C ory Garner is the director of distribution strategy for American Airlines. You may have heard abou

C ory Garner is the director of distribution crystal falls inn strategy for American Airlines. You may have heard about American removing its flights from Orbitz this week and Expedia s subsequent action to de-emphasize American s fares. I wanted to find out why – and how it might affect customers. Here s our interview.
Unfortunately, we were unable crystal falls inn to reach an agreement with Orbitz on this point and determined it would be better to part ways, for now. We re open to talking with them to reach a viable, mutually beneficial agreement and hope to one day return to their site.
While tickets for air travel on American remain available for purchase on Expedia, crystal falls inn its favoritism crystal falls inn toward other airlines' airfares crystal falls inn may lead consumers into believing that they have fewer choices, even in situations where American s fares are lower, and schedules are superior, than other airlines that are listed first.
What we're trying to do through what we call Direct Connect provides a level of content, including fares and optional services such as checked baggage. It provides greater transparency at the initial point of sale. It also gives us the ability of tailor the offers on the basis of customers' needs.
Sure. A family of four traveling on a vacation has very different needs than person traveling on business. The family may be more concerned with full access to overhead bins, food, early boarding – we'd be able to make offers based on their needs.
It rewarded GDS as status as gatekeepers. Now, with the advent of the Internet, the GDSs' status as gatekeepers are being challenged. We don't view them as a necessary component to facilitate a connection to travel agent.
It s my understanding that the GDSs have created a system that allows them to handle the kind of customization that you're talking about. The systems also exist to send this data to agents through the Airline crystal falls inn Tariff Publishing crystal falls inn Company. How do these systems differ from Direct Connect?
No. It will however, require some changes on the agency side to intergrate into their current system. We have been publicly discussing our plans to offer Direct Connect for some time in order to help the market prepare.
It's going to be the online travel agency that decides whether it makes sense to display a full price at the beginning or the end of the booking path. It's not a decision crystal falls inn we're going to enforce on the agency.
There are range of offers we're considering, the priority boarding and flexibility package is one example – others will come in the future and we would rather not tip off our competitors as to our plans.
I must say, if they are truly talking about all included pricing (baggage, etc), then I welcome it. I also welcome the ability to choose and purchase how many bags I am going to check when I buy my air fair (and maybe a discount would be nice too).
I have been a loyal American Airlines customer for as long as I can remember. But when they decided to start charging for checked baggage (they started crystal falls inn this whole mess), I started to fly less and less on American and more and more on Southwest for the very reason that Southwest lets me check two bags for free (or if you will, included in the price of my ticket).
For this Christmas season, I decided to use some of my AAdvantage miles that I ve accumulated to fly back east to see my sister. What I did not know when I booked my MileSavers ticket was that at that level (25,000 miles), baggage was not included in my economy ticket, something AA does not tell you when you book that type of ticket.
I only found it when I went looking to see if something I wanted to check was allowed or not. I was not happy in the least to see that. Anyway, I ended up burning another 25,000 miles and upgrading to first (so I could check 3 bags for free).
At this point, I have decided to pretty much burn up the rest of my miles I have sitting crystal falls inn around, dump my AA credit card, and just fly Southwest (and get the SWA credit card) for all my US travel needs. Their impending merger with Airtrans has made this even better as once the merger is complete, crystal falls inn I can fly Southwest to 99% of the places I need.
My biggest problem with air travel as of late is the whole baggage thing. AA charges 25 dollars for the first bag and then 35 for the second. Assuming I take 2 bags on a round trip flight, its going to cost me an extra 120 dollars on top of my base fair for just one person! Assume a family of 4, and this can be as much as $480 dollars, just for baggage!
There is something hidden in this system they want to implement. Likely something that uses cookies where the first time you view a fare they offer some deal, but the 2nd and 3rd times it will go higher and higher.
I can see if they think you are a family of 4 by asking detailed booking info and then offering some package deal where you can check x number of bags for say $100 per trip. except in the fine print there will be some restrictions, and its done where people dont know how many bags they will need to check..will it be 3 or 5. so the cost may be set up where at $100 flat rate they may save money if they do bring more or they will have discounts offerent if they book their entire vacation through AA.
