ARC attracted 224 attendees to its first Travel Connect conference in Washington, the inauguration of what will be an annual customer conference for agents, airlines and others involved in travel distribution and settlement.
Presentations and panel discussions during the two-day conference (Oct. 30 and 31) covered a range of topics from identity theft to rules tariffs.
One highlight was a presentation on “NDC and You” by ARC staffers Lucianne Leighton and Shelly Younger.
They explained that while NDC is based on setting XML communication standards for developing new distribution and selling techniques, there might not be much standardization in the way various airlines employ it.
Some carriers may deploy NDC technology broadly in all markets, while others may limit NDC approaches to the distribution of certain ancillary services or bundles in particular markets or to particular types of distributors, such as online travel agencies or large travel management companies.
As the implementation of NDC will be uneven, they said agents can expect to be dealing with conventional GDS distribution methods for some carriers and, simultaneously, with new approaches for other carriers for quite some time.
In an exhibit in the “Learning Cafe” between sessions, ARC also offered demonstrations of its Memo Analyzer, a tool that will be rolled out in beta next year as a way for agency managers to track and analyze their debit memos over time, complete with graphs and pie charts. The software can sort an agency’s debit memos by carrier, by market, by amount, by length of time outstanding or even by individual agent, enabling agency managers to spot trends and trouble spots.
A price hasn’t been established for the product, so it is not yet clear how attractive it will be to smaller agencies. ARC said the tool’s value will depend on not only the size of the agency but the number and nature of the debit memos it’s trying to manage.
The conference also provided the backdrop for the rollout of a fraud prevention page at the ARC website. Agents can register to receive fraud alerts and information on webinars and other ARC programs designed to reduce fraud and scam losses.
ARC also used the occasion to present its Travel Agent of the Year award to Jeff Erlbaum, president of ETA Travel in Conshohocken, Pa., and the Carrier Representative of the Year award to Craig Miller, director of revenue accounting for United. Both were cited for their active participation on the Debit Memo Working Group and other ARC panels.
ARC opened the conference with an in-house video marking the 50th anniversary of the area settlement plan and standard ticket, rolled out by its predecessor, the Air Traffic Conference, in 1964. “Connecting Agents and Carriers for 50 Years” is expected to be posted soon to the ARC website.