GDSs need a YouTube channel to Answer Farelogix Questions

Farelogix has been deftly using YouTube to raise interesting airline distribution questions in its Ask the Question series.

Some of the points are on target and hit home, and rest assured that the GDSs, which often are the targets of the jibes, aren’t putting these videos in their favorites lists.

Visions of the Farelogix logo on dart boards probably are more on target.

The latest Farelogix video, Ask the Question 5, starring President and CEO Jim Davidson as the point man/provocateur, takes jabs at the Business Travel Coalition and the GDSs for the MadAsHellAboutHiddenFees campaign and calls for DOT intervention about fee transparency.

Of course, the GDSs aren’t openly part of the campaign, but back its aims.

And, although the American Society of Travel Agents is part of the hidden fees campaign, some of its members are major Farelogix customers, but ASTA doesn’t get called out in the video.

Of course, Farelogix has a dog in this airline-GDS fight as it is a key distribution partner for some airlines and is heavily involved in the newly formed airline XML standards body, the Open AXIS Group.

Anyway, here’s Farelogix’s Ask the Question 5 video:

In the video, Davidson rightly says that the airlines pays the GDSs billions of dollars annually in segment fees and “without the airlines’ participation in the GDS, there would be no GDS.”

But, I think Davidson misses the mark when he says the GDS don’t want to help airlines find workable and cost-effective means to aid airlines’ merchandising efforts.

Actually, the GDSs — Sabre, Amadeus and Travelport GDS — would like nothing better than to help their key customers, the airlines, in their merchandising efforts.

However, there is more than a slight disagreement about how to accomplish this.

The airlines want to assert more control over the customer and want to do things their way.

And the GDSs want to help the airlines, but want to protect their own turf and make arrangements on commercial terms acceptable to the GDSs.

At any rate, the GDSs indeed are billion dollar, global companies. You’d think one or two or three of them would have the vision and the resources to establish their own YouTube channels to answer Farelogix and to get their overall messages out.

True, YouTube predominantly is a consumer channel, and among the most popular videos at the moment are Sexy Shape Shifter Workout Tutorial and Ohio University Bobcat Tackles Brutus Buckeye.

But, there is plenty of business-to-business video viewing taking place on YouTube, as well.

Hence, all of the travel companies which have their own YouTube channels.

Why cede the social media video space to Farelogix?

I’m just Asking the Question.