As soon as American Airlines made its announcement last December about its plan to remove some fares from EDIFACT paths and make them available only through direct or New Distribution Capability-enabled channels, AmTrav's Jeff Klee went all-in on American's direct-connect option.
"We decided the second we heard that 40 percent of fares would be available only via NDC, we didn't really look at it as a choice," Klee said. "American is a hugely importantly airline for our customers, and if we can't offer them the lowest fares, then how can we be relevant?"
Klee also considered the situation from a bigger-picture perspective, beyond just saving money on airfares. There are "tons of limitations" in EDFIACT, and though not perfect, NDC was clearly a means to get to providing self-servicing, Klee said. "It might take another year or more to get it right, but the journey is worth taking," he added.
In the meantime, Klee nudged American to improve some of the issues with its NDC. "Even though we are very pro-NDC and see its value, we don't hesitate to call out when there is a problem or something is not working well," he said.
One issue in particular was the inability to exchange unused EDIFACT tickets for NDC ones. American worked with Accelya to introduce a fix by June. "That was a huge problem and real source of friction for us and customers, and I'm really grateful for how American responded to that," he said.
Another item Klee pushed for was the ability to conduct an "anchored search," also known as a "search by leg," he said. The NDC search would return itineraries that matched outbound and inbound flights but might not provide the exact match travelers sought.
"We had situations where a customer wanted an outbound from one offer and a return from another," Klee said. "There was no way to sell that through NDC. American fixed that and now lists outbound prices separately from the return. We as a technology provider consuming the API can mix and match ourselves."
A third issue that hasn't yet been fixed is the ability to have ticket changes reflected for travel management companies and online booking tools in the NDC order for those who purchase tickets via a third-party channel and make changes on the American website or app. "That interoperability between channels," Klee said. "United has it; American doesn't, and we want to get to a place where travelers can book in one channel and service in another channel."
On top of it all, Klee and his AmTrav team since April have been tracking the difference between American's EDIFACT and NDC fares, including how often there is a difference. The industry took notice.
It's based on bookings, not searches, made by AmTrav clients, because "booking data is more reliable and meaningful," Klee said, adding that the tracking started internally, but after posting about it on LinkedIn, "everybody seemed really interested in this data, and we ran with it from there."
Klee shared that in the next few weeks, the company would begin to publicly track United Airlines' NDC versus EDIFACT data as well.