Open Allies for AirFare Transparency made its debut with a website, extensive roster of founding members, a whitepaper and a call for major airlines to abandon any direct-connect plans they may have.
Tnooz wrote about the group's emergence two weeks ago, but today was the official coming-out party.
The coalition cites 117 founding members, including the three major GDSs, online travel agencies Expedia, Orbitz and Travelocity, corporations ranging from Oracle to Sapient, and a host of travel management companies and travel agencies ranging from BCD Travel to Travel Management Partners.
Trade associations, including ASTA, the Interactive Travel Services Association and the Scottish Passenger Agents Association, are among the founders, as well.
There are some interesting names absent from the founders' list: American Express Business Travel, Carlson Wagonlit Travel and Priceline, which recently announced a direct connect deal with American Airlines.
The coalition opposes airlines' direct-connect efforts as "untested and potentially costly," and contends that direct-connects lead to "hidden fees" and make it difficult for travelers to compare fares.
In a press statement several weeks ago, the Open AXIS Group, founded by major U.S. airlines, argued that the transparency issue as promulgated by opponents to direct-connect is off base.
Open AXIS Group stated:
"Airlines desire, and have pushed for, product and price transparency.The suggestion by pundits that airlines have an underlying desire to make their products less transparent leads one to believe that the pundits themselves may not really understand the marketplace and how buyers purchase.
"Airline direct websites are very transparent as to what is included in a travel purchase. The method each airline undertakes to sell its products through their direct online channels is based on their own product and marketing strategy.
"As each selling strategy is unique and differentiated, what the consumer gets when they make a travel purchase has to be clearly communicated and transparent. It is this same level of transparency and selling strategy that the airlines desire to provide to their indirect channel (online and offline travel agencies).
"In this indirect channel, it is the responsibility of the GDS network to ensure that an airline, from which they derive a majority of their revenue, has the ability to market and sell its own product the way the airline wants to, without being forced into a display that ultimately commoditizes the airline’s optional products and services.
"Although this method of display is easiest on the GDS, this current GDS-centric model inhibits airline product choice, lessens the airline brand, and ultimately limits the consumer’s ability to make his or her own choice."
Open Allies for AirFare Transparency isn't buying that argument.
“Hidden fees and closed airline systems are forcing millions of consumers to ‘fly blind’ when making their travel arrangements,” said Andrew Weinstein, director of the Open Allies coalition. “When you can’t see the full price of tickets or compare them among airlines, you lose the greatest benefit of our modern travel system and the benefits of price competition among the airlines. Some airlines want to turn back the clock to the days of proprietary reservation systems, silos of closed data, and one-off displays without price comparisons. Consumers deserve the ability to compare prices across airlines, and Open Allies will work to ensure they continue to have it.”
Asked which organizations are funding Open Allies, Weinstein said, "the short answer is that the cost of forming the coalition has been mostly time-related, not financial, and a wide range of companies and organizations have contributed their time, energy, and expertise in that process."
"As you know, we launched this morning with 117 founding members from across the travel industry, and many of them have stepped forward to take leadership roles in sharing information about the coalition, developing materials, and advancing the coalition's mission," Weinstein adds.
With all of the commotion that the American Airlines' direct-connect push has created, the new Open Allies coalition is not taking aim at Southwest Airlines, which pioneered direct distribution in the U.S. and publishes its fares online for leisure travelers solely on its own website. (Southwest also connects to Travelport GDS via an API, but those fares are available to Travelport subscribers and not on leisure travel websites powered by Travelport.)
Instead, Open Allies calls for "an industry-wide effort to urge major airlines to share all of their fare and ancillary fee information through the distribution systems they currently use (my italics) ..."
Southwest, for now, gets a pass.
Weinstein of Open Allies explains: "We're not focused on any specific airline but on the broader issue of fare transparency, and we believe it is better for consumers when every airline makes its fares and fees available through the distribution channels used by travelers, so they can compare prices between those airlines."
"No airline is currently making all of its fares and fees available through every distribution channel it uses, but some are working to actively undermine the existing system for price comparison, while others are simply waiting and watching events unfold," Weinstein adds.
The reference to some airlines "working to actively undermine the existing system for price comparison" is an obvious reference to American Airlines.
For more information about Open Allies, the coalition released a whitepaper, Customized Services and Comparison Shopping: Preserving Price Transparency in the Age of 'Unbundled' Airline Services.