A vested interest in it all, of course, but Farelogix has produced a pretty decent summary of the current battle between airlines, online travel agencies and GDSs.
But rather than have CEO Jim Davidson vent forth, fun DIY computer animation system Xtranormal was used to portray how the whole sorry saga might be explained to someone not in the know.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZc9ZVQQIpY
The downside? Shame it’s not funny, such as the classic Social Media Guru and other Farelogix efforts.
[...] tip: tnooz) [...]
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Jodi Echakowitz, jonhansen, Jason Q. Freed, Esteban Varela and others. Esteban Varela said: Una versiĂłn simpática y didáctica de la disputa AerolĂneas/GDS/OTA´s http://bit.ly/fQmQHK [...]
[...] Trying to understand the airline-GDS-OTA war? Try the animated version [full story] [...]
After four fabulous events in 2011, Tnooz will be returning to London for its fifth THack developer competition on Thursday 28 June.
In the recent past, travelers had limited options to use their mobile phones for searching, shopping, buying and managing their journeys.
Big Data – we’re all talking about it, wondering how it will make its presence felt across the travel industry, who is best positioned to capitalise on it?
RFID, augmented reality, smart search, technology beyond social media and check-ins – more disruption is on its way in the travel industry.
Nice and very clear, however, there is something missing in the end.
The problem for Travel agencies is not just not receiving money from GDSs but to assume all costs related to connectivity with all direct connects from airlines.
Good point fede regarding the costs for a TA for direct connect to airlines. At some point, airlines will have to reimburse TAs since many airlines will be competing to get their product to the consumer. GDSs might be the only casualty of this war!
It’s no wonder this so-called “explanation” comes from Farelogix. If the travel agencies go to direct-connect, someone will have to aggregate the shopping and booking of the various airlines channels, and that is precisely what Farelogix’s business is. How would that be different from the current GDS model?
First, Farelogix has never indicated that it does not have a “dog in this hunt” because it clearly does. So do a lot of other travel companies, they just may not be as vocal as we are.
Second, I agree that unless the GDS agree to replace the current airline connectivity and workflow for the airlines that are requesting them to take their direct connect, travel agencies will have to make some accommodation on how they access certain airline content. And that will most likely involve some type of investment, or at a minimum, a change in their current systems. The question is — what type of change will that be (big/small), as that is fully dependent on what they have in place today.
Third, to the point about airlines having to somehow compensate agencies to get this content – my answer is they already are. It is just coming through an intermediary called the GDS. Who do you think is paying the GDS? Maybe the agencies should take some of that money and invest it in open systems that can access content no matter where it comes from.
But as I said, we have a dog in this hunt!
Jim Davidson
Farelogix
I think the airlines have made it pretty clear that they are no interested in compansate travel agencies, even further, according to some airlines CEO’s comments, they would like to have the agencies or GDSs paying to have access to their inventory. Direct connect is their way to achieve what they have been looking for a long time: get rid of the intermediaries
so why is expedia supporting the GDS’s?
do they want to limit the oxygen to the up and coming direct connect system providers, by prolonging the GDS reign?
or could it be that expedia (not overtly) want to stay on good side of agencies, and continue to slowly migrate them to the expedia direct connect agency system?
Ok, I understand Airlines are willing to save money and surely GDS are not cheap guys, but if every airline would go direct…how we could manage:
- payments (Bsp or Arc are stil used in this model?)
- messages from airlines for SSR, schedule changes…..should we check 30 websites daily or they’re willing to exchange GDS Queue with some hundreds of email?
- “how to” —-> re-issue, exchange,refunds?
- what about back office automation ???
These are some basic issues that everybody involved should consider.
I definitely agree with Claudio! If everything is done direct to an airline website then a travel agent or a traveller will have to access all the airline sites? How about for claims or support will the airline do it for the traveller or the agencies? Indeed there are a lot of things that needs to be considered.
Saying and doing are two different things.