You would have to live in another travel universe if you think supplier rates are the issue of the day. It's no longer what suppliers are charging — it's how they're charging it. Obfuscation — hiding the true cost - is "in" so the desire for transparency becomes even stronger. The ability for buyers to compare like with like, never mind data retrieval about the pricing landscape at the point of booking, is becoming more challenging at every turn. And the ability to obtain the same content at the same price regardless of channel is evaporating.
This issue may have come to prominence with the Lufthansa Group's policy to impose a DCC of €16 for every ticket issued via the GDS but hotels have been incentivising travellers with extra benefits (such as free WiFi) for some time if they book directly with the property.
Last week it became the turn of rail to be chief disruptor to happy managed corporate travel life when the UK's ITM (institute of Travel and Meetings) issued a press release saying,
"The Institute of Travel and Meetings (ITM) has revealed its anger and frustration at a Virgin Train's decision to limit automatic traveller refunds to advanced tickets bought directly on the train operating company's website or app.
"Last week Virgin Trains introduced the Automatic Delay Repay (ADR) system, which calculates the amount owed to a customer purchasing advance tickets depending on how late a train arrives. Compensation is paid directly to the card used to buy the ticket.
"Virgin Trains claims it is not able to refund bookings made in any other channels, saying it does not have access to the appropriate data. This means reservations made through travel management companies (TMCs) and self-booking tools (SBTs) via rail booking platforms such as Evolvi and thetrainline.com, are not recognised by the ADR system."
Different channels are unlikely to be equal.
The scramble to improve or, according to your point of view, muddy distribution performance, information and cost continued this week with Qatar's CEO Akbar Al Baker announcing at an open IATA World Passenger Symposium in Hamburg that the carrier would shortly roll out its own New Distribution Capability (NDC) initiative with Farelogix, a company which is creating its own airline distribution solutions. He stressed that Qatar was still working with the IATA NDC but was also working on this "Plan B".
So airlines are asserting their right to run their businesses to suit themselves.
At the same time Expedia announced that it would be showing all extra fees alongside flight prices. It is being rolled out with Delta in the States and Air Berlin in Europe with other carriers expected to come on board shortly.
All different things going on but one message coming through. The content that corporate travellers require is on many different channels. Even when the same information is available in different places, it will have different functionality and be presented differently.
This has been behind so much of recent development in travel distribution. Airlines especially are keen not to be seen as commodities all offering the same product - transport between two cities. They argue that much more goes into their different products before and after as well as during the flight. Their own websites try to do this. IATA's NDC is supposed to replicate this. Travelport's Merchandising Suite is doing this.
Not all distribution options will have the same functionality and, even if they seek to, they will not become viable at the same time.
Channel solutions need to meet today's — and tomorrow's — increasingly complex buyer and supplier needs.