Novel approach to keeping travel agents on their toes - fine the hell out of 'em

As Leftfield, one of FlightGlobal's blogs says: "Airlines may say they love travel agents, and maybe they do, but they have an odd way of showing it."

Delta Airlines is making sure agencies tow the line by double-checking all bookings they make via a GDS for errors.

But the carrier will not just send a strongly worded email for cock-ups or other misdemeanors, oh no.

Passive bookings (ghost bookings) will see the agent charged $3.50.

Hmm. That's quite steep.

But a bank-busting $50 will slapped on agents automatically (via the Airlines Reporting Corp) if they make an invalid name-change to a booking or are found to be making naughty block bookings - which it calls "duplicative, fraudulent, fictitious, and speculative reservations" - to reserve fares.

Ouch!

Be warned - The Airlines Strike Back!

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: delta travel agent GDS

EasyJet and the payment issue

Much chatter in the industry these past few days after EasyJet opened up its product feed to leisure bookings.

Comtec has also annouced it will be handling a live feed from EasyJet in order for leisure clients to take bookings of EasyJet fares.

Much of this development is because EasyJet is trying to crack down on the seemingly endless scraping of its site, keeping many of the meta search engines in traffic.

What's the point of having a UK-focused flight meta search engine if you don't include EasyJet content, is an obvious question.

But the smallprint is very interesting. Reports suggest that EasyJet will charge £10 per booking every time a transaction is made using data from the feed.

The question is this: will an offline agent be able to persuade a customer to part with £10 just because they made the booking for them? Or will they see through it and simply go to EasyJet.com at home to secure the flight element of a trip?

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Round we go again

With airline surcharges flying all over the place at the moment Sabre's current approach is interesting.

The distribution giant says its agency customers want access to content but not at any price.

Sabre is supporting the traditional model of airlines paying a booking fee to the GDS and the GDS paying an incentive to travel agents.

Curious that a couple of years ago when airlines were beginning to hold content to ransom the GDS was willing to consider all avenues and called on agents to meet it half way.

Fast forward to 2008 and what do you do when your customers' customers - the travellers - wants access to the content? Especially at a time when costs are being scrutinised.

And, what to do when customers - agency or corporate - put in place direct connections with those evil surcharging airlines.

Of the general market Sabre's Martin Cowley said he couldn't predict further than six months at the moment.

"Anyone who does is flying a kite quite frankly."

Difficult though when you are having to renegotiate multiple year deals with European airlines.

So, will Sabre have to drop its stance in a matter of weeks or months or will taking the moral high ground pay off?

Who needs who more?

Linda Fox, lead reporter, Travolution

GDS headache for continental cousins

So, what is the motivation for Lufthansa and Swiss putting surcharges on certain fares booked by travel agents through the GDS.

• Could it be they are just flexing their muscles?
• Are they driving traffic to their own online channels, trade and consumer?
• Could it be that European airline/GDS contract negotiations are ongoing?
• Maybe it's something to do with all three.

This seems completely at odds with a deal just completed between Iberia and Amadeus which is being heralded - by Aedave, the Spanish version of ABTA, no less [you'll need to dust off your Spanish] - as a first step towards airlines doing away with surcharges for fares booked through a GDS.

More on the subject from Business Travel Europe.

Thoughts?

Linda Fox, lead reporter, Travolution

GDSs and the little guy

Guest blogger post from Colin Lewis, head of sales and marketing at Aer Arann:

The way low-cost airlines view of the GDS as a distribution method is currently changing.

Over the last year we’ve seen a number of airlines such as Jetblue, Jetstar Asia and Valuair signing distribution deals with GDSs.

The most recent sees Easyjet’s announcement a few weeks back of its new distribution deals with both Amadeus and Galileo. Whilst some airlines have slammed this decision, I think it’s important not to miss the point here.

A large percentage of business travel bookings are driven through a corporate travel agent in order that businesses can effectively track their budgets as part of a larger controlled fiscal process.

As a result, to ignore corporate travel agents as a source of new business would be a mistake for most airlines.

The bottom line is – if you want to sell to business travellers, you need to participate in GDS’s.

Most of the business is incremental – Aer Arann receives 90% of their business via direct internet bookings, and this has not changed with greater GDS participation. Business travellers are also higher yield

I can’t help but consider that the strong response elicited by other low-cost airlines may have been in a bid to achieve column inches.

