GDS How Choose Amadeus Sabre Travelport - Real-Time Availability, Features And Prices

 

 

What is the Global Distribution System?

 

A Global Distribution System (GDS) is a computerized network system owned or operated by a company that enables transactions between travel industry service providers, mainly airlines, hotels, car rental companies, and travel agencies. 

The GDS mainly uses real-time inventory (e.g. number of hotel rooms available, number of flight seats available, or number of cars available) to service providers. Travel agencies traditionally relied on GDS for services, products, and rates in order to provide travel-related services to the end consumers. 

Thus, a GDS can link services, rates, and bookings consolidating products and services across all three travel sectors: i.e., airline reservations, hotel reservations, car rentals.

 

Main features of GDS:

 

• Report availability and prices of travel products

• Reserve user requests.

• Sale and ticketing

• Track sales (extend customer’s stay, change of flights, etc.).

• Facilitates control management for travel agencies

 

BookingXML provides a one-stop solution for a vast selection of travel products from the world’s leading GDS. Integrate our single API to get inventory from multiple GDS systems, flight consolidators, and Low-Cost Carriers (LCCs). 

BookingXML Global Distribution System helps you easily expand into the global market. We work with all the major GDS providers, travel consolidators and integrate with Amadeus GDS, Travelport / Galileo GDS, Sabre GDS which allow access for reserving airline seats, hotel rooms, rental cars, and other travel sectors.

 

Importance of GDS

 

GDS is and will remain the most important channel of distribution for airlines, hotels, and car rental companies alike. The GDS provides the following benefits:

• OTAs have greatly improved the travel shopping experience & convenience for consumers and have increased pricing transparency.

• Travel agents can get a global platform for their business with strong market penetration.

• GDS is the base to enter corporate clients across the world.

• GDS is highly effective in alluring international travelers. This is the reason why using GDS among the travel agents is growing exponentially every year.

• GDS has the ability to update the status of inventory in real-time. Thus, agents can view all the changes instantly and will be able to suggest the new updates and offer to clients without any interruptions to