Add Genesis Travel Distribution Services to
the roster of options for Sabre-wired agencies that want to book
American Airlines tickets and Amadeus-connected agencies that seek
to use American, Continental, United or Northwest without the
threat of airline-imposed fees.
A hosting business
that uses Worldspan for most content, Genesis, based in Toronto and
owned by several agency associations in North America and Europe,
said last week that it planned to roll out a Preferred Channel
Selector program on Aug. 29.
The program would
give agencies that book and fulfill tickets on these airlines
protection from service fees because Genesis participates in
Worldspans Super Access Product.
As of Sept. 1,
American, Continental, United and Northwest have said they will
impose service fees on agencies that use nonpreferred booking
channels.
Worldspans SAP, a
preferred channel, comes with full content from the airlines and
protection from airline service fees. However, SAP also pays zero
incentives for Genesis subscribers, said Genesis President and CEO
Bruce Bishins.
Bishins said that
Genesis, which launched in the U.S. last year after about a decade
in development, has a couple of hundred subscribers in the U.S. and
Canada. The point-of-sale reservations, ticketing and settlement
system (Bishins said Genesis is not a GDS) also operates in Mexico
and plans to launch in Spain in September.
The Genesis PCS
program is available to agencies that use any GDS, but it would be
most attractive to some Sabre and Amadeus users because, to date,
Sabre and American do not have a new contract and American, United,
Continental and Northwest have not reported new participation deals
with Amadeus. All of the mentioned carriers intend to charge
agencies service fees when booking via nonpreferred
channels.
Licensees of the
PCS program would not have guaranteed access to Delta inventory
because Worldspan does not have a new agreement with that
airline.
Agencies can sign
up for the Genesis PCS program for a $150 one-time implementation
fee and a monthly $50 charge for an initial license. There are
other fees for additional licenses, after-hour bookings and refunds
and exchanges.
G2 SwitchWorks
G2Agent, like Genesis, offers agencies guaranteed access to public
and private fares from major U.S. carriers. But according to Ellen
Lee, G2s vice president of business development, G2-Agent is not
only supplier-fee free, but [agents] can also get paid.
All G2Agent
agencies earn incentives on tickets generated for most of our
airlines, Lee said. Incentives are paid per net ticket and not per
net segment like the GDS model.
We enter into a
specific conversation with agencies, added Lee, who noted that
incentives are paid by G2, not the airlines.
To contact
reporter Dennis Schaal, send e-mail to [email protected].