San Diego – Participants at last week’s Global Business Travel Association convention showed a stronger spirit of collaboration on alternative airline distribution than in years past. Notwithstanding mixed takes on the specifics, attendees and speakers reinforced the theme that corporate customers need the same sets of product and service options regardless of where they shop. New and updated distribution… Read More »
Continuing the furious pace of NDC-related announcements around the industry, Amadeus said American Airlines and BCD Travel agreed to join its NDC-X program. AA is the first North America-based carrier to commit. BCD joins U.S.-based American Express Global Business Travel and Carlson Wagonlit Travel, and Australia’s Flight Centre. For Amadeus, like Sabre and Travelport, incorporating NDC means mitigating content… Read More »
American Airlines, American Express Global Business Travel, Carlson Wagonlit Travel and Flight Centre Travel Group joined with Sabre to develop, integrate and test New Distribution Capability-enabled offers and orders. Under the program, called Beyond NDC, these launch partners and Sabre would seek to integrate NDC with the “retailing, distribution and fulfillment systems that support the travel ecosystem,” according to a… Read More »
Delta Air Lines expects to start piloting its new application programming interfaces with distribution intermediaries by the end of the year. While those APIs will be available to other aggregators, the focus is on global distribution systems. “For the Delta distribution strategy, which may differ from others, we view GDSs as consumers of the overwhelming amount of our… Read More »
Developed by the Monaker Group, NextTrip.biz is one of the newest of many business travel booking services targeting small and medium-size companies. Announced last month, it promises to cut costs, simplify management and reward employees. If that sounds familiar, the twist here is including alternative lodging accommodations. Having previously built instant booking for rental homes, apartments, resorts and other types… Read More »
Many travel management companies offer itinerary apps to client travelers. With some exceptions, they pretty much provide the same or similar features. “They are more or less a commodity,” said Cristian Dinca, founder of Bucharest-based travel tech firm DCS Plus. He said a differentiator is when an app is an extension of a unified agency tech stack. That’s… Read More »
Sabre intended to sunset its old traveler profile system by 2013, but Stars is still shining. The company of late told travel management company users they would be charged if they did not set a date for migration to the new(er) Sabre Profiles. “We have not charged anyone to date,” said Sabre Travel Network vice president of product management… Read More »