In just over a year leading American Airlines' sales, Alison
Taylor has overseen a buildup and transformation of the carrier's corporate
sales team, as well as an industry-first strategy to use incentives rather than
fees to promote adoption of the New Distribution Capability.
Taylor, who joined American in September 2016 from Starwood
Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, said the carrier is on track to add 132 new
sales positions by the end of this year, an effort that brought in new blood
from around the world, including from competitors, which "has led to a
momentum of the team feeling fabulous," she said. Taylor also has led
numerous initiatives like relaunching the sales team's group and incentive
segment, expanding flexibility around self-service funds for agents and travel
buyers, increased training, and developing a sales portal that will roll out
early next year.
Those efforts are bearing fruit, as corporate market share
grew every quarter this year and as the carrier added 16,000 small and midsize
corporate accounts during the first three quarters. On an anecdotal level,
buyers attending BTN's trends and forecast events around the U.S. have spoken
of their sales relationships with American in a more positive light lately
after years of critical discussion that followed American's merger with US
Airways.
Taylor bears responsibility for American's distribution
policy, as well, and this year the carrier enacted an incentive program to
encourage travel agents and content distributors to connect via NDC methods.
The program offers $2 per American Airlines-marketed segment booked through a
full, end-to-end Level 3 NDC connection with the carrier. As of early November,
about 120 customers were working with American to approach the connection,
Taylor said. "We want to be industry leading when it comes to NDC,"
she said. "We're not mandating anything, and we're not putting a surcharge
in place."