Trial testimony by CWT president and CEO Kurt Ekert proved instructive for anyone looking to understand travel management company dependence on global distribution systems. There was no elephant in the courtroom on the payments GDS firms make to TMCs. Ekert acknowledged that in 2018, GDS companies paid CWT incentives totaling roughly $155 million, about 10…
BCD Travel is paying Microsoft about $20 million for a multi-GDS search and booking desktop system that also could help agents manage bookings made outside the global distribution systems. The travel management company a decade ago retired a similar initiative after airlines patched up their differences with GDS providers. The ultimate cost of the project…
Economy “Light” fares from Lufthansa Group carriers will be available to Egencia users in 10 European markets from Sept. 23. This is made possible by a booking connection between the travel management company and the airline group using Lufthansa’s NDC-compliant application programming interface. Lufthansa’s Light fares were in global distribution systems before the airline removed…
New York — For SAP Concur, NDC is a “mess,” a “grey area,” and a “huge job.” But there is progress. That includes a recent implementation in the United Kingdom with British Airways and a Business Travel Direct client. SAP Concur director of distribution and NDC Tom Wilkinson gave attendees to a Concur customer event…
A newish company with a not-so-new travel manager, Snap Inc. may invite new corporate booking tool WhereTo to bid on its business this summer. Just being in the conversation is a boost for WhereTo, which has been working behind the scenes for a few years with a large, press-shy corporate patron. For big U.S.-based companies,…
New York – United Airlines is working to begin pilot tests with multiple corporate clients of negotiated, “dynamic” fare bundles facilitated by New Distribution Capability-compliant connections to Concur Travel. Users would click a United fare in search results to see detailed descriptions of what’s included, almost like a branded fare. Corporate customers complain a lot…
Under the threat of increased content fragmentation, travel management companies and corporate travel booking tools can earn their stripes by integrating multiple sources. Each has its own approach to the age-old challenge made new by the emergence of NDC. SAP Concur last month told TMCs that for its online booking tool, they must decide to “present…
End of content
End of content
