Originally Posted by
canadiancow
It's "public data", but AC explicitly stated that they had a request from a partner to shut down their calendar because it was causing too much strain on the partner's system.
Reward space cannot be sold by a TA, so it does not actually need to be public.
They (and by "they" I mean "any airline") could easily restrict it by no longer publishing OIX in public channels, and instead only to other airlines that actually allow booking into it.
Agreed it need not be "public" but one reason AC is allowing it to be public is because they now allow folks to purchase AP miles during the booking flow. In a way providing public access is enabling AP to use their loyalty program as a sales channel. Ie a user who doesn't have an AP account can potentially snag a flight for cheaper rate by just purchasing Aeroplan points on the fly.
Even now "airline" is only publishing OIX or other inventory (in case of non *A partners) only to private channels. Public (including cow tool) is accessing that inventory though one of those private channels.
Originally Posted by
canadiancow
Can you clarify the bolded part? I do not recall this being discussed.
Not explicitly discussed but kinda evident (may be just to me) from the exchanges.
Until and unless there's some regulation - I don't think AC will work on developing a SSO layer that third party apps can consume.
Originally Posted by
canadiancow
That is why AC can "never" (barring some massive *A wide upgrade)
My take is that the challenge will be mainly from small (boutique) carriers like MK or GF or the kind who may be using non standard systems to manage their inventory.