Preview 2012: Technology -
From the possibility of a renewed American Airlines push for Direct Connect to agency desktop changes and the specter of Google Flight Search, 2012 is shaping up as a year of challenge and opportunity for agents on the technology front.
Last summer's anticipated showdown between American Airlines and the GDSs -- with agents caught in the middle -- was put off for another day as contracts were extended, lawsuits were filed and a Department of Justice antitrust investigation ensued.
With American Airlines/GDS negotiations now extended until court actions have been resolved, it appears things should heat up again in late spring and summer. That's when edicts are expected in fast-tracked antitrust lawsuits filed by American Airlines in state and federal courts against Sabre and Travelport, although AMR Corp.'s Chapter 11 filing in November has cast much doubt on how the airline's battle to lower its distribution costs will play out.
Sabre has filed a motion in the bankruptcy proceeding to enable it to make counterclaims against American in the antitrust suits. The petition is necessary because a Chapter 11 filing usually stays such actions. Sabre says American backs its move to let the antitrust claims proceed.
Summer showdown
So the questions weighing on agents are, first, will they again find themselves facing booking surcharges from American by next fall if they don't implement the airline's Direct Connect solution and, second, will the airline's content be available to agents in GDSs or be biased into oblivion?
Given the court cases, the possibility of negotiated settlements, the bankruptcy filing and the under-the-covers DOJ antitrust investigation, no one can say for sure.
American says that Direct Connect remains a viable option. But it's unclear whether a reorganized airline would emerge stronger and emboldened, seeing Direct Connect as a clear priority, or become distracted by more pressing financial matters.
Other airlines, which are working on XML connectivity standards in the Open AXIS Group, are assuredly watching and will take their cues based on what happens with American's Direct Connect initiative. For example, Delta has expressed direct-connect ambitions, although it is taking an approach that is much less aggressive than American's.
Desktops and ancillaries
On the agency desktop front, Travelport is proceeding, albeit somewhat slowly, with the global rollout of its Agencia desktop, and Sabre has been busy updating the features of its Sabre Red Workspace, which debuted midway through 2010.
Both desktops offer graphical features, add nontraditional content and are positioned as tools for improving agency productivity.
Both GDSs will have something to prove about their desktop initiatives in 2012.
Travelport will introduce its new desktop in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and the U.K. A foundation of the new technology is Travelport's Universal API, a system that enables low-cost carriers, rail providers and other nontraditional suppliers to connect to the agency desktop.
As Travelport continues its rollout, it remains to be seen how much traction the new API will get with large agencies and suppliers.
Sabre, too, has embarked on an interesting tech experiment related to the Sabre Red Workspace.
With app development all the rage for Apple iOS, Android and other mobile devices, Sabre is gambling that travel agencies, too, will want to get in on some of the developer action. It is thus opening the Sabre Red App Centre, an initiative designed to get developers to create and market apps to Sabre-connected travel agencies through the Sabre Red Workspace.
The idea is for developers to create apps that in theory could facilitate anything from restaurant reservations to hotel reviews and integrate them tightly into agents' workflow as they use the desktop.
Sabre is vetting developers and giving them the opportunity to sell these apps geared specifically for the Sabre agency desktop, with code-writers earning a 70/30 split on app sales.
Even before the introduction of the app center, Sabre had developer agreements with about 130 companies. Now, with the Sabre Red Workspace rolled out to some 165,000 installations in 116 countries, it is hoping the market opportunity is large enough to attract a significant amount of app-development activity.
One thing that is crystal clear about 2012 is that agents will increasingly have access to airlines' ancillary services, although the pace and scope are to be determined.
For years, airlines offered bag fees and premium seats, as a rule, on their websites only. When GDS vendors managed to strike agreements to access those fees for travel agents, it was accomplished through one-off technologies and workarounds.
The research firm IdeaWorks estimates that global airlines were on pace to attract $32.5 billion in ancillary revenue in 2011, and the recent introduction of an IATA standard for Electronic Miscellaneous Documents will hasten the distribution of these services to the travel agency channel.
These still are early days for the implementation of EMDs, however.
"Three airlines [Finnair, Iberia and Japan Airlines] have used EMDs for travel agency transactions, and 25 airlines have developed the capability to use their first EMD," IdeaWorks reported.
The DOT, meanwhile, is considering new rules that would require airlines to make their ancillary services available to agencies through the GDSs.
Google Flight Search
In 2012, travel agents should get a much better handle on any threats from Google's recently launched Flight Search, an airfare search solution powered by the search giant's recent acquisition of ITA Software.
For now, Google Flight Search is a very limited product, offering a less-than-complete roster of domestic fares and from airline sites only. Google Flight Search is notable for its exclusion of online travel agency and travel metasearch sites in the core search results, and it allows them only a minor presence in tiny advertisements on the bottom of the results page.
Extremely fast in spitting out flight results, Flight Search today is very limited in scope, but Google will certainly broaden its domestic coverage and has already announced that it intends to introduce international fares early in the new year.
Given Google's power with consumers, coupled with the launch of Google Hotel Finder, a hotel meta-search product, there is always the threat that the search giant will make further inroads and take share away from travel agents.
Agent 3.0
Tom Cates, chief commercial officer of Amadeus North America, believes such marketplace developments, including the advent of social media and mobile apps, will require the evolution of a "next-generation agent," which Amadeus dubs Agent 3.0.
"Agent 3.0 embraces the traditional tools, role and value of the travel agent," Cates said. But he added that this new breed of agent is "also adapting to new traveler preferences, new tools and new ways of doing business. Agent 3.0 provides superior guidance on the best destinations and expertly handles travel arrangements for their clients as agents always have. But they are also active in new channels, such as social and mobile, to best serve their customers while also expanding their business opportunities."
