GDSs Support DOT New Rules
by Michele McDonald /All three GDS companies operating in the U.S. filed separate comments supporting the Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) that would require the dissemination of airline fee information through all ticket agents.
And all three urged the department to require airlines to enable travel agents—and all ticket sellers—to transact ancillary product sales at the time of booking.
The DOT did not include transactability in its NPRM, but it requested comments on the topic and may take up the issue at a later date.
Still not enough
Despite the progress that has been made over the last two years in making ancillary products available through GDSs – progress that the companies touted in their comments as evidence of their ability to enable such transactions – the companies say it’s not enough.
In its comments, Sabre said “a large number of carriers that are very important for U.S. consumers have not permitted Sabre to disseminate and sell ancillary services that those consumers want and need.”
Amadeus said that “to fully achieve the Department’s goals of enabling transparency, comparative shopping and efficient purchasing in support of passenger protection, it is essential that ancillary fee information be provided to ticket agents in a manner that is transactable.
“Ticket agents, not airlines, provide comparative shopping. However, the inability to purchase ancillary services would drive consumers away from ticket agents and from the benefits of comparative shopping.”
‘Driving consumer costs up’
More than 60 airlines have signed up to use all or part of the Travelport Merchandising Platform in the 17 months since its launch, Amadeus said.
“Notwithstanding this new functionality that allows airlines to display and sell ancillaries through Travelport as they do through their own websites, many U.S. carriers have chosen a different ancillary services model,” it said.
“Instead of embracing the opportunity to sell more ancillary products across the entirety of the travel distribution sector – a proposition offered them by Travelport – airlines seem intent on maintaining a practice that increases revenues by driving consumer costs up via obfuscation of the true cost of flying.”
The three companies also dismissed the need for proposed new rules that would require large travel agencies to meet minimum customer service standards and all agencies to identify the carriers they do—or do not—market.
Sabre said “there is no evidentiary or policy justification” for such rules. Amadeus used similar language.
The service issue is “a solution in search of a problem that simply doesn’t exist,” Travelport said.
Going rogue
Meanwhile, Southwest Airlines broke with its airline colleagues in supporting disclosure of basic ancillary fees (first and second checked bags, one carry-on item and advance seat selection) to consumers at all points of sale.
“Such disclosure not only would facilitate more meaningful price comparisons among carriers when searching for air transportation, it may also exert downward pressure on fees for these services by making them more transparent to consumers,” it said.
That’s easy for Southwest to say.
It is “unique among air carriers in not charging any fees for these basic ancillary services,” the carrier said. “We agree with the Department that baggage service (checked and carry-on) is intrinsic and fundamental to air transportation, and we have resisted economic pressure to unbundle this important service from the consumer’s cost of transportation.”
Southwest does, however, charge an “EarlyBird” check-in fee.
It buys an automatic check-in ahead of the usual 24-hour window for check-in, which gives the passenger a better boarding position which, in turn, provides a better chance of obtaining a good seat and adequate bin space.
However, the DOT did not include priority boarding in its definition of “basic” ancillary services.