Cross Border Ticketing – The Final Frontier?

It is one of life’s great mysteries. You can do anything technically on the web, but political and commercial constraints prevent access to products across borders.
Recently the Wall Street Journal did an analysis on the countries of Middle East and Asia looking at which countries did the most internet filtering and the levels of penetration in those markets. Suffice to say there is a lot of government web filtering going on in many markets. The well publicized issue of Google enabling access to information to at least one government is probably the tip of the iceberg of how governments wish to choose to manage their subjects. This is not a good sign.

But in our (travel) business there is too a specialized form of commercial constraint by the powers that be. Some of the reasons are admirable some are not. Protecting the innocent and the weak should be a goal for all. Allowing the global mega brands to dominate all markets is something that should be of concern. However the one that somewhat gets me is the issue of Cross Border ticketing. Now comes evidence that this is not a theoretical issue but a growing problem for companies trying to constrain their products.

I think there is a definite underlying belief that airlines do not want users to know their true pricing. Transparency is a complete anathema to the sale of a legacy airline product. The hoops through which carriers make the consumer jump has contributed significantly to both the cost and complexity of the airline based product. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? Carriers will probably jump up and down and say it’s a good thing. Consumers will beg to differ.

According to Forrester, more than a third of all European consumers online have purchased something cross border. Given the difficulty of doing so in Travel probably constrains the number in Travel below the average although I have no direct evidence. Targeting The European Cross-Border Buyer is a paper worth a read.

The European Commission has actually banned the practice of any commercial constraint of purchase in the single European market. However getting an IATA license to issue a pan European ticket is still not a even a possibility more than 10 years after the major expansion of the market. Theoretical yes – actually – definitely not

I do believe that over time – there will be a lessening of the practice. The airline based obfuscation of pricing will have to be simplified. If there is one lesson to be learned from the recent sharp downturn in the global economy – you need to be able to react much more quickly. If you think about it, not allowing cross border electronic ticketing is – well rather silly.

Cheers

Just because Gio says so doesn't make it so. Paper Tickets the Saga continues

OK so at a sweep of the electronic pen - paper tickets were consigned to history.

Politely BS.

As we are now seeing they are very much alive. Further the lack of full interline e-ticket is causing all manner of problems. For example if you are an external airline serving a single airport in one country without the interline etix of the national or dominant carrier in that market you are screwed. Specifically if you are in Germany and the long haul airline doesn't have an etix agreement with Lufthansa EVEN THOUGH THEY HAVE JOINT FARES. You are now in deep dog poop.

This is causing lots of issues for vendors of software and I am sure that even the GDSs don't have it all fixed yet.

But Don't worry Gio says its OK. And you believe him!!!!

Good luck if you are travelling any time soon on a cheapie consolidator ticket.

Cheers

Timothy

Last call for paper tickets - the end of the line for paper?

With much fanfare IATA announced that it was placing its last call for paper tickets.

However let us be a bit of a naysayer here. We see there are 2 issues.
A) will ALL the world world's airlines meet the deadline?
B) is the absence of paper tickets really a savings to the airlines?

The answer to A is definitely NO. There will be (and I will eat something vile in public if anyone can prove to me that all airlines meet the May 2008 deadline). Specifically Airlines in Asia, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East are struggling with this deadline. Some are just accepting that they will be cut off come the end of May. We believe that IATA needs to arrange some accommodation for these (typically smaller and less financially able) carriers. We are concerned that there will be a new class division of "Have" vs. "Have Not" airlines which will last for some time. Be careful IATA what you wish for.....

The issue of B is more interesting. Having spent years involved in the revenue accounting, ticketing and financial fulfillment side of air transportation - we can assure our dear readers that the processes are less than exemplary. The designs and solutions that have been implemented are rather arcane in their design and in some cases diabolical in their complexity of implementation. It is here that the LCCs have provided a lesson and a model to the rest of the Industry. Ticketless - IE a completely different approach that eliminates the need for even a notional ticket (as e-tickets do) - is a far better solution for simplification and reduction in paperwork and administration. We believe that after May 2008 - and independently of IATA - we will see a greater move away from the e-ticket idea to a pure ticketless implementation.

Of course this begs the question - if we have pure ticketless - should IATA have any say or even sponsorship of such systems as BSPs? Given the removal of anti-trust immunity and the general improvement in commercial conditions worldwide, we believe now is a good time to start to think of a Non-BSP world. If IATA was really keen to reduce the complexity of the business then they should set a date (2010 sounds nice) when they sunset BSP.

OK Mr. Bisignani, why not consider this for the future? Why not drive this home. It would result in a far better solution for the world and a significant savings for the world's airlines not to mention a reduction in your own organization which in turn would result in savings to your members.