UAPremierExec

Hola FlyerTalkers - I'm an Alaska-based travel agency and we use Sabre GDS as well as an overlay, and we book A LOT of American/Alaska flights; as a codeshare but also build them into a reservation and ticket them separately, which saves our clients hundreds, if not THOUSANDS of dollars.

Example for today:
Clients are flying Miami to Seattle on the American nonstop, in First Class
Tomorrow they fly to "somewhere" in Alaska on Alaska Airlines.

AA will not price out the segments as its a 9-14 hour layover in Seattle, their fares are limited to just 4 hour stopovers. I can't do a joint-price, because American has End-on-End combination blockers to keep this from being ticketed as one transaction (but, oddly I can do this if they were connecting to a tiny little airline like Cape Air or Mokulele - this also doesn't work with JetBlue). So we build the reservation and ticket/price each portion - and both Alaska & American see their information.

Starting on April 3rd, American is gutting its GDS access to travel agents to force them into a direct link, which means the above scenario will no longer be possible. We won't be able to build everything as one reservation so that both American AND Alaska can see everything - only I can. The American flights will still show up in my system, but are "fake", as the ownership of the booking will no longer be on my Sabre system, but on the American Airlines side.

I won't be able to go in and cancel/void tickets anymore. I won't be able to go in and rebook AA/AS when one runs late (right now, AS sales will see the late AA flight and give me a waiver to change the Alaska flight, and vice versa if its Alaska running late, connecting to American).

On a traveler front, this also will probably obliverate AA/AS bag transfers since AA requires all bookings be done in the SAME reservation - which this is no longer possible.

Codeshare flights aren't affected, apparently.

So much for this "wonderful" partnership. Delta is going to be the REAL winner here, with Alaska being the loser - especially in Alaska. Unless American is going to throw their code on a bunch of new Alaska flights this weekend, which I doubt.

Write up by Brett at the CrankyFlier: CrankyFlier.com: American's Reckless NDC Push Delivers a Blow

ezak

Under this new system, even without an AS connection, how will agents be able to handle IRROPs or schedule changes? I read the article you linked, and sounds like this's yet to be found out.

StevenSeagalFan

I think NDC allows for what you're portraying, maybe not though. Can you use Sabre Red 360?

According to the press release from Sabre, "travel buyers" will still have access to GDS. At least that's how I read it.

https://www.sabre.com/insights/relea...=press-release

UAPremierExec

So just priced out a routing we sell a LOT of - Juneau to Ft Lauderdale.

In the GUI, which does American NDC - and its simply us putting in an "ORDER", not building a reservation we can manage/update/change/help with IRROPS - is $406.

Sabre GDS (Red) prices the itinerary at $600 and change.

The agent GUI environment (overlay that pulls data from Sabre) - which is what 95% of all travel agents now use (very very few of us GDS dinosaurs left) - $1000.

cyborg

"Working as intended"

-as my favorite "Network Help Desk" contractor used to say.

Cheers,

-Cyborg

chuck1

My company came out with our NDC classes.
Fares, such as a market I ticket a lot (DCA-DFW), prices a lot higher in the GDS (Sabre) than the NDC.
This is not just economy but also first fares.
The booking seems much more cumbersome too.

sfozrhfco

Exactly, they want as many people as possible to book directly with the airline. If passengers have to buy separate tickets which don't come with IRROPS protections--even better. Pushes much of the liability off of the airline and on to the passenger. Charging higher fares is an added bonus.

mikexner

This doesn’t sound like travelers will suffer - it sounds like travel agents will suffer. Unfortunately, this is our new world. They don’t want to pay commission - they want all dollars directly to their bottom line.

StevenSeagalFan

Ding ding ding. Travelers won't suffer. Travel agents who don't want to invest in tech or want to see their commissions cut will get squeezed.

Eastbay1K

Travelers will suffer. Most TAs have the "tech" already and many are surviving from fee assessments, not commissions. It isn't that AA is leaving the GDS, it is that many of the fares are leaving the GDS. So, it makes it unwieldy (and in some cases, probably impossible) to book passengers on a multi-airline itinerary on the same ticket. There are many permutations of why this hurts travelers. From IROPS processing by a TA when one can't get through to the airline, to inability to check-through bags because the interline is inhibited as there are two reservations. Then, there's the pricing issue. Funny how WN has finally entered the mid-20th century by more fully participating in GDS, while AA is going the other way.

Meanwhile, we'll have to wait and see what kind of offerings AA provides to AS when booking AA segments through the AS website.

UAPremierExec

So I guess you have NEVER waited on hold with the airline for 1+ hours, ever, in your life?

*NONE* of my clients have. EVER.

Because we go into Sabre, rebook them, revalidate the tickets, and send them on their merry way. And for what its worth, we don't make commission on interline tickets (Alaska doesn't pay anyway, but AA does). We already split those reservations.

AND #2.

American agents REFUSE to check bags to Alaska that are NOT booked in the same PNR/itinerary. Which is now 1000% impossible with NDC or on their website.

Feel free to edit your post.

nomiiiii

I mean, your clients wait on hold to talk to a travel agent and are on their mercy to not make a mistake. But anyways, your main point stands that airlines should allow interline tickets on same pnr specially if part of the same alliance.

StevenSeagalFan

I still have yet to see a compelling argument detailing how this will impact a large swath of travelers? I’ve flown hundreds of thousands of miles almost exclusively with AS and AA, even in instances where I’ve flown a similar example of Miami-SEA with “somewhere” in Alaska the next day and never found the need for a travel agent, that’s just me though. I think that airline’s are going to continue to try and and maximize all the revenue and share less and less of it and TAs will be an unfortunate victim.

UAPremierExec

Our agency is a franchise of Travel Edge, which has a 24/7 call center in Toronto - longest hold time reported was 8 minutes. I think 99.99% of you would take that over a call-back 2 days later (which is what Alaska Air was doing over Christmas). Lets also not forget, that as a travel agent (GDS), I get notified within seconds of your flight status changing.... the Alaska app and systems failed over Christmas and only notified 15% of all those travelers affected.

Flyertalkers are a different breed of flyer - we know to use TripIt and other systems for flight monitoring and cancellation notices because Alaska (and most airlines) IT systems just don't always work. But the average traveler, well, you'd be surprised. Even with my OWN bookings, I've been alerted by my own Sabre notifications well ahead of the Alaska Airlines app and or emails notifying me of the delays or cancellations. NDC won't give us the same updates because the PNR no longer lives in Sabre, but in AA's system.

This AA move into NDC was done too quickly and without much thought put into it outside of the AA centric sales goals. I thankfully have a captive audience at Alaska that includes decision makers and they've all been mortified by the AA roll out, and while Alaska is moving forward with a similar plan, its not going to be as 'harsh' and they'll have a lot more information and details for the travel trade & online booking systems compared to what AA has done.

sfozrhfco

The point remains that up to now AA is not concerned. It is not like there are a ton of choices for Alaskans either—which is why you have to book people on multiple carriers to get to their final destination. This adds liability for IRROPS and potentially lost baggage which the airline does not want. May some passengers be inconvenienced? Sure— but AA obviously feels they won’t be impacted negatively by the change. If they are, as most businesses do when reacting to falling revenue, they will attempt to course correct. If they gain as a result of the changes, expect to spend more of your resources dealing with frustrated customers—who are likely to also blame the travel agent which to the passenger is
seen as providing worse service than before.

Another win for AA and their quest for control of the bookings when passengers just choose to book directly.