It is noticeable that once low cost airlines evolve and became more sophisticated, they start distributing on the GDS to reach newer, higher yield market – and what airline does not want higher yield?

There is no doubt that the GDS and the corporate travel agent are an essential part of our distribution system, and long may that continue.

Colin Lewis, head of sales and marketing, Aer Arann

All aboard the GDS love-in - not quite

The European Commission gave the thumbs-up last week to an extraordinary deal between two of the giants of the GDS world, Amadeus and Sabre.

The pair are launching Moneydirect, a rather clever payment "solution" for travel providers and needed the EC to clear any competition issues.

There is plenty of detail to follow on this but there is one crucial question (apart from the name of the business, which sounds more akin to a financial services price comparison site):

What about Travelport (Galileo and Worldspan's parent organisation)?

Amadeus-Sabre say they want this to be the start of an industry standard solution for payments. But the other half the GDS sector feels indifferent, has ideas of its own or is biding its time to see whether Moneydirect works.

[The system has been up and running successfully in Australia and New Zealand]

During a briefing last week, Moneydirect chief operating officer Laurent Chartier (from the Amadeus camp) pointed us to some comments from Jeff Clark (Travelport), who said the project was a "good idea" and "positive for all parties".

However Chartier would not say how negotiations had gone so far with Travelport. Indeed there is a board of directors for the new company, which is staffed with Amadeus and Sabre execs.

Either way the development is a very good one for an industry, many execs behind the scenes admit, beset with old systems which are not up to the task of handling high volumes and coordintating multi-distribution platforms.

Let's just see how long it takes Worldspan-Galileo to join the club.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: worldspan moneydirect sabre amadeus galileo travelport GDS

You took a copy of Travolution where?!? Part 1

Thought we'd get the first of an indeterminate - and Sunday evening-type, timewasting - series off to an incredible start with this effort from Australia.

Reader Joel Carpenter took a copy of the December 2006 edition of Travolution to well over 10,000 feet and then threw himself out of the aircraft (surely a rather extreme reaction after reading an analysis of the GDSs - Ed).

Carpenter said:

"This is after freefall, once my canopy was open. You can see that the mag got pretty torn up in freefall, but 200km/h winds will do that."

Quite...

You can send submissions via email and we'll add them on the blog.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: skydive parachute australia

A Good Friday to take stock of 2007

Time flies fast, the saying goes, but the first quarter of 2007 appears to have raced by quicker than you can say "Big Four into Big Three into Big Two".

Without doubt the biggest story to hit the travel industry so far this year has been the consolidation between the traditional travel providers - Thomas Cook and MyTravel shocking many people back in February when they announced their merger, followed by TUI and First Choice a few weeks back when they decided to get in on the act.

Our analysis of the TUI-First Choice deal merger provoked some strong reactions, but we stand by it all. The US players MUST be watching the situation here in Europe very closely.

The deals came shortly after we published an interview with Ian McCaig, chief executive of Lastminute.com, who spoke of a widening gap in the European industry between those that have the power to negotiate on high volume deals with suppliers and, basically, those that do not.

The smaller companies will find themselves forced into "going niche", as someone else put it to us shortly after McCaig's comments.

Meanwhile much attention - admittedly a lot from us - has been given to the British Airways content distribution negotiations with the four big GDSs.

So far Worldspan, Galileo and Sabre Travel Network have re-signed, with Amadeus remaining.

Tricia Holly Davis has been following the event closely for months, breaking a number of key developments during the negotiations, including the news that BA was playing "rack-rate" to GDSs after talks failed to bring about a solution before the original 28 February deadline.

Amazingly, while all the above events have been going on, Expedia has managed to keep itself almost out of the news entirely for almost half a year now, such has been the focus of attention on the shenenigans across the traditional market.

But the OTA suddenly finds itself in a unique position: it is one very few big travel companies, certainly in the US, not owned by private equity; and it is still the dominant player in many markets.

Rumours abound, however, Expedia will feature much more heavily in headlines in the remaining three quarters of 2007.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: expedia british airways online travel

GDS deregulation debate rears its head again

"Open Letters" always sound very dramatic - but the message in this particular letter is one that pops up from time to time and is doing the rounds elsewhere.

The European Commission is once again soliciting comments from the industry regarding deregulation of the GDSs.

