Airline Merchandising Opens Door to Profit, Loyalty Tool

The plans by American, United and other major carriers to build direct XML links via Farelogix to travel management companies are unsettling to many travel agents, who fear that the result will be a huge increase in fragmentation of content.

But agents can make that work for them, according to Uwe Zobel, chief information officer of Berlin-based AERTicket, one of Europe’s largest consolidators and travel agencies.

Rather than leave merchandising to the airlines, agents can do their own merchandising, adapting and modifying products to suit their markets.

AERTicket, along with Boulevard Travel in Calgary, Alberta, is participating in a pilot of Sprk, the new multi-source selling platform developed by Miami-based Farelogix.

AERTicket will use Sprk in conjunction with Lute Technologies’ CommandPro, a product designed specifically to address “the fragmented landscape of travel content.”
Farelogix is “a pure technology company,” Zobel said. Lute, on the other hand, is an aggregator of content that combines various direct connections into a single front end. The functionality is uniform for all airlines, requiring the same sequence of entries.

Zobel said the addition of Sprk will liberate travel agents from the one-size-fits-all set of rules that govern most air fares in a GDS.

For example, AERTicket is considering extending some ticketing time limits. “United has said it is fine with it, as long as it is booked in the Lute environment,” Zobel said.

Zobel understands why some agents approach multi-source systems with caution. “Life is much more difficult if you have more than one source,” he said. “Application A has one way of doing things, Application B has another.” But if everything can be put into one display with one search through a product like CommandPro, “it’s much easier,” he said.

T2 Impact, a travel industry e-commerce consulting firm, worked on the design and implementation of Lute, which currently is available only in Europe but plans to market in the U.S. as well.

T2’s managing partner, Timothy O’Neil-Dunne, said Sprk also will allow agents to create their own dynamic packages. For example, it is not uncommon for agencies to own or have interests in airport parking concessions. They can put their own deals together or work with an airline to create special offers with opaque fares.

Sprk also will allow agents to sell airline products that are not currently available to them.

“Today, you can’t buy checked bag services from a travel agent,” O’Neil-Dunne said. “You have to buy it at the airline Web site. We’re taking all the functionality that airlines have on their Web sites and transporting it via the XML link to travel agents.” Agents will be able to bundle those services in ways that work for their clients.

For example, corporate clients whose travelers regularly carry collateral materials to trade shows could be offered negotiated fare bundles that include check-bag fees.
Why do these scenarios require a new kind of connections? The existing Edifact link that connects airlines with GDSs does not support the advanced functionality of airline sites. Airlines have tried to shoehorn things into the narrow Edifact pipe and have had to dumb them down. Then GDSs have to rebuild them on the other end.

Delivering that functionality, and the opportunities it offers, to agents could go a long way toward leveling the playing field, O’Neil-Dunne said. “In the past, merchandising was only available to big guys like online travel agencies. This extends the model to any intermediary – and it creates value for the customer.”