Dennis Schaal is North America editor of Tnooz.
Last summer's anticipated showdown between American Airlines and the GDSs -- with agents caught in the middle -- was put off for another day as contracts were extended, lawsuits were filed and a Department of Justice antitrust investigation ensued.
With American Airlines/GDS negotiations now extended until court actions have been resolved, it appears things should heat up again in late spring and summer. That's when edicts are expected in fast-tracked antitrust lawsuits filed by American Airlines in state and federal courts against Sabre and Travelport, although AMR Corp.'s Chapter 11 filing in November has cast much doubt on how the airline's battle to lower its distribution costs will play out.
Sabre has filed a motion in the bankruptcy proceeding to enable it to make counterclaims against American in the antitrust suits. The petition is necessary because a Chapter 11 filing usually stays such actions. Sabre says American backs its move to let the antitrust claims proceed.
Summer showdown
So the questions weighing on agents are, first, will they again find themselves facing booking surcharges from American by next fall if they don't implement the airline's Direct Connect solution and, second, will the airline's content be available to agents in GDSs or be biased into oblivion?
Given the court cases, the possibility of negotiated settlements, the bankruptcy filing and the under-the-covers DOJ antitrust investigation, no one can say for sure.
American says that Direct Connect remains a viable option. But it's unclear whether a reorganized airline would emerge stronger and emboldened, seeing Direct Connect as a clear priority, or become distracted by more pressing financial matters.Other airlines, which are working on XML connectivity standards in the Open AXIS Group, are assuredly watching and will take their cues based on what happens with American's Direct Connect initiative. For example, Delta has expressed direct-connect ambitions, although it is taking an approach that is much less aggressive than American's.
Desktops and ancillaries
On the agency desktop front, Travelport is proceeding, albeit somewhat slowly, with the global rollout of its Agencia desktop, and Sabre has been busy updating the features of its Sabre Red Workspace, which debuted midway through 2010.
Both desktops offer graphical features, add nontraditional content and are positioned as tools for improving agency productivity.
Both GDSs will have something to prove about their desktop initiatives in 2012.
Travelport will introduce its new desktop in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and the U.K. A foundation of the new technology is Travelport's Universal API, a system that enables low-cost carriers, rail providers and other nontraditional suppliers to connect to the agency desktop.
As Travelport continues its rollout, it remains to be seen how much traction the new API will get with large agencies and suppliers.
Sabre, too, has embarked on an interesting tech experiment related to the Sabre Red Workspace.
With app development all the rage for Apple iOS, Android and other mobile devices, Sabre is gambling that travel agencies, too, will want to get in on some of the developer action. It is thus opening the Sabre Red App Centre, an initiative designed to get developers to create and market apps to Sabre-connected travel agencies through the Sabre Red Workspace.
The idea is for developers to create apps that in theory could facilitate anything from restaurant reservations to hotel reviews and integrate them tightly into agents' workflow as they use the desktop.
Sabre is vetting developers and giving them the opportunity to sell these apps geared specifically for the Sabre agency desktop, with code-writers earning a 70/30 split on app sales.
Even before the introduction of the app center, Sabre had developer agreements with about 130 companies. Now, with the Sabre Red Workspace rolled out to some 165,000 installations in 116 countries, it is hoping the market opportunity is large enough to attract a significant amount of app-development activity.
One thing that is crystal clear about 2012 is that agents will increasingly have access to airlines' ancillary services, although the pace and scope are to be determined.
For years, airlines offered bag fees and premium seats, as a rule, on their websites only. When GDS vendors managed to strike agreements to access those fees for travel agents, it was accomplished through one-off technologies and workarounds.
The research firm IdeaWorks estimates that global airlines were on pace to attract $32.5 billion in ancillary revenue in 2011, and the recent introduction of an IATA standard for Electronic Miscellaneous Documents will hasten the distribution of these services to the travel agency channel.
These still are early days for the implementation of EMDs, however.
"Three airlines [Finnair, Iberia and Japan Airlines] have used EMDs for travel agency transactions, and 25 airlines have developed the capability to use their first EMD," IdeaWorks reported.
The DOT, meanwhile, is considering new rules that would require airlines to make their ancillary services available to agencies through the GDSs.
Google Flight Search
In 2012, travel agents should get a much better handle on any threats from Google's recently launched Flight Search, an airfare search solution powered by the search giant's recent acquisition of ITA Software.
For now, Google Flight Search is a very limited product, offering a less-than-complete roster of domestic fares and from airline sites only. Google Flight Search is notable for its exclusion of online travel agency and travel metasearch sites in the core search results, and it allows them only a minor presence in tiny advertisements on the bottom of the results page.
Extremely fast in spitting out flight results, Flight Search today is very limited in scope, but Google will certainly broaden its domestic coverage and has already announced that it intends to introduce international fares early in the new year.
Given Google's power with consumers, coupled with the launch of Google Hotel Finder, a hotel meta-search product, there is always the threat that the search giant will make further inroads and take share away from travel agents.
Agent 3.0
Tom Cates, chief commercial officer of Amadeus North America, believes such marketplace developments, including the advent of social media and mobile apps, will require the evolution of a "next-generation agent," which Amadeus dubs Agent 3.0.
"Agent 3.0 embraces the traditional tools, role and value of the travel agent," Cates said. But he added that this new breed of agent is "also adapting to new traveler preferences, new tools and new ways of doing business. Agent 3.0 provides superior guidance on the best destinations and expertly handles travel arrangements for their clients as agents always have. But they are also active in new channels, such as social and mobile, to best serve their customers while also expanding their business opportunities."
Dennis Schaal is North America editor of Tnooz.
