Business Travel Executive, December 2018

COVER STORY Air Transformed 24Business Travel Executive DECEMBER 2018 static and driven off ATPCO but will come directly from the carrier Airlines will provide unique offers to travelers which may not for example be offered to another person flying on the same flight on the same day Policies will need to take into account a number of advantages offered by NDC Among them Reishus says is the capability for companies to choose what to show and to flag any non compliant purchase at the time of purchase not weeks or months later She adds NDC also opens up the potential for airlines and corporations to more easily negotiate and support the shopping booking and purchase of corporate travel bundles Chandiramani notes the underlying technology of NDC XML allows for more information to be exchanged between parties allowing travel options to be more detailed NDC will give travel buyers the power to strike tailor made deals to suit the needs of their travel program he says The conversation between the airline and the corporation will go beyond price and travel buyers will have higher expectations of the airline coming up with innovative proposals once the technology is in place Choices More Choices Perhaps the biggest plus is the capability of meeting different needs But NDC is not just a seat in an enclosed space Strauss says It tells you what this seat looks like and what comes with it NDC allows selections to be made according to both corporate and individual priorities as well as frequent traveler status he says Once the problem of standardization and ever changing APIs is solved NDC opens the door to really getting what you want One traveler may need the convenience of a lie flat bed on a night flight to come to a meeting rested but can live very well with economy class managing preferences reporting and servicing Its unlikely to be an easy or quick learning curve she adds But the benefits will be clear a better shopping experience for the business traveler and immediate visibility of purchases for the travel manager One hurdle is achieving economies of scale and efficiency Pisanello says We need standards to be followed and solutions to be implemented in a standard way he says If not costs will be high for the whole industry and adoption will be low This needs to be supported by the right economics too he adds with the ROI working for all participants Furthermore Chirico says travel buyers will need to exercise patience for now IATA and the airlines have done a really good job of creating interest with NDC he says However the infrastructure hasnt caught up yet with the ideas NDC is going to take time to reach scale Historically he notes reporting provided to travel programs has been based on factors such as what was booked what was the lowest fare available at the time of booking and how far in advance the booking was made NDC could shake this up based on how the airlines begin to retail their products and provide offers to travelers that are not dependent on booking in advance but who you are as a traveler and what company you are associated with Chirico says At the same time if the airlines go down the path of hyper personalized offers a managed travel program will need to solve the problem of display comparability and policy compliance Chandiramani says We continue to encourage collaboration and engagement among the industry as a whole and ask airlines to adhere to IATAs standards so that together we can diligently seek to keep the customers best interest at the center of NDC BTE NDC is the natural answer for the travel industry to the Amazon ification occurring across all industries during the day while using the time to work on the plane Another may be able to sleep anywhere but prefer the service and amenities of business class on the return flight In addition according to Pisanello NDC is the natural answer for the travel industry to what he calls the Amazon ification occurring across all industries This Amazon type phenomenon allows corporate travel buyers to access richer content at the time of booking more images information traveler reviews and bundles of services This will improve end user experience replicating the useful elements that can be found on online leisure travel sites he says This in turn will increase adoption and adherence to corporate booking tools Looking forward travel managers will continue to face challenges in crafting polices that adequately mesh with NDC Like other new travel technologies NDC enabled shopping and booking will create no small amount of work for travel executives Reishus says Some of the issues will be around integration display