The debate has not changed: one side says all airline owernship in Amadeus must be divested before full deregulation is allowed, lest the threat of biased disaplay, as indicated in the letter below.

The other side claims biased display is not a reality and cites several reasons, as outlined continuously over the year.

Anyway...

Dear editor,

The travel industry is one of continual evolution and change. Keeping up with the events that can fundamentally affect our business from day to day is a challenge. However, there is one issue that I would like to bring to your attention, as it could impact our industry and change the way many of us do business.

Recently, the European Commission (EC) began soliciting public comment on possible revisions to the Code of Conduct for Computerized Reservation Systems (CRS), also known as global distribution systems (GDS), and will accept comments through the 27th of April.

The last round of discussions and debate on the subject of CRS deregulation took place in 2004. Arguments focused on the "Brattle Report," which was commissioned by the EC from the Brattle Group in October of 2003 to provide an objective point of view on the regulatory environment around CRSs in Europe and to make concrete recommendations with regards to total or partial deregulation. (The 15-page executive summary is well worth the read.) The EC ultimately postponed decision-making. However, the current public consultation means it is again time to act.

It is not my objective to promulgate a particular point of view. I wish simply to call your attention to some of the fundamental questions that have been asked in the past and for which the EC will need to provide answers via a legislative decision that could take place later this year.

When an airline has ownership in a CRS, should this raise competitive concerns for consumers, business travelers and their companies? If the playing field in Europe risks being biased in favor of CRS-owning airlines and their distribution channels, would access to full content be impacted?

If the content in the CRSs is not available on an equal basis and is, in addition, fragmented across several distribution channels, how would this affect efficiency and the cost of distribution, as well as travel?

As a consumer and an actor in the travel industry, I would encourage you to take advantage of this unique opportunity and make your opinion known to the EC by no later than the 27 of April at one of the following addresses:

European Commission
Directorate-General for Energy and Transport
Office DM24 5/98
B-1049 Brussels, Belgium

tren-consultation-crs@ec.europa.eu

For further information on this important issue, please visit C-fare.org

Richard Lovell, chief operating officer, EMEA and Latin America, Carlson Wagonlit Travel

And that left Amadeus

Another day, another GDS signs with British Airways to renew its content distribution deal.

Looking forward to an early Easter egg is Worldspan, which became the third GDS to end what appears to have been reasonably fraught negotitations in recent months between all four leading players and the UK's flag carrier.

So just Amadeus remains without a deal, with Galileo [which, it must be remembered, could be merging with Worldspan in a few months anyway, subject to regulatory approval in the US] and Sabre Travel Network already enjoying their new relationship with BA.

So another signing before the crucial magical April 10 deadline looks a likely bet. Although there could yet be another twist to what has been a pretty captivating process so far.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

EXCLUSIVE - Travolution to create GDS

In years to come industry commentators will remember where they were the day Travolution announced its intention to move into the GDS space by teaming up with start-up Lirpaloof.com.

So here's a bit of a heads-up...

After at least six months in the planning, under the guise of arranging the finer details of our forthcoming Awards and Summit, Travolution publishing director Simon Ferguson and I have been in top-level discussions with Lirpaloof.com to launch what we believe could be the first serious challenge to the stranglehold of the major GDSs.

Much has been made of the so-called mini or Smart-GDSs, but Travolution-Lirpaloof.com's plan, known as Project Baba, will revolutionise the process further.

The partnership will draw on the skills of both companies: Travolution will be able to work with its vast array of contacts within the airline industry to negotiate favourable distribution rates for fares.

Lirpaloof.com will use its superior technology, developed initially for the Blackberry market, to run the complex hardware and software required to take on the likes of Sabre, Amadeus, Worldspan and Galileo.

A statement to be issued tomorrow to the wires from Simon and myself will say:

"We are delighted to be working with Lirpaloof.com. Combining the power of these two very different organisations - one a cutting edge player in media, the other a market-leader in handheld technologies - will send shivers down the spines of the existing GDSs."

"We can reassure readers our position as a publisher of magazines, our blog and website for the travel trade will not compromised by this partnership. We go through phases every week when at least one of the current GDSs falls out with us, so at least this will be official."

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Read more about Lirpaloof.com.

Some other amazing news.

