumers want. It makes me think of petulant 5-year-olds arguing on the playground. “Can not!” “Can too!”

Much of their comment includes screenshots. Hey, I like pictures as much as the next guy, and we even submitted some pictures in our DOT comment, but in the end it is not about pictures or even demos.  It’s about real product capabilities and value creation. In their comment, Sabre referenced a demo they gave at the DOT’s Advisory Committee for Aviation Consumer Protection as proof that they already have all these great distribution capabilities. I was at that particular meeting at the DOT and witnessed the Sabre demo.  Now, I know Sabre likes to call Farelogix products that have been in production for years mock-ups, so I won’t use that term, but words like prototype, untested, and unproven did come to mind as I was viewing that Sabre demo in DC.  So, Sabre, I will take your assertions with a grain of salt—a big, giant saltlick-sized grain of salt. Read the rest of this entry »

Farelogix is pleased to share our official commentary in support of IATA’s Resolution 787 (New Distribution Capability), which we recently submitted to the United States Department of Transportation. Yes, we know it’s a little long, but that’s because we wanted to provide a thorough analysis of the resolution including real-life examples of how this important initiative delivers greater transparency and choice to consumers, new opportunities for travel sellers, and a big step forward in the modernization of airline commerce.

So, pour yourself a fresh cup of coffee and read our comment here.

As always, comments are welcome.

I don’t think there is a hotter topic right now in the airline industry than IATA’s New Distribution Capability (NDC) initiative. Over here at Ask the Question, we do our best to help clarify any confusion and respond to any spurious articles that we see, but we also like to have our fun and discussions on other topics, so if you’re looking for a blog that is all things NDC, look no further than IATA’s New Distribution Capability (NDC) Blog.

It does a good job of providing clear, accurate information on NDC, as well as doing a fine job of myth busting. If you haven’t seen it, it is definitely worth checking out!

Ok, sometimes I am easily confused, but this one is taking the cake. I am totally confounded because in the last several months practically everyone I have spoken to—travel agencies, corporate travel managers, and even GDSs (well, Sabre and Farelogix aren’t really on speaking terms lately, so not all GDSs)—has expressed interest in having viewable, transparent, and bookable access to the various airline merchandising and ancillary services many airlines have on their websites. Everyone wants it, which makes perfect sense. Having access to more options that are relevant, up-to-the-minute, accurate, and maybe even personalized for the individual traveler making the request is clearly good for consumers, corporate travelers, corporations, travel agencies, OTAs, and GDSs. It’s good for everybody!

Enter IATA. IATA, through its standards-setting body, has developed its optional NDC initiative. This standards initiative was developed with input from various travel supply chain players. They worked long and hard to define a technology integration and workflow standard that enables an airline to deliver relevant, up-to-the-minute, accurate, and maybe even personalized offers to travel agencies, consumers, corporate travelers, corporations, OTAs, and GDSs. So, essentially IATA is enabling more airline content to be delivered and more is good, right?  Read the rest of this entry »

We couldn’t think of a good picture for this blog, so we went with a classic gif: Monkey Washing Cat.

I read Mr. Pestronk’s recent response to the NDC question with fascination and bewilderment. Clearly some education and clarification is needed, so I thought it best to go through parts of his article and add my comments. They are in bolded italics.

Think of NDC as like American’s Direct Connect except that, instead of being pushed by just one airline, it is going to be backed by all 240 IATA airlines, including all U.S. legacy carriers, at the same time. When you say, “think of NDC as like American’s Direct Connect,” are you referring to American’s Direct Connect to Travelport, whereby Travelport will connect to American using the NDC standard with the only difference travel agents will notice is that they have all the ancillaries that American offers and can therefore provide their customers with up-to-the-minute, authenticated, and perhaps even personalized offers? Because that is truly what accepting NDC means. It means an airline can use one modern, flexible pipe to connect to all distributors. No longer would there be a need for multiple pipes with separate and different standards on how to connect. Instead everyone would connect in the same way.

