Somebody had to make it happen.
After a decade of speculation on what the New Distribution
Capability data standard could deliver to the corporate travel table, Visa
senior director of global travel and events sourcing Kim Hamer marshaled an airline,
two technology providers and her travel management company together on
delivering customized amenity and service bundles to Visa travelers.
It starts with the traveler’s United Airlines Mileage Plus
status integrating with the online booking tool. Once the traveler is
recognized by the Serko Zeno booking tool and initiates the origin and
destination search, that’s when the so-called magic—it’s anything but magic,
the supplier participants will tell you—begins.
Unlike other corporate tools working on traditional
distribution rails, the traveler booking request pings a Travelfusion pipe
funneling in content directly from United to return a dynamic offer built not
only with the knowledge that the traveler is from Visa but also that the
traveler's status and qualifications—say, Mileage Plus Platinum, and as such
gets a free checked bag along with a free seat upgrade to Economy Plus.
With that information, the offer is constructed without the
free bag negotiated by Hamer and without the offer of the upgraded seat, which
is in policy on that particular route for a non-status traveler, but in this case
should not be paid for. The availability of that upgraded seat is visible in
the booking tool and acknowledgment of the free bag also is clear in the
booking tool. If a traveler has an issue and requires agent assistance during
the trip, Visa’s agency, CWT, can access the itinerary and provide necessary
support.
Hamer is ready to negotiate customized product and amenity
bundles with United to be delivered via NDC, only for Visa travelers. She also is
ready—depending on how far along other airlines are with their NDC
development—to engage with other airlines on a similar basis. What she’s not
ready to do is move backward away from digitization and personalization, and
she wants the industry to come with her.
With the help of a big company like Visa supporting program
advancement, Hamer pushed her suppliers to find a way to work together
technologically and in the right service environment to achieve her NDC
goals—really, to achieve the industry’s NDC goals. It wasn’t easy, and
compromises were made. Hamer moved to a subscription-fee model with her TMC to
support the challenging servicing environment.
Refusing to be stymied by industry technology she knows can
do the job, Hamer made it happen. Knowing travel buyers actually want to work
with NDC to create solutions for their programs hopefully could stimulate the
market to create better and easier opportunities.