Two down, two to go

British Airways has signed a three-year inventory distribution deal with Sabre TravelNetwork which will give the GDS's travel agent subscribers access to all of BA's fares. The inventory will be available to all Sabre connected-travel agents worldwide.

The new Sabre opt-in program guarantees travel agents in the UK and Ireland, through adjusted financial terms with Sabre, full access to the current BA content, including the complete range of published fares the airline sells through its own web site, any third-party website, and its own reservation offices.

Opt-in schemes, whereby agents pay a portion of the GDS fee in exchange for full access to content, are nothing new. The concept was madely widely known back in 2004, when BA was re-negotiating its previous GDS contracts. Sabre says this is the first time, however, that it has offered agents an "opt-in" programme.

BA reached a similar agreement with the Galileo distribution system a little more than two weeks ago, but not with its soon-to-be sister company, Worldpsan.

Amadeus, which is not typically a lagger, also has yet to secure a deal with Britain's flag carrier.

Now I'm not trying to start any rumours here or anything, but maybe, just maybe, the companies' failure thus far to reach an agreement is not actually BA's fault.

You see, since BA's previous GDS contracts expired on 28 February, the airline has been paying a handsome GDS "rack rate". Maybe the likes of Amadeus and Worldspan figure there's no harm in milking BA for a little while longer--you know, just till the end of the month.

Let's see what Friday brings....

Tricia Holly Davis, chief writer, Travolution

WorldspanReunited

Came across a new blog this evening. It needs little explanation...

The Worldspan Alumni Blog.

Most of the entries rather helpfully point users to job vacancies around the US or highlight other news, such as births, marriages and deaths of ex-Worldspan employees and their families.

But this has to be the best entry, from July 2005:

"Well well well. Time to pull my big ole foot outta my mouth. After having very recently gleefully posting that I had heard no news of any layoffs in quite some time, it seems that karma was just out to get me. Indeed I have heard some widespread reports stating numbers between 65 and 90!

"We wish those that have fallen prey to the most recent round of layoffs the very best of luck in landing on their feet."

Oh dear...

Unfortunately there has not been a post on the blog since February 2006. A shame - we would love to have read what RoboWizard, the blog's author, had to say about the Travelport deal.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Rumour mill has a new spring in its step

With so much speculation doing the rounds recently about the fate of some leading online travel brands, especially concerning Travelport and its portfolio of brands, we thought it might be worthwhile listing them all:

1) Travelport’s OTA brands, Orbitz and Ebookers, will seek an IPO on either the New York or London Stock Exchanges.

2) In lieu of an IPO, Orbitz and/or Ebookers will be snapped by potential suitors Expedia Inc, Priceline, or Sabre Holdings.

3) Sabre Holdings, which has received European Commission approval to be acquired by US-based private equity firms Silver Lake Partners and Texas Pacific Group (TPG), will itself be spun-off, possibly to Amadeus (though that alliance might have a tough time getting regulatory approval).

(TPG separately owns a stake in G2SwitchWorks, which was created by a former Orbitz executive to rival the traditional GDS systems, and has co-invested in non-travel related projects with private equity firm The Blackstone Group, which has a stake in Travelport.)

4) Silver Lake Partners and TPG will keep Travelocity as their core asset and build up a complementary portfolio by acquiring other consumer-facing travel brands…possibly Expedia.

5) Google will buy everything - end of story.

But seriously, since all four GDSs and their respective subsidiaries are already loosely affiliated through mutual stakeholders, a re-shuffling of assets as enumerated above is not inconceivable.

The big question is just how much shuffling can the market and regulators bear?

Tricia Holly Davis, chief writer, Travolution

Galileo can break open the champers

BA appears to be moving towards a resolution over its stance with the GDSs.

The airline has issued a statement confirming a new content deal with Travelport-owned Galileo (but not the soon-to-be-Travelport-owned Worldspan).

The short press release says the new "long-term, global full content agreement" will run for three years from 10 April 2007.

Discussions are apparently ongoing with Worldspan, Sabre Travel Network and Amadeus.

There are perhaps a few lines in the release that hint at the issue right at heart of the discussions experienced by all parties in recent weeks:

"The new opt-in programme offers travel agents in the UK and Ireland the opportunity to access all of British Airways' fare content that is made publicly available through the airline's sales channels, including BA.com."

Ignoring the "travel agents in UK and Ireland" line - the deal is actually for agents elsewhere in the world, a BA press officer confirmed - the statement reveals BA's continued desire to push its content through an many non-GDS channels as possible.