IATA has asked the Department of Transportation (DOT) to approve the agreement setting up the rules for NDC, and interested parties have until May 1 to file comments. True, and if you are a travel agency, I think you should encourage DOT to approve NDC as soon as possible so airlines that choose to adopt this new connectivity standard can get on with delivering that precious content travel agencies and their corporate and leisure customers want.
Read the rest of this entry »

In reviewing the various motions to seal in the American Airlines v. Sabre litigation, I was amused to find that part of BTC’s motion to seal was based on the premise that “BTC’s membership pricing is a trade secret,” and that “public disclosure of the pricing of a small business such as BTC will have significant detrimental ramifications on BTC’s ability to do business in the future.” Okay, fair enough. One small problem—that information is all on their website! Not much sleuthing required. It’s on the Membership Center of their website. Kudos to BTC for being so transparent… but then, what’s the secret?

Just like when we were 8 and our goldfish died, most of us will, at some point, go through the 5 Stages of Grief. It’s a tough process, but once we manage our way through it, we end up being at peace with the situation. As it turns out, my experience has shown me that for some people, accepting new innovation generally follows a similar process. While there is certainly nothing funny about grief, I thought it might be fun to view the eventual acceptance of IATA’s new NDC (New Distribution Capability), otherwise known as Resolution 787, through the 5 Stages of Accepting Innovation.

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As we know, the first stage is Denial. Pinkie the goldfish isn’t dead. He’s just resting. Upside down. When IATA first announced its NDC initiative, it seemed that several folks in the industry, including some of the more vocal opponents of change, reacted by simply denying NDC’s existence. Even though IATA was having a number of working groups in Geneva and Montreal with folks from airlines, tech companies, TMCs, and GDS, some still suggested that whole initiative was just a bunch of vaporware. Not surprising, as many initial reactions to innovation are to simply deny its existence and hope that it goes away.

But, like most good things, innovation doesn’t just go away. So what happens next? Enter Stage 2: Anger. I’m so mad at Pinkie! How could he do this me! In the 5 Stages of Accepting Innovation, this is probably the most interesting and unpredictable stage because it brings out what I call creative criticism of the innovation. Folks accuse it of just about every bad thing under the sun, even if the facts clearly point to the opposite. One thing I have learned is that in Stage 2 of Accepting Innovation, facts mean little or nothing. Remember, we’re MAD! So it is in this stage when a lot of people—particularly those individuals, companies, and coalitions very much invested in the old way of doing things—say incredulous things like IATA’s NDC is anti-competitive and represents the end of the world as we know it! Behold the end of comparison shopping! Stay away from that NDC thing, as it will require you to give out all precious personal information and take away your right to shop anonymously! (Actually, I am a bit surprised we didn’t hear NDC called unpatriotic. That‘s always a favorite during an outpouring of anger.) Of course, anyone who has read Resolution 787 in its entirety or been involved in any of the IATA NDC working groups knows that none of the above accusations about NDC are true. But hey, folks are mad, and they get to say stuff that isn’t true. It’s the rite of passage through Stage 2. Unfortunately, some tend to wallow in this stage a bit too long. Read the rest of this entry »

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I found it quite interesting last week when a number of parties showed up in a Tarrant County courthouse to defend their motions to seal the documents from the recent American Airlines v. Sabre litigation. It’s not the process I found so interesting as motions to seal documents are not all that uncommon. What I found most interesting was that certain companies that filed motions to seal documents are the very same companies clamoring for more transparency and visibility when it comes to the airline industry. Oh, how important transparency is! But not here! Not this time! No way, no how!

In reading a few of the actual motions filed (they are public), the general theme was that trade secrets were at stake for the companies that submitted documents. They could not have confidential information revealed as it may cause a competitive disadvantage for them. I actually agree with that premise, but only if the information being protected is… well let’s just say… on the up-and-up. I definitely do not think we should be protecting things like the secret biasing of airline content to travel agencies and consumers, or participating in an illegal boycott, or threatening customers into not using a competitive product… you know, Sherman Act kind of stuff. We should know all about things like that. You would think that if consumers were negatively impacted, and they were, some of those consumer groups would be demanding to know what went on.  Nope.   Surely trade secret information could have been kept confidential while the rest of the furtive information was disclosed? But, alas, that’s not that case.

This whole episode has led me to coin a new phrase: Transpocrisy [trans-pok-ruh-see] – the false claim to or pretense of having admirable principles, beliefs, or feelings as relates to transparency, especially in airline distribution.

Just rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it? Transpocrisy…