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Advantage admits single GDS plan for business members
Advantage business travel director Norman Gage has told TravelMole, “we have to look at a common GDS.”
He said that in the future it could become a criteria of being admitted to the Focus group membership – that you had to have whatever was selected as the designated GDS.
Mr Gage told TravelMole: “It’s an idea that has been around for a while and I have tended to let things percolate, but now more and more members are saying to me that we should be looking at a common platform.”
He said the Advantage Business Travel Technology committee was currently putting together five bullet points of what was wanted in the selected GDS and it would “then go out to tender.”
He added: “If there’s a groundswell in favour then we’ll sign up and if you don’t sign up you’re out [of the Focus group.]”
Mr Gage said he believed that if all members were signed up to a single GDS they would have enough muscle to be able to prevent BA for example deciding to pull out of that particular system. But he stressed that Advantage would not be locked into a long term contract, so that they could move everybody over to another GDS supplier instead if they thought it meant a better deal for members.
Earlier yesterday, during a panel discussion on private fares, Focus4Fares project manager Steve Murray said it would have been much easier to implement the project and make it a success if members operated on one common GDS, rather than having to make the system work across all four GDS providers.
Read other stories from the Advantage Business Travel Conference:
07-Oct-2003 Agents warned they will have to share GDS costs with airlines
08-Oct-2003 ‘Overrides will disappear’
08-Oct-2003 Plan for new worldwide independent agency force
08-Oct-2003 ‘Use them or lose them’: Focus members warned on air deals
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