Concur Travel Connecting to United Airlines NDC Content

Executive Summary

·        SAP Concur began providing customers with full access to New Distribution Capability (NDC) content from British Airways and the Lufthansa Group in September 2019, making Concur Travel the first corporate OBT to provide customers with access to NDC.

·        The Concur Travel ‘Select Access connection to the airlines’ NDC APIs is powered by Travelfusion, a non-GDS aggregator, because NDC content was not available from the GDSs when our customers first asked for NDC content.

·        I am pleased to announce that SAP Concur will make available connections to United Airlines NDC APIs through Select Access for all customers next week. Our connection to United’s NDC APIs will display United’s bundles of ancillary services, which customers can configure easily in Concur Travel, and are uniquely available through the NDC channel.

·        In the future, Concur Travel plans to obtain NDC content via the GDSs when SAP Concur believes that a robust, scalable, and commercially transparent solution is available.

·        The flurry of recent NDC announcements from airlines, GDSs, and TMCs represent great progress, but continued work remains in order to provide the stable and scalable solutions our industry and customers need.

Background

In 2019, I penned a blog about the SAP Concur approach to NDC airline content. I described how NDC worked, why the airlines were adopting it, and how some carriers were positioning NDC as their preferred connection source by removing fares from and/or surcharging GDS bookings. I also explained that because the GDSs were only getting started with NDC at that time, SAP Concur would provide access to NDC APIs through Concur Travel Select Access via our partner Travelfusion, a GDS-alternative aggregator.  

I acknowledged that Concur Travel was not seamlessly integrated into the GDS, because NDC was not available from the GDS at that time. I also expressed our hope that the GDSs – on which most TMCs rely heavily – would soon provide robust, scalable, and transparent NDC solutions that the industry needs. Our advice to customers who were interested in NDC at that time was to begin by discussing the pros, cons, costs, and options with their TMCs and airlines. 

This post is intended as an update to my earlier piece and update the latest news from SAP Concur as well as several recent announcements about NDC content becoming available in the GDSs.

 NDC at SAP Concur

Despite the events of the past year, at SAP Concur, we have continued to make progress to deliver relevant NDC content to our customers. All of our customers have had access to NDC content from British Airways (BA) and the Lufthansa Group (LHG) through our Select Access (Travelfusion), which we first introduced in 2019.

Next week, SAP Concur will make available connections to United Airlines NDC content for all our customers through Select Access. United’s NDC APIs will display United’s bundles of ancillary services, which customers can configure easily in Concur Travel, and are uniquely available through the NDC channel. United has been a North American pioneer in multi-channel distribution and was the first airline to connect to Concur TripLink. SAP Concur is continuing to pilot connectivity with American Airlines NDC content, as well.

It’s been interesting to read about several TMCs that have overcome the challenges of managing passive segments by deploying technology that allows their agents to service those bookings. In a press release last September, the Lufthansa Group announced that Siemens had started to book their business trips via the SAP Concur platform in the Lufthansa Group airlines NDC channel. Siemens’ TMC deployed automation which allows it to manage passive segments.  

FCM announced its ability to access Lufthansa Group’s NDC and Continuous Pricing via Concur Travel last fall. FCM cited its ability to support NDC bookings including Lufthansa Group’s Continuous Pricing as an alternative to “traditional GDS pricing” to help customers avoid “unnecessarily high jumps between fares.”

NDC content via the GDSs

The GDSs have made important progress with NDC since SAP Concur deployed our Select Access NDC solution 18 months ago. Even though each airline writes its own separate NDC APIs, which means that each GDS must integrate each API set from each airline individually, there have been several recent announcements about nascent NDC availability in the GDS. 

·        Air France-KLM announced that they intend to make NDC content available in Amadeus later this year, although it confirmed to The Beat that TMCs will be required to pay a surcharge of “a few euros per segment, per passenger” for NDC content via the GDS.

·     Lufthansa Group (LHG) and Sabre announced two NDC connection options, with different levels of access to NDC content. At the time of the announcement, LHG confirmed to The Company Dime that, “The details of these models will be communicated in the first half of 2021.” , noting that one will be “an agency-paid model whereby an agency would first reach a bilateral agreement” with LHG enabling access to all agreed NDC offers,” and an “NDC public model” with limited access to NDC content.”

·     Other airlines, GDSs, and TMCs have engaged in alliances to execute on their NDC strategies. For example:

·        American Express GBT announced an agreement with Lufthansa to access NDC content, though the NDC content delivered to GBT under that agreement will not be available to Concur Travel customers because Concur Travel obtains content from the GDS, not the TMC.

·       American Airlines and Amadeus recently announced a renewed content distribution agreement whereby NDC-enabled content from American Airlines will go live globally in the Amadeus Travel Platform in the coming months.

·        International Airlines Group (IAG) and Amadeus announced an agreement which will make NDC available in Amadeus later this year. The Company Dime reports that there will be charges of “a few euros, dollars or pounds.”

·        Singapore Airlines and Qantas have previously announced agreements with GDSs.

·        Emirates will include a surcharge for GDS bookings of Emirates Gateway, its “NDC-enabled direct connect platform” starting in July this year. It has not announced any plans to offer NDC through the GDS.

Conclusion

The announced GDS solutions for NDC content still have gaps such as the ability to book ancillary services, seat selection, or bundles, E-ticket tracking and usage, and Continuous Pricing. This is not meant to be disparaging; the progress the GDSs have made is impressive. There is just a lot more that still needs to be done. 

The Company Dime quoted TMC sources who said: “There are a lot of details to uncover here and it’s too early to commercially understand this right now...It will depend on the region and the carrier.”  I agree.

SAP Concur continues to engage with the GDSs and airlines to understand their solutions and progress with the intention to support the necessary changes, once it is apparent that the GDSs have a robust and scalable NDC process which our TMC partners and customers need.

So, my advice hasn’t really changed since 2019. Customers interested in connecting to airlines directly through NDC should meet with your preferred airlines to understand the actual and immediate benefits of getting NDC content this year. Definitely meet with your TMCs to see how they can support your needs and what additional costs they may need to pass along to support this new channel. 

If your company identifies an immediate need for NDC content, SAP Concur already offers connections to the NDC content of key airlines via Select Access now including Lufthansa, British Airways and United Airlines, with others on the way.