|
Posted Aug 19, 2010
Consultant Terry Jones, best known as the founder of Travelocity, doesn't think the global distribution system execs should be concerned about Google's planned acquisition of ITA Travel. He also said people in his circles expect Google to spin off ITA's reservations business. Here are some tidbits from my interview with Jones, also a Rearden Commerce board member, chairman of Kayak and former CIO of Sabre, at the National Business Travel Association convention last week.
Posted Aug 18, 2010
Rearden Commerce CEO Patrick Grady always has been highly quotable, but recently it seems his zinger machine is on high. "It's not bravado," Grady said in the midst of calling TripIt and the like just a "feature" rather than a real business. In June, he talked about how he thinks booking tools were commoditized and has since said "They're all going away." Speaking about Rearden's new partnership with Carlson Wagonlit Travel, Grady made some, well, interesting comments about his company's other big travel management company partner, American Express.
Posted Aug 13, 2010
Jonas and I have a tradition every year at the National Business Travel Association convention of getting registered a few hours ahead of our networking responsibilities to leave enough time for recycling. All that crap. You know, in the bag. Then, we ask, what's that bag for? Anyway, this year NBTA deserves praise for not only cutting down on all the crap but also for giving us an app.
Posted Aug 3, 2010
As a followup to our Monday article in The Beat about American Airlines' smartphone strategy, here are some techie tidbits that were not in the original piece. Asked about his thoughts on mobile apps versus mobile-enabled sites, which we also explored here, aa.com application architect John Shields said, "I came from the client-server days and then watched the dot-com era swing the pendulum back toward a more homogenized solution for Web application deployment. I feel the pendulum has swung a little bit back ...
Posted Aug 3, 2010
We hardly cover awards, aside from our own of course, but in June I issued my " off-the-cuff opinions of only a semi-frequent traveler" regarding stuff that real frequent travelers are more qualified to assess: the nominees for the National Business Travel Association's first-ever Business Traveler Innovation Awards, in conjunction with the Wall Street Journal. The results are in. Let's see how I did ...
Posted Aug 2, 2010
A Congressional subcommittee last month noted that a non-binding IRS ruling leaves "unsettled" the question of whether ancillary airline fees for bags and add-ons should be taxed. As the National Journal's Transportation Experts blog explores the debate, the National Business Travel Association is undecided for now, executive director Mike McCormick said.
Posted Jul 16, 2010
The Open Axis Group airline standards body named new participants joining the organization alongside the Airline Tariff Publishing Co. as allied members: AOI Marketing, ARC, Datalex, eNett International, Farelogix, LUTE Technologies AG, Mobiata, PASS Consulting Group and Radixx International. No global distribution systems.
Posted Jul 13, 2010
Anyone else think it's odd that tomorrow's hearing scheduled by the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure's Subcommittee on Aviation will not include American, Continental, Delta, United or US Airways? Or even the Air Transport Association? I do.
Posted Jul 13, 2010
Air Canada, American Airlines, Continental Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and US Airways, plus the Airline Tariff Publishing Company, announced the formation of their Open Airline XML Integration Standard group to "promote a standardized XML (eXtensible Markup Language) schema as the optimal electronic messaging structure for airline system connectivity used in content distribution." The group named as executive director Jim Young, a travel distribution veteran who helped found the industry's existing XML standards body, now called OpenTravel.
Posted Jul 2, 2010
After The Beat last week reported that some airline distribution execs were talking about creating a new standards body, Tnooz on Monday posted a similar item by Dennis Schaal. Today, he published quite a few more details including the apparent name of the group, OpenAxis; its plans to use Farelogix XML schema to focus on merchandising; pricing for participation; and its employment of Open Travel Alliance founder and former airline and hotel distribution exec Jim Young as "agent" and potential executive director. After the story in The Beat, we received feedback from folks concerned that such a body would fragment the standards business, including International Air Transport Association manager for ticketing and reservations standards Mike Irons.
|
