Now Sabre joins in against AA

[Graham Harrison]

http://www.sabretravelnetwork.com/home/news_events/media_statement_sabre_act
ions_regarding_american_airlines/

"Media Statement: Sabre Actions Regarding American Airlines

For a number of months, American Airlines has taken actions in an attempt to
impose a costly, unproven and unnecessary system on agencies and
corporations, including withholding fare content from Sabre. We believe
these actions are harmful to our agency and corporate customers, as well as
consumers, making it harder and more costly to comparison shop. Sabre is
taking actions to protect its interests and those of its customers by
supporting airlines who value the transparency and efficiency of the proven
system we provide."


What I fail to fully comprehend from the statement is whether this is the
GDS element of Sabre speaking or the hosting element. I think it's the GDS
but I don't find it 100% clear.
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[JF Mezei]

Post by Graham Harrison
http://www.sabretravelnetwork.com/home/news_events/media_statement_sabre_act
ions_regarding_american_airlines/
What I fail to fully comprehend from the statement is whether this is the
GDS element of Sabre speaking or the hosting element. I think it's the GDS
but I don't find it 100% clear.

Reading that web site, it appears that it is mostly the GDS side of the
business. They are unhappy that AA isn't giving them full fare information.

What is REALLY not clear is what sort of action they are taking.

##
Sabre is taking actions to protect its interests and those of its
customers by supporting airlines who value the transparency and
efficiency of the proven system we provide.
##

Does this mean they will just giove AA flights lowest priority in
listings ? Or is this just a PR announcement without any meaningful
actions against AA ?
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[John Levine]

Post by Graham Harrison
What I fail to fully comprehend from the statement is whether this is the
GDS element of Sabre speaking or the hosting element. I think it's the GDS
but I don't find it 100% clear.

It's the GDS. See this article in Business Travel News:

http://www.businesstravelnews.com/Business-Travel/Travel-Management/Articles/Sabre-Moves-Against-American-Airlines/

R's,
John
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[JF Mezei]

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/American-Airlines-Statement-prnews-3768905271.html?x=0&.v=1


American Airlines is suing Sabre for the biased listing of AA flights,
and has obtained an injunction to force Sabre to remove this biase until
the court case has drawn to conclusion.

Interesting that AA wants to change contracts by forcing GDSs to pay AA
for new services, but the GDSs aren't allowed to change their side of
the contract.


Is AA pissing into the wind with the other airlines laughing ? Or are
the other airlines monitoring if AA will be able to avoid any splashback
and if so, they'll all jump into the same bandwagon ?
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[Jeff Hacker]

Post by JF Mezei
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/American-Airlines-Statement-prnews-3768905271.html?x=0&.v=1
American Airlines is suing Sabre for the biased listing of AA flights,
and has obtained an injunction to force Sabre to remove this biase until
the court case has drawn to conclusion.
Interesting that AA wants to change contracts by forcing GDSs to pay AA
for new services, but the GDSs aren't allowed to change their side of
the contract.
Is AA pissing into the wind with the other airlines laughing ? Or are
the other airlines monitoring if AA will be able to avoid any splashback
and if so, they'll all jump into the same bandwagon ?

The latter. Let AA be the bAAd guys, and then jump on the bandwagon.

Post by JF Mezei
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[Miles Bader]

Post by Jeff Hacker

Post by JF Mezei
Is AA pissing into the wind with the other airlines laughing ? Or are
the other airlines monitoring if AA will be able to avoid any splashback
and if so, they'll all jump into the same bandwagon ?

The latter. Let AA be the bAAd guys, and then jump on the bandwagon.

Is there evidence that there'll _be_ a bandwagon? It's hard to see how
AA won't suffer because of this...

And I'm not quite what to think from my consumer's point of view... the
current airline ticket industry/scam is surely dysfunctional and
annoying, but what AA's doing would seem to make it _worse_.

-miles

[JF Mezei]

Post by Miles Bader
And I'm not quite what to think from my consumer's point of view... the
current airline ticket industry/scam is surely dysfunctional and
annoying, but what AA's doing would seem to make it _worse_.

What is annoying is the airline's move to unbundle the flights so they
can advertise a lower base price and then give you option to buy back
all those items that they removed from the base price (air, use of
toilet, reclicing seat, window shade, access to overhead bin, checked
luggage, meal, access to a special telephone number should your flight
be cancelled (air canada charges $15 for that). We can thank Ryannair
for all those silly ideas :-)

Once you go that lane, it becomes hard to codify all those options for a
GDS system.

the GDS industry is faced with a decision on whether to fight for simple
airfares, or adopt the unbundled pricing and, as an industry provide a
standard interface for all the optional extras that an airline wishes to
sell and tell the airlines to adapt to that standard.

Right now, AA wants to have its own proprietary interface that GDS have
to adapt to, and other airlines are likely to have their own. It would
make sense for the GDS industry to develop a standard and impose it on
all airlines. They can hire Michael O'Leary to give then a list of
possible options when purchasing a ticket. With that list, they can
pretty much support any type of crazy fare structure.


At the end of the day, Southwest will become a luxury full service
airline compared to what the legacy carriers are becoming.
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[Graham Harrison]

In Aviation Week dated 10 January there's a long article on this subject.
One thing the article doesn't mention, perhaps surprisingly, is Google and
ITA. The article is arguing that American is seeking to reshape
distribution and gain more control over the sale of its' products and that
while the cost of distribution via GDS is an element in the current battle
it's not the be all. It also references the work done by the airlines in
working groups with ATPCO and IATA to create a system which would permit the
distribution, booking and accounting for ancillary fees by travel agents and
other intermediaries but which is gently gathering dust. When I looked
earlier today (Thursday 13th) the article was accessible on the Aviation
Week website together with another one announcing that Travelport had come
to an arrangement with Air Canada allowing the sale of AC ancillaries.

I can understand where AA are coming from. Whilst shopping comparison
sites exist on the internet to allow us to compare the cost of ordinary
consumer goods (e.g. Levis) they are nothing like as effective (in my view)
as the GDS and Orbitz/Expedia type websites. If I was an airline being
able to interact with my customer, recognise who the customer is, find his
record in my CRM system and then tailor my response to his request sounds
like a good idea.

I think the question is whether people will be prepared to go to the AA
website. People visit sites like Ryanair, Southwest and Air Asia based (at
least in part) on the premise that their fares are "cheap" (not always true
but there you are). American doesn't have that same halo so if the only
way to access their flights/fares is to go to them direct I wonder if people
will bite?

And there are other issues that niggle me round the edges of all this. One
of the real benefits of the air transportation system as it has grown over
the years has been interlining. Some will argue that alliances and code
share have reduced the benefits and that's no doubt true but I still use
interlining and I don't travel on business any more. If AA retreat to
their website and the other airlines follow how am I going to be able to buy
a ticket from London to Salta (Argentina) as I did a couple of years ago
when BA is in oneWorld and Aerolineas Argentinas is in a different alliance?
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