Have You Heard? People Are Speaking Out
"Business travel buyers have spoken, and they overwhelmingly indicate that the 'direct connect' approach for airfare distribution is a pricey strategy that will result in higher costs for companies." - Mike McCormick, Executive Director, Global Business Travel Association, Los Angeles Times, February 7, 2011. Read what others are saying, too.
Have You Heard? People Are Speaking Out
"These [direct connect] systems, quite frankly, don't deliver what the majority of corporate customers or the industry wants and needs. Think carefully before you put economics before sanity". - Michael Hare, Chairman, Guild of Travel Management Companies, Air and Business Travel News, January 21, 2011
"The GDS is fundamentally the most efficient distribution system available. It provides a proven and neutral mechanism for the display and booking of air travel. AA is attempting to force an unwanted and unnecessary solution on customers, regardless of their booking channel preference." - Kevin Thom, Vice President, Scottish Passenger Agents' Association, Air and Business Travel News, January 21, 2011
"The travel management community has spoken, and AA hasn't listened, so the fact that Sabre stepped up and Expedia has stepped up is great. AA needs to know that we sell a lot of their inventory, and we don't like the moves they're making." - David LeCompte, President, Short's Travel Management, The Beat, January 5, 2011
"The GDS is fundamentally the most efficient distribution system available. It provides a proven and neutral mechanism for the display and booking of air travel. AA is attempting to force an unwanted and unnecessary solution on customers, regardless of their booking channel preference." - Kevin Thom, Vice President, Scottish Passenger Agents' Association, Air and Business Travel News, January 21, 2011
"If we lose full-fare content on GDSs and have to go from one site to another, we lose efficiency. If you take away price parity and comparison, we will be back in the Dark Ages. The system works and American has put a spanner in it." - Maurice Veronique, CEO of Travel by Appointment, former Guild of Travel Management Companies, Travel Weekly, January 20, 2011
"The airlines don't pay us to sell their product, and now they want us to pay them to sell their product. It's going to be a nightmare." - Steve Cosgrove, President, Dynamic Travel (Southlake, TX), Los Angeles Times, January 13, 2011
"Does anyone really believe that a GDS - with technology that even in the late 1980s could deliver a person from point A to Point B, anywhere on the planet, safely and securely - was actually going to have an issue with adding something to the system to charge for an extra bag or a seat?" - Murray Harrold, business travel agent (Buckinghamshire, UK), Tnooz, January 17, 2011
"Anything that diminishes access to content - fare information - is not good for the travel industry. Anything that diminishes access by consumers to multiple airline choices in the long run is going to raise prices." - Greg Spears, CEO, Spears Travel/Travel Leaders (Tulsa, OK), Tulsa World, January, 8, 2011
"Airlines must embrace and not reject transparent pricing and provide full content to the technology providers who help distribute their products and services through TMCs, namely the GDSs." - Andrew Winterton, President, Carlson Wagonlit Travel, Air & Business Travel News, November 24, 2010
"Business travel buyers have spoken, and they overwhelmingly indicate that the 'direct connect' approach for airfare distribution is a pricey strategy that will result in higher costs for companies." - Mike McCormick, Executive Director, Global Business Travel Association, Los Angeles Times, February 7, 2011