It is our mission at American Express Global Business Travel (Amex GBT) to provide companies of all shapes and sizes access to the most comprehensive and competitive travel content available. One notable example, in a recent press release, is the extension of our private channel agreement with British Airways (BA), mentioned so customers retain surcharge-free access to BA content while NDC and modern retailing capabilities evolve.
We support the evolution of the air distribution landscape, working closely with our airline and technology partners, while maintaining the integrity of our clients’ corporate travel programs.
As airlines accelerate the rollout of New Distribution Capability (NDC), we have devoted significant resources and investment to integrating NDC fares into our booking channels so we can provide customers an unparalleled array of content choices. We guide our airline and technology partners on specific requirements necessary to help make NDC work for business travel.
Our efforts are paying off. We’ve significantly scaled the number of NDC fares available in our marketplace across multiple airlines and in multiple countries. More than 10,000 of our clients now have access to NDC fares on Amex GBT’s Neo and Egencia booking platforms and via offline channels.
Since providing many more clients access to NDC content in the past few months, we’ve seen the number of NDC transactions significantly increase. By the end of April this year, travelers using Amex GBT’s proprietary software solutions Neo and Egencia had already made hundreds of thousands of NDC bookings.
And in the weeks and months ahead, we’ll expand NDC capabilities with additional airlines and technology providers and in more countries around the world.
NDC Observations and Considerations for the Journey Ahead
We’ve gained extensive knowledge through the countless hours we’ve dedicated to this undertaking, the many conversations we’ve had with stakeholders across the travel ecosystem, the hundreds of thousands of NDC transactions, and the real experiences from our customers. Here are six key observations and considerations for the journey ahead.
1.Owning our own technology is a differentiator.
Owning our own software solutions allows us to work in closer collaboration with our customers and partners to build robust and scalable NDC connections. It also gives us complete ownership of the end-to-end customer experience and the agility to respond quickly to customer needs. We’ve been able to accelerate access to NDC content for clients on our Egencia and Neo booking platforms. Over 97% of US customers on our Egencia and Neo platforms have access to NDC content.
Amex GBT’s SVP of Product & Engineering John Sturino said: “Our engineering teams on Egencia and Neo, with deep airline distribution experience and understanding of our customers, have the ability to quickly respond and learn as we make the NDC technology work for more customers and in more places around the world.” We expect to continue an accelerated pace of NDC content availability for customers on our proprietary technology.
We have teams in place who are constantly working to accelerate access to NDC content as more airlines progress their NDC capabilities, though we’re cognizant of dependencies and capacity limitations across the ecosystem. We are also balancing our own prioritization efforts with those of our partners. We sometimes shift priorities as opportunities arise that could benefit our customers. We are able to help shape our partners’ priorities to move the industry forward.
2.We have a healthy collaboration with airlines and technology partners.
As a leading software and services company for travel and expense, and with the number of customers that we serve, we have a deep understanding of the corporate travel landscape and the opportunity to shape NDC’s development. More than 20 carriers are already part of our industry-leading NDC program. We’ve been collaborating closely with multiple airlines and technology providers, helping to figure out which features need to be improved and prioritized to enhance the customer experience with NDC.
In 2023, we created a framework known as the Minimum Marketable Product (MMP), a set of use cases to help make sure NDC functionality and standards meet the varied requirements of a corporate travel program. Many airlines have been very receptive to our guidance, with a majority adopting our key requirements to help develop their APIs.
3.Travelers choose flights, not technologies.
Most customers aren’t aware whether the fare they’re viewing and booking originates from NDC or the legacy standard, EDIFACT (Electronic Data Interchange for Administration, Commerce, and Transport). This speaks to how seamlessly NDC content is integrated into the shopping and booking experience on our proprietary software.
With any new technology, there’s bound to be hiccups, and we have teams in place to monitor and respond to any new learnings. So far, our client management and traveler care specialists, including our hypercare team, report little to no impact to the traveler experience when shopping, booking, or managing NDC content. We remain focused on the traveler experience.
4.NDC for business travel is still in its infancy and will evolve.
Many airlines are still developing their NDC API and much of the NDC technology is in the early stages of development for business travel. Airlines are in varying stages of NDC capability development and there are still some features and functionality limitations for managed travel programs that need to be solved for. For example, the ability to shop by schedule is a capability that still needs development. There’s also still the need to improve response times and reliability of airline NDC platforms. We’ve been working closely with our partners to reinforce and prioritize NDC capabilities and functionality that our customers need.
5.We’ve started to see improvements in the shopping experience.
With NDC, airlines hope to create a richer and more personalized shopping experience for customers, and we’re starting to see some evidence of that, though it’s not yet consistent across airlines. For instance, we can now present frequent flyers with real-time information on their free bag allowance and an updated seat map that allows them to reserve restricted seats based on their loyalty tier. We’ve seen an example of an airline that can guarantee NDC fares for up to 72 hours without ticketing, while legacy fares can change with each fare filing update. We expect to see more of these examples as NDC capabilities continue to develop.
6.We’re fully committed to making NDC work for our customers.
Strictly turning on an airlines’ NDC content is just the beginning. We’re solving for NDC in a way that doesn’t compromise the integrity of our clients’ managed travel programs. For example, even though many NDC bookings are managed online, we must be able to service an NDC booking offline, when a customer calls a travel specialist. When travel plans change unexpectedly, it’s critical that our customer care team has the capability to assist travelers. Initially, we encountered a few issues with NDC fares in which some could not be altered or canceled like EDIFACT fares. We’ve solved for this by integrating NDC content into all servicing channels, including online, offline, and messaging, and now have thousands of NDC-trained travel specialists ready to assist.
Our clients are keen to understand how changes enabled by NDC, such as continuous pricing and dynamic bundles, might impact their travel programs and budget. We’ve expanded reporting capabilities to include NDC filters so clients have greater visibility into their air programs as new content is integrated.
Our customers want to be confident they are accessing the most comprehensive and competitive travel options. While we have made significant progress, there is still a lot more to come. Not only will we improve functionality and integrate more NDC fares from more airlines and in more countries, we will continue to guide our clients and partners through this transition.
We’re committed to collaboration. We’re committed to value. We’re committed to integrating more content. We’re committed to making NDC work for our customers and the industry as a whole.
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