Secondly, BA's Tiffany Hall says the agreement will "reduce the airline's distribution costs".

The airline's head of marketing and distribution sounds like she has got exactly what they wanted.

So it's champagne all-round, so far. BA gets the first of its deals; Galileo is just damn relieved to have signed.

However travel agents could be facing higher surcharges on some routes than they had under the former opt-in clause, says a source close to the new agreement.

Bets are on for which GDS signs next...

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Travolution@ITBPhoCusWright - No more legacy, but no answers

Google gets a breather at last. It's time for the airlines to get some airtime here in Berlin, rather than what appears to plenty of muttering about the search giant's ambitions in the travel sector.

We'll ask Esteban Walther [Google] later on, promises PhoCusWright boss Philip Wolf.

William Phillipson from Boston-based tech-house ITA Software takes the stage to highlight the plight of the airlines and their so-called legacy systems.

"There is a mish-mash of systems from over 50 years", he says, including reservation kits, e-commerce, remote access and, more recently, remote access, web and e-ticketing.

The problem with such a plethora of systems is pretty fundamental, Phillipson says. Each piece of kit contains a different customer database, but now the now vastly empowered consumer needs far better servicing, airline legacy technology is just not up to the job.

ITA, understandably, wants to peddle its own "solution", but the panel for the talkback session has meatier issues on its mind.

"Why should we switch?" asks Sigmundur Halldorsson from Icelandair during the talkback session, which uses the Amadeus platform.

"I would not be able to comment on your relationship with Amadeus," Phillipson says, much to the disappointment of the audience. And to paraphrase a reasonably convoluted answer: "Functionality, value and cost."

An delegate asks, via the text system, if ITA has designs on being one of the so-called GNEs (mini-GDSs).

Cue a rather nervous-looking Phillipson, who only answers when the question comes in again from Martin Ruschen (Lufthansa Systems), another member of the panel.

"G2Switchworks is an excellent customer of ours. We are a technology provider and will be willing to talk to anybody out there." Doesn't really answer the question really...

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

The long and winding road

The first thing we at Travolution ought to do is send British Airways' chief executive Willie Walsh and the GDSs a bill for our long distance phone calls, such is the global significance of their current predicament.

BA's supposed reluctance to sign new distribution contracts with its former GDS partners portends the beginning of a new era in airline distribution, where corporate and leisure travel agents and ultimately their customers will bear more of the costs.

We here at Travolution have been ringing our sources around the world to find out exactly what BA has up its sleeve in an effort to determine how the future distribution landscape will look.

Our efforts to bring you the latest news on the negotiations have zigzagged their way across the globe.

Mr Orange was on the piste somewhere in the Continent.

Mr White was in the States suffering from a horrible cold and we politely interrupted Mr Pink during an important meeting in Asia. (Admittedly we actually communicated with Mr Pink via text, so that will have to be accounted for the in phone bill)

Ok, enough of the Reservoir Dogs analogy.

We just thought you might like to know that the editorial staff here at Travolution were not down the pub whilst countless travel agents and corporations were sweating over their futures.

Whilst we were waiting for our countless calls, emails and texts to be returned, we thought we'd look up the dictionary definition of "negotiation".

From the Latin negotiationem, a negotiation is defined as a "mutual discussion and arrangement of the terms of a transaction or agreement".

Based on that definition and everything we've been told by our trusty sources, we can hardly call the current round of GDS talks a negotiation.

Walsh has a point. The airlines, for a long time, have been gouged by the GDSs and the distribution of wealth definitely needs to be re-evaluated.

And maybe, just maybe, his hardball tactics will pay off in the long run and will not be at the expense of everyone else.

But is asking for a 100% discount on distribution fees, a demand BA allegedly made at the beginning of the talks (according to Mr Pink) really the way forward when people's livelihoods are at stake?

Is agreeing to pay nearly double GDS fees a good idea? Have we suddenly been cast into the bolier room bartering stalls of Cairo? Surely there is a better, more intelligent, way for BA to move forward.

Let's hope Walsh and the GDSs find some clarity over the weekend.

Tricia Holly Davis, chief writer, Travolution

BA to GDS: Computer says no

Well, well, well. It turns out that British Airways' tough-talking chief executive Willie Walsh is indeed a man of his word.

