No doubt about it: New distribution capability (NDC) benefits airlines — for example, by enabling them to display, market and sell the same content regardless of shopping channel, as well as to introduce continuous pricing. However, it also offers multiple advantages for travel advisors — advantages that can be maximized by taking steps to make the transition to NDC easier.
“While moving to NDC will require travel advisors to invest in training and, among other things, devote time to adjusting to the (platform and program), the tradeoff will be huge,” states Michael Share, co-founder and co-CEO of Boston-based Blockskye. Share, whose company operates a travel agency for PwC and has partnered with that client and United to explore the application of blockchain in airline offer management, defines this tradeoff as “better technology, better content and better access to what travelers want.”
What's in it for travel advisors?
Share and other sources say travel advisors can anticipate significant gains from NDC, specifically:
• Access to more fares (i.e., “continuous pricing”), including those that would not be available on their GDS. This puts travel advisors at rate parity with airlines’ websites (‘airline.com’), eliminating customer confusion when “they see one price on ‘airline.com’ and a higher price on ours,” says Dena Fradette, head of partnerships at San Francisco-based TravelBank.
• Option for travel advisors to access and sell ancillary products they can add in-app, then allow customers to shop for and purchase within their booking flow. “Having the ability to access and sell ancillary products provides us with more visibility into our customers’ shopping behavior,” Fradette states. “For example, prior to NDC, customers would book their flight with their TMC (travel management company), then purchase ancillary products like premium/paid seat upgrades, Wi-Fi passes, priority access passes, checked baggage, etc. via ‘airline.com’. We would not get any visibility into post-booking ancillary products, and employers would not get any visibility until after they submit their expense report. NDC lets us integrate ancillary products right into the TMC’s shopping experience, so both the customer and the agency get visibility into these purchases at the time of booking.”
• Access to customized corporate or agency bundles. These are not traditionally available through traditional channels. They can be personalized now that travel agencies have visibility into ancillaries that were historically bought on “airline.com."
• Ability to integrate “entitlement shopping." This feature reflects status recognition during the shopping process.
• Flexibility to include “value-adds” and bring new products to market. The fact that NDC “brings travel advisors closer to a single version of the truth, where customers get through our channels the same flight offers, brand options, ancillaries and servicing functionality they get on the airline website, lets us offer lots of ‘value adds’ on top,” says Jeff Klee, CEO and co-founder of AmTrav in Los Angeles. He cites policy control, reporting, duty of care, and multi-carrier comparison shopping — all of which are important to corporate clients — as examples of such “value-adds.”
As for bringing new products to market, economy seating with extra leg room now accounts for 10% of AmTrav’s economy sales via NDC. “Travelers want that, and now it’s available to them in their corporate channel,” Klee notes.
“All in all, the features that are available only on NDC — like a wider variety of price points and services, whether through, for example, continuous pricing, ancillary or bundle offerings, or entitlement shopping — gives travel advisors a competitive advantage,” Fradette asserts.
“Essentially, NDC provides access to rich content and personalization (we can build more customized fares based on customer preferences), bundled pricing, real-time inventory, and a wider variety of price points, helping us to build a seamless, delightful shopping experience for customers,” Fradette says. “And it’s an experience that’s consistent with booking direct through airlines, with features and capabilities that aren’t traditionally available via EDIFACT.”
• Less “pushback,” more client satisfaction. Blockskye’s agents often have “a challenging time when they provide customers with pricing, and those customers run their own rate comparisons, then come back and ask why they found lower fares somewhere else,” Share explains. He believes “working with United’s NDC” will open doors for agents to have “the best possible pricing, avoid dealing with those questions and keep clients happy, too.”
Similarly, with NDC, price quotes for clients who want to change their ticket come from the airline and are not subject to interpretation or manual calculation by an agent or GDS. “For customers to get that consistency regardless of what channel they book in is a win for them, which makes it a win for agencies and airlines,” Klee states.
