If you work in the travel industry, you’ve probably heard of New Distribution Capability. NDC is the airlines’ attempt, through IATA, (the International Air Transport Association) to upgrade the technology used by their indirect partners (TMCs, online booking companies and corporate online booking tools) to sell airline tickets.
But, NDC is only the first of a two-stage strategy from IATA to move airline sales and customer management into the digital world two decades after most other industries. We strongly believe it is this second stage, ONE Order, which could really make a difference to buyers and sellers alike.
ONE Order, set to debut in the next year, will replace PNRs (passenger name records), ticket numbers, and electronic miscellaneous documents, combining them into a single ID for each trip.
Today, IATA airlines use different systems to handle orders (the PNR) and payment (the ticket) for the same booking. That means reconciling two sets of data in a manual back-office process. ONE Order’s single customer record ends this inefficiency, which could mean significant administrative savings for both airlines and travel agencies.
A unified process also makes it easier to track ancillary sales (seat upgrades, VIP boarding, inflight meals & services). ONE Order makes accounting for these add-on charges easier for corporate clients than through today’s EMD, which is hard to reconcile with the original booking to which the ancillary relates.
Want to learn more?
Consulting firm Nina & Pinta has put together an excellent PDF on One Order. Their balanced and forthcoming overview of this important change has good advice as well as information about implementation schedules and other milestones. To download the PDF, click here.
Note:
Teplis Travel’s source of lowest fare content, Frosch was the first Level 3 certified agency with American Airlines and New Distribution Capability (NDC). While there is a growing amount of NDC content available to us each month, we know that technology and access to content will continue to change drastically over the next few years, and we will strive to be in front of that for our clients. We will also remain our clients’ advocate for fairness and transparency when it comes to reporting and access to the lowest available fares.
