Travelport and British Airways/Iberia agreed to a framework for surcharge-free airfares, adopting the private channel concept for travel agency users that sacrifice GDS incentives. It wasn’t unexpected, but the agreement serves as a letdown for some U.K. travel agency leaders who were hoping the market’s top GDS would fight the private-channel construct. Amadeus and Sabre had…
British Airways and Iberia agreed to remove their global distribution system surcharge for users of Expedia and clients of its Egencia corporate travel arm, according to an Egencia spokesperson. “As part of a wider Expedia/Egencia agreement reached by Expedia Inc. and IAG (BA and Iberia), travelers booking from EMEA and Asia Pacific have been surcharge-free…
Sabre CEO Sean Menke confirmed what many suspected. The IAG private channel option for travel agencies caught up in reworked economics between airlines and GDSs is about foregoing GDS incentives. Parent of British Airways and Iberia, IAG created “two buckets for the agency community,” Menke explained during the Wednesday Bernstein Technology Summit. He called them the “haves…
Sabre reached a deal with International Airlines Group to give agency users a “path to unique content if they enter a Private Channel agreement” with IAG airlines. That presumably would waive the carriers’ surcharge on bookings through global distribution systems. A Sabre spokesperson informed reporters of the development Friday morning. That was hours after Air France-KLM…
Travelport expects most bookings on British Airways and Ibera to be subject to the carriers’ new private channel option. That implies lower GDS incentive income for travel management companies. Travelport president and CEO Gordon Wilson on Thursday morning told investors that while negotiations were ongoing, “We think a large majority of our business with International Airlines Group…
New York – With the British Airways/Iberia surcharge on GDS bookings set to take effect in two weeks, many eyes are on the United Kingdom’s largest GDS. Travelport arguably has both more influence on, and more to lose from, the outcome of the airlines’ program than any other intermediary. Speaking at a World Travel Inc. event…
Carlson Wagonlit Travel joined rivals Amex GBT and HRG in creating a deal to avoid the IAG carriers’ GDS surcharge. CWT would use “participating GDSs.” It did not name the lone participating GDS, Amadeus, in its press statement. CWT said very little about the New Distribution Capability, posting the following in a client Q&A: “What agreement is…
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