• Ability to work smarter. “Ancillary bookings are particularly time consuming in EDIFACT-powered systems,” asserts Yanik Hoyles, director of distribution, IATA. Advisors book the ticket in the GDS, and then very often must go to the airline website to book the ancillary, and then go back to enter the booked ancillary in their system. NDC makes it possible to access the same products and services available on the airline’s website in one place, which has a positive impact on productivity.”
Additionally, Share says, NDC yields agents more control over ancillary services, bookings and any disruptions that may occur, while NDC platforms empower airlines to respond promptly to these disruptions and work better, overall, with their clients through improved channels.
Easing the transition
Not surprisingly, optimizing these benefits — and supporting a smooth transition on the NDC platform — means following a few key best practices. Sources recommend:
• Adopting a new mindset. Michael Share strongly advocates abandoning the idea that “just because air travel has been sold a certain way for a long time, it must always be sold that way.”
Klee agrees. “NDC doesn’t always fit into traditional travel advisor workflows,” he says. “Something as common as an availability-led flight search isn’t really supported. You also can’t simply pull up a PNR, sell a new segment, and reprice it while you’re still holding the old segment. That’s not to say there are no other ways to accomplish the same objectives, but to embrace NDC, travel advisors really need to be willing to forget how things have always been done and accept workflows that are new, different, and in the beginning, not as familiar.”
Fradette advocates acknowledging that some challenges associated with NDC alone aren’t really NDC-specific. Case in point: The inability to apply existing flight credits in EDIFACT to a new direct booking is an obstacle within the realm of NDC — but also outside it.
• Starting small. Taking gradual steps toward NDC adoption, rather than jumping in in one fell swoop, prevents the change from becoming too overwhelming and gives travel advisors time to resolve issues before they become major impediments to success. AmTrav harnesses such a strategy.
“Our goal right now when we launch NDC with a carrier is to make it seamless to the client,” Klee notes. “That’s a modest goal, admittedly — eventually we want the client to get a noticeably better experience. But for now, we’re still trying to crawl before we walk and are doing a good job of meeting that goal because of some truly heroic efforts behind the scenes by our operations teams.”
• Communicating and collaborating with airline partners and industry stakeholders. Hoyles recommends approaching airlines to glean a deep understanding of how their commercial NDC strategy will evolve. The sooner the connection is made, the more prepared travel advisors will be to successfully board the NDC train.
Hans Mast, an agent at Golden Rule Travel in Hutchinson, Kan., corroborates Hoyles’ comment. He adds that establishing strong relationships and engaging in open, frequent communication with airline representatives not only gives travel advisors a better grasp of carriers’ NDC strategies; it paves the way for negotiating more favorable agreements and resolving any “issues” before they escalate.
• Engaging with industry associations, consortiums, and technology providers that are actively involved in shaping NDC standards and implementation is also a must. “Participate in discussions, provide feedback and contribute to the development of best practices,” Mast advises.
• Investing in technology. This includes tools and platforms that support NDC integration, along with travel agency systems and software designed to enable seamless NDC connectivity and, in turn, the option to compare offers from various airlines, Mast says.
Solutions that offer both NDC and GDS content via a single booking tool and user interface are now available, according to Elliott McNamee, AmTrav’s director of product marketing. “European agencies have been using these (solutions) for a decade,” McNamee observes. “GDSs have been very slow to integrate NDC content and will continue to be slow. In the meantime, airlines have shown that they’ll pull content from EDIFACT GDS channels and even permanently limit GDS content access altogether. Continuing to rely on the GDS to be the content source, the agent user interface, the booking database, and even the CRM instead of investing in this new technology is a risky proposition.”
Some travel advisors are also investing in technology to support a smoother move and adjustment to NDC. Blockskye has introduced an internal dashboard designed to make the booking process seamless for its agents.
• Taking advantage of training and education. United and other carriers provide training and NDC education for their partners.
“The shift to NDC will take work and require adjustment, and there will be challenges,” Share concludes. “But in the end, the payback for travel advisors, airlines and customers will make the effort worthwhile.”