Airlines and travel websites face off over flight perks

I have started this first blog on airlines and travel websites argue about having travel/ flight perks on their websites. 

Behind the ease of booking a flight seat online lies mounting tension between two industries.

Airlines are increasingly moving toward offering customers bundles of travels perks, everything from extra legroom to pre-boarding privileges to more frequent-flier points, for additional fees. In an industry with low margins, airlines are trying to eke out revenue by differentiating their bundled services.

The problem is, bundles are hard to buy on third-party travel sites.

And that’s the root of a new push by airlines such as Air Canada to draw customers toward their own e-commerce sites, where the bundles are laid out in more detail, and away from third-party reservation sites. For each customer that does book directly, airlines save the $15 or so in fees that third-party reservation bookings charge. Particularly for cheap fares under $200, that $15 makes a substantial difference to airline profit margins.

But airlines still need to list their fares on popular sites such as Expedia and Travelocity. 

Shelly Terry, vice-president of supplier merchandising at Sabre Holdings, a GDS headquartered in the Dallas-Forth Worth area, argued that it isn't a question of reservation companies’ technology not keeping pace with new bundles, as the airline industry argues. GDS systems such as Sabre have for years included detailed information about bundles, as well as extra charges such as baggage fees not included in fare bundles. The difficulty is that online ticketing sites simply feel they can’t list myriad combinations of bundles without overwhelming users.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/airlines-and-travel-websites-face-off-over-flight-perks/article9190235/?cmpid=rss1

Airlines are making more profits though their websites, as they offer travel bundles through their main websites which are easily accessible. However travel websites, as Travelocity and Expedia are losing out on their profits, as airlines still need to list their bundles on their websites in a proper way. Even when booking though GDS systems as Sabre they have detailed information on extra bundles which customers may want to buy. I think travel websites need to get a equal combination of bundles across their websites, so customers get to have the option of extra elements in their flights. And GDS systems as Sabre have vast amount of airline data to give extra charges to customers which sometimes are not included in online travel sites, so customers don't get informed on extra charges for baggage and seat allocation.