BA has undisputably proved that the days of the GDS dictating what the airlines will pay to distribute their inventory are very much over.

It has been three days since BA allowed its former GDS contracts to lapse without any kind of replacement in sight.

Britain's flag carrier has also snubbed those GDSs which had offered it a short-term extension - a sort of temporary peace offering, if you will - which would have allowed BA to keep paying a discounted distribution fee.

But no. Accepting anything from the GDSs would be a sign of weakness and Walsh will not show weakness.

Apparently, BA's strategy is to pay the maximum GDS "rack rate" in an effort to prove that it won't be bullied into a new contract.

Good strategy. Not!

In fact, in the interim the strategy could be said to have backfired somewhat. [Our news story here]

If I were a BA shareholder, I'd be less than pleased.

The maximum GDS "rack rate" BA faces is around £4 per segment, depending on the GDS, the route, and ticket type, but that is still about double what BA was paying under its old contract.

All of this money you're spending - quite unnecessarily - on GDS fees had better well be worth it in the long-term.

A source close to the negotiations agreed: "We can't seem to work it out. BA is gonig to spend a lot of money this month by paying a lot more than it needs to."

So what does Walsh have up his sleeve?

Sources close to the GDSs say they're stumped and, at this point, are not hopeful that a deal - at least a long-term one - is imminent.

As one source put it, "At this point, we're looking at a temporary solution".

Another source said, "We're not a million miles away [from reaching a deal], but we're not close either".

So now what? BA admits the higher GDS rates are "not sustainable in the long-term" and that it is, therefore, considering "a number of options should we not reach agreements with the GDSs in the near future".

As of today BA says all of its content will continue to be distributed via all the GDSs, but no one knows if that will be the case tomorrow or the next day.

BA has pledged to give its agency partners ample notice "should we need to implement any changes to the way we distribute our fares", but that is not an entriely comforting statement.

If anything, it seems to indicate that BA is well prepared to remove some of its content from the GDS.

There is also the question of how much agents will wind up paying for future access to BA's content.

For now, agents are not subject to surcharges but that situation could change quite easily.

The only thing that is for certain is that BA is prepared to fight to the last round to get what it wants.

We all knew Walsh would be a...well, you know. But I don't think anyone expected him to go this far.

Tricia Holly Davis, chief writer, Travolution

Silence is golden for BA and the GDSs

With seven hours to go until the supposed British Airways-GDS negotiation deadline (midnight tonight), and not a whisper from any of five main protagonists...

In other words: everyone remains happy - for the moment.

Some reports today have said fees will not be passed onto travel agents which are booking tickets via GDSs, which is a bit of a non-story as no (dis)agreement has been reached anyway.

The deadline will also be missed, as we predicted last week.

The GDSs that have responded to inquiries have greeted us with a simple "no comment".

Can we expect a last-minute flurry activity? Will at least one of the main GDSs sign at the eleventh hour?

Probably not - but it would be interesting to hear the reaction of the others GDSs if just one deal was signed, as one source close to the negotiations suspected might happen when he spoke to us a few weeks back.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

We can learn a lot from tech-savvy Indians

Indian online travel portal Travelguru has inked a deal with Air Deccan, India’s second largest airline, to provide budget hotel bookings and holiday packages to the carrier’s passengers.

The partnership will allow Air Deccan passengers to book 2,500 hotels, including some 1,500 budget/ economy hotels, through its website. The hotels are located in 160 cities across India including all destinations that Air Deccan serves.

The deal also guarantees Air Deccan passengers access to the best available hotel rates.

Travelguru founder and CEO Ashwin Damera, during a panel discussion held at PhoCusWright conference last September, indicated that such partnerships were imminent.

Damera had observed that India is unique in that both consumers and the online travel industry are evolving simultaneously.

In this way, Indian online travel portals like Travelguru are perhaps better placed than their European counterparts to get more creative in how they distribute travel content.

Oh, the joys of youth.

This does beg the question where the European market is headed and how such creative partnerships could be used to build online brand loyalty.

And where will the GDSs fit in?

Some GDSs provide hotel content to some airlines, but there has been talk for ages about how they could expand this part of their business and use it as a selling point in their airline negotiations.

It would come in particularly handy for those really prickly airlines which are always moaning about their distribution fees (you know who you are).

Tricia Holly Davis, chief writer, Travolution