Point of Sale: concept evolution Grach Muradyan Amadeus Russia Moscow, September 2014
In the beginning it was OAG First edition - in 1929 Page 2
In the beginning it was OAG Pan American Airways fares: single static one-way fares Decades later replicated by LCCs / dynamically / Page 3
Product diversification No product split Risk of selling ( re-phrasing ) А Wrong Product To a Wrong Customer At a Wrong Time For a Wrong Price Page 4
Product diversification Airline product diversification introduction To split services & increase revenues The Right Product New type of cabin AA DST LGA-LAX: 14 berths, pure business flight (1936) Page 5
Product diversification Selling airline services For Right Price Different RBDs within the same class of service Fares subject to terms / limitations To Right Customer Targeting by means of Inventory control & RMS At Right Time Limiting cheap classes To leave space for higher revenue pax Closer to the date of departure Page 6
POS concept: a big family Still some flexibility in definitions Different actions based approach Point of Inquiry (POI) Office / IATA used for availability search Sometimes only IATA number advised Different OID / PCC notifications in GDSs / CRSs Point of Sale (POS): based on booking office Office FRAyy08AA is used Consumer located: MUC (or selecting DE) Travel request: LON - JFK Point of Issue / Ticketing Point of Departure / Arrival Page 7
POS concept: early stages Approach based on split by Geographical criteria Granulation: up to the OID / PCC Type of business Sell clusters Corporates / multi-national TMCs ( CWT, AMEX, ) Countries Cities Different commercial approach Business rules & filters Cluster search and/or sell suppression opportunity Closing booking possibility on country / market level for Secondary / offline markets with no direct flights Markets with no BSP Page 8
POS concept: internet environment POS evolution Mobility bookings on notebooks First - via dial access Access from any physical location Case TA in Uruguay (MVD) moves to Argentina (BUE) Sales from laptops with a lower price POS becoming more a logical Office ID Unbundling OID with physical Sales office Still POS / country OID considered for Default currency Default departure city Page 9
POS concept: internet environment POS concept transformation in the internet era CC enhancing the payment process Multi-country OIDs behind the same sites Even within the same interface language E.g. site Russian version using German OID OTAs using few OIDs / same site in different countries Where higher margin can be received due to better Airline fares / lower classes available Airline / GDS incentives Currency conversion Airline commissions Simultaneous availability check from a few OIDs TAs thus adapting / bypassing airline POS policy Airlines revenue under the risk Page 10
POC: concept introduction Point Of Commencement (POC) approach Airlines responding to TAs adaptation to POS Differentiation criteria used on the airline side Commercial policy based on flight Origin / Destination e.g. OID MOWyy08AA used by an airline yy for Origin RU Or a cluster / markets including RU, KZ, KG, UZ, UA TA optionally split in a few groups e.g. Requesting TA belongs to Origin Requesting TA belongs to Destination Rest Of the World Commercial policy differentiation per group No commissions if booking OID out of Origin Availability discrimination for not POC OIDs Lower availability information quality Closing availability & sales for OIDs with high L2B Page 11
POC: an airline vision Airline own web site using few OIDs behind Dedicated OID per each Origin market Interface language independent Page 12
POC: airline vision Online sales rejects sample: FLYDUBAI / EMIRATES connex Route requested via Amadeus Web Services: SVX DEL via DXB First leg confirmed by FZ Second leg rejected by EK: AV / Sell desynchronization Requesting MOW office treated by EK as Rest Of the World Or just an outdated cache data additional check still needed Page 13
POC: what is next? Airlines gradually moving from POS to POC Challenge to TAs: adapting to airline policy First evaluations: POC easier vs. POS? Airline hubs / Origins limited Localized within one Country / Market mainly Thus most of flights Origins belongs to same Market Up to 70% given domestic flights (included) Just one TA OID in the hub country covers most Origins What if low / no airline commissions for this market? New fraud possibilities that do not exist today? Next steps: introducing new differentiation criteria? Similar to combining POC & POS plus sale restrictions Or just simplifying policy like LCCs back to early days? Page 14
Thank you! gmuradyan@amadeus.ru Page 15