The industry is not ready for American Airlines' plan to distribute its full range of content via New Distribution Capability-enabled connections only, according to travel management company BCD Travel (No. 4 on Travel Weekly's 2022 Power List).
BCD wrote an open letter about NDC innovation on Monday. While BCD does not name American Airlines explicitly, it does reference the April 1 date American has said marks the beginning of its new strategy,
"At BCD, we've been working diligently to help prepare our clients' programs for this shift," BCD said. "While we're confident in our readiness, the reality is that no one can offer a seamless customer solution by April 1.
American has said that travel agencies not connected to its NDC technology by April will lose access to about 40% of fares. Travel agencies have been vocal about their concerns about how ready GDSs are to support the change as well as their own technology.
In its letter, BCD argues that its clients want to avoid disruption and costs that come without added value.
"Corporate customers care about what they buy, where they shop and how those choices support their programs," BCD said. "Forcing solutions that aren't completely ready into the market puts customers at risk and harms the ecosystem."
BCD quoted Mark Stansbury, manager of global travel, events and logistics services for Lockheed Martin Corp. He said, "Unilaterally driven changes will drive further disruption as other partners in the ecosystem seek to compensate for poorly planned changes. The changes will entail additional costs to the end user -- with no known substantive value to compensate."
Another unnamed BCD client said, "There is no point in pushing technologies that currently offer less functionality, a worse user experience and weaker program support than existing technology."
BCD also argued that some online booking tools will have to use third-party aggregators for NDC content. That brings added costs, BCD said, as well as possible servicing gaps.