New York — It’s easy to make fun of the traditional “green” screens that travel agents use, but it’s really hard to replace them. Executives with large travel management companies deposed for the US Airways v. Sabre lawsuit, now in trial here, pointed to tens of millions of reasons. “It was a money pit,” said BCD Travel EVP Rose Stratford of…
[UPDATE, Feb 3, 2017: We published new information related to this article here.] [UPDATE, Jan. 19, 2017: American Airlines’ version of Basic Economy goes on sale Feb. 21 for travel starting March 1, first in 10 select markets. Like Delta’s and United’s, AA’s new bottom-level product is meant to provide more choices for customers and a defense against no-frills competitors….
Airline reservations and global distribution systems create passenger name records. Airlines issue tickets. Electronic miscellaneous documents account for ancillary sales. This multitude of records, ticket numbers and reservation numbers complicates revenue accounting and can confuse travelers. The International Air Transport Association is working on a better way, which corporate buyers and travel management companies may get a look at next year. “All…
[UPDATE, Feb 3, 2017: We published new information related to this article here.] In the words of founder Jay Walker, Upside aims to convert unmanaged business travel to self-managed business travel. So why does the company have a website showing nine corporate travel management company partners? Currently in beta, Upside sells customized air and hotel combo packages. Travelers earn gift cards for picking lower-cost…
Price assurance has taken root in corporate travel. TripBam and Yapta, especially, have made serious inroads. Another airfare reshopping firm, FairFly also is building a business on travel price volatility. These specialists are compiling huge data repositories. For travel managers, this may represent newfound power. They can watch (and maybe influence) traveler booking behavior. In some cases they also can…
New York — “Business people are very excited about competition in every sector except their own.” With that quip, Columbia University professor Joseph Stiglitz opened his testimony here this month in the US Airways v. Sabre antitrust trial. Called by the plaintiffs, the Nobel Prize-winning economist Time magazine once named among the 100 most influential people had studied the business…
New York — Industry pros always figured Southwest Airlines paid less to global distribution system providers like Sabre than other big airlines. Now they know how much. Southwest’s 2010 per-segment fee to Sabre at U.S. points of sale was $1.35, according to testimony in the US Airways v. Sabre trial here. Segment fees that year were $2.09 for American Airlines…
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