The latest GBTA poll from April 2024 shows that 45% of travel administrators aren’t sure when their TMC will be ready to offer NDC and the lowest fares that are available only through NDC.
(See how often fares are lower.)
Based on AmTrav's experience as a TMC+OBT selling and servicing hundreds of thousands of NDC bookings for our corporate customers over the past five years, and our own interaction with customers and potential customers, we've prepared 10 questions to ask your TMC to understand their NDC readiness:
|
Readiness |
Are you able to sell bookings through NDC now? Offline and online? If not, when will you be ready? Follow up: If we're waiting for a partner (like an online booking tool), do you know when the partner will be ready, and will you be ready when the partner is ready? |
| Background | Are you offering NDC through a direct connect or through a different channel like a GDS or Travelfusion? Can you explain the benefits of direct vs. through a GDS? |
| Itineraries | What happens if a fare or itinerary is available outside of NDC but not in NDC? Can we book that online? Offline? |
| Itineraries | Will we be able to book NDC options (say American or United) and non-NDC options (like Delta) on the same booking? Online? Offline? Are there extra charges for this? |
| Bookings | Are there limits on how many passengers we can book on one booking? |
| Unused tickets | Can we use our existing non-NDC unused tickets for NDC bookings? Can we apply unused tickets online or just offline? And if we can’t, what contingencies are available to get that value? |
| Changes | How do my people change their NDC tickets? Can they change online? Offline with an agent? Can they cancel online? Offline? Are there limits on how many changes, can they change dates, change destinations? |
| Travel management | Are there any differences or gaps in my duty of care data feeds, my reporting data feeds or my travel policy and approvals? If so, how do we correct these? |
| Seats | Can we book free and paid seats in NDC? What about preferred seats that airline elites are entitled to? |
| Extra charges | What surcharges will you charge on NDC bookings or changes? Do you know if any of your partners or my partners will add extra charges? |
| Bonus question | Will my travelers earn AAdvantage loyalty points and miles in July when American restricts earnings to preferred agencies? |
Need a PDF copy of this you can send to your TMC? Access a PDF copy right here (no AmTrav branding).
***
Phew! That's a lot of questions, but will help you get straight answers on this critical topic so you know what to expect and when.
Since we're good sports here at AmTrav, here are our answers to these 10 questions:
|
Readiness |
Are you able to sell bookings through NDC now? Offline and online? If not, when will you be ready? Follow up: If we're waiting for a partner (like an online booking tool), do you know when the partner will be ready, and will you be ready when the partner is ready? |
|
Yes. Period. Online and offline. We've been selling the lowest American fares since April 3, 2023, along with the lowest Southwest fares since October 2019 and the lowest United fares since August 2023. We are not waiting for any partners. |
|
| Background | Are you offering NDC through a direct connect or through a different channel like a GDS or Travelfusion? Can you explain the benefits of direct vs. through a GDS? |
|
AmTrav offers NDC directly for American, Southwest and United, plus Spirit Airlines (if you're interested). (Technically Southwest isn't NDC, it's a direct connect via a mid-2000s schema called the "OTA" schema, but we use it and often get lower fares through that direct connect, with full booking and change functionality. Having direct NDC access with no GDS and no Travelfusion in between means no limitations on what you can do with AmTrav. You get the full array of airline NDC benefits without delay. So when American enabled non-NDC ticket exchanges on NDC tickets, we had that immediately. |
|
| Itineraries | What happens if a fare or itinerary is available outside of NDC but not in NDC? Can we book that online? Offline? |
| Great question, it happens (particularly with American and United)! While other booking tools force you to display only NDC or non-NDC, AmTrav is truly multi-source so we show bookers both NDC and non-NDC GDS options. That way your bookers get the full array of itineraries and fares, they can book either, online or offline, without limitation. | |
| Itineraries | Will we be able to book NDC options (say American or United) and non-NDC options (like Delta) on the same booking? Online? Offline? Are there extra charges for this? |
| Yes, you can book any combination of carriers (Southwest and American, Southwest and United and Delta, etc.) on one AmTrav booking online and offline, no extra charges. | |
| Bookings | Are there limits on how many passengers we can book on one booking? |
| There are no limits, you can book multiple passengers on the same airline NDC PNR on American, Southwest and United NDC. | |
| Unused tickets | Can we use our existing non-NDC unused tickets for NDC bookings? Can we apply unused tickets online or just offline? And if we can’t, what contingencies are available to get that value? |
|
With American, yes you can apply non-NDC unused tickets to NDC bookings (thanks in part to AmTrav's advocacy), however this is currently a limitation with United. We can work with clients and airlines to convert unused ticket value to UATP, we charge nothing for this help and nothing for using UATP. You can apply NDC and non-NDC tickets online in AmTrav and offline. |
|
| Changes | How do my people change their NDC tickets? Can they change online? Offline with an agent? Can they cancel online? Offline? Are there limits on how many changes, can they change dates, change destinations? |
| Bookers and travelers can change or cancel NDC tickets online in AmTrav's online Change Trips and offline with AmTrav Travel Advisors. There are no limits on how many or what kind of changes you can make on NDC tickets with AmTrav. | |
| Travel management | Are there any differences or gaps in my duty of care data feeds, my reporting data feeds or my travel policy and approvals? If so, how do we correct these? |
| There are no differences. NDC itineraries are sent in real time to duty of care providers just like non-NDC itineraries. Reporting data is consistent, you can't even tell NDC from non-NDC except when we've recorded your savings on a booking. NDC unused tickets are stored in your Unused Ticket Report just like non-NDC tickets. And travel policy and approvals are applied to NDC bookings the same as non-NDC, no difference. | |
| Seats | Can we book free and paid seats in NDC? What about preferred seats that airline elites are entitled to? |
|
Yes, your team gets access to all American and United seats, plus Southwest EarlyBird CheckIn, and your elites get the preferred, Main Cabin Extra and Economy Plus seats that they're entitled to. |
|
| Extra charges | What surcharges will you charge on NDC bookings or changes? Do you know if any of your partners or my partners will add extra charges? |
| We do not, have not charged any surcharges on hundreds of thousands of NDC bookings on American, Southwest and United since 2019. | |
| Bonus question | Will my travelers earn AAdvantage loyalty points and miles in July when American restricts earnings to preferred agencies? |
| Yes, AmTrav is a preferred agency, we're 100% NDC for American so travelers will continue earning AAdvantage loyalty points and miles. | |
***
Good luck with your conversation with your TMC, we hope that these questions help you get clear answers to set expectations. If you have questions that they can't answer, or questions you'd like answered by someone else, reach out to AmTrav, we're ready to help.
Further reading: AmTrav's NDC webinar from January 2024, AmTrav's Time for Change webinar in April 2024 with heavy emphasis on NDC, and our CEO Jeff Klee's Beat Live 2023 keynote on the future of travel management and NDC. Also data on American and United NDC vs. non-NDC fare differences, thoughts on NDC readiness and what NDC will cost you.