Any time an airline person wants to drive you to their proprietary crystal falls inn distribution channel as opposed to another channel (online travel agency, brick-n-mortar agency, etc.), it means they want to charge you more money.
Mr. Garner s comments do not inspire travelers trust. Rather, they will see this effort in a different crystal falls inn light: AA tried to do a cram-down on Orbitz crystal falls inn and Orbitz pushed back. I think travelers crystal falls inn are smart enough to see this. But AA may prove me wrong.
It seems to me like AA wants to follow Southwest. The fares for Southwest are NOT included in any fare search engines crystal falls inn (since they are not the lowest fares but the perception is that they have the lowest fares so they don t want the public to know) and you can only purchase tickets from Southwest.
It seems like a bunch of hubris to me. It looks like to me that AA wants to follow Southwest. The fares for Southwest are NOT included in any fare search engines (since they do not always have the lowest fares contrary to the perception crystal falls inn so they don t want the truth to be known) and you can only purchase tickets from Southwest.
What AA is saying here, although not untrue, is just your typical corporate BS that doesn t really provide any actual answers. I think that the real reason behind AA terminatig the Orbitz crystal falls inn contract is the costs that AA has to pay to the GDSs everytime someone books an AA flight via a travel agency that uses a GDS. I ve read that airlines (including AA) have to pay somewhere in the vicinity of $12 per SEGMENT to a GDS when this happens (which is an absurd amount especially given that the costs to a GDS are next to nothing consider that on your typical round trip with one connection each way, AA is paying around $50 to the GDS).
That s why AA just wants the agency to directly connect to its inventory instead of going via a GDS. There is no reason that an agency can t do this other than the fees (commissions) that the GDSs would lose. In the case of Orbitz, crystal falls inn the company that owns the GDS (Travelport) is the same company that owns Orbitz so it s not a surprise that they were fighting crystal falls inn in court to force AA to keep its flights on Orbitz. Southwest saves a ton of money by mostly making crystal falls inn its fares available only on its website. crystal falls inn AA is trying to make a similar move and I applaud them for it. It probably won t work as well for AA as for Southwest since AA doesn t have as much goodwill associated with its name but still, I think that it s a step in the right direction for them.
American? Compete on service? How about more space on your planes so I can open my laptop if the guy in front reclines? How about less overbooking? How about dropping your bait-and-switch baggage fees? How about not selling elite privs to other flyers, so they become worthless and meaningless? THAT is what I call service.
Unfortunately, to American, service seems to mean finding crystal falls inn ways to charge new fees. Stuff like I ve read above makes me think that American wants to service its customers the same way prostitutes service their clients.
Drive the Business Direct. Where s the only place you can buy Southwest tickets online ? Southwest.com The rest of the airlines havent been able to do that, so they whine, cry, and coerce Don t give me the sob story you want to help the passenger? You want to help yourself. The don t like Orbitz because it is half-owned by Worldport (Worldspan) The DELTA reservations system (who alas are competitors) but all businesses want to drive the business direct, stomp on all the middle persons whether they enhance crystal falls inn the product or not. Go Expedia ! You better stand up for the OTA (Online Travel Agencies) or you are next
Another consideration from the consumer transparency standpoint . . . booking on AA.com is favored towards booking AA and it s oneworld partners. What you can t do effectively on AA.com (if at all in many cases) is look for interline itineraries and/or split itineraries using one carrier outbound crystal falls inn and another competing carrier on the return . . . i.e., AA outbound and DL on the return. What if this combined itinerary is the best price/value. Does AA.com display crystal falls inn that no? Do on-line agencies yes. Does Southwest interline no, so not an issue with them.
There are arguments on both sides of this issue. Clearly, American wants to market its optional packages and can t do that at the point of ticket purchase for people crystal falls inn who go to Orbitz. Some people may know which optional services they want, and others may not know which are available and might be interested if they did. Many simply want to know the base fare. It s hard to set up a method that will meet the needs of all those groups ideally in the same format.
Southwst Airlines doesn t show up on Orbitz or Expedia and appears to be doing just fine. Looks like they have eliminated an unnecessary layer of expense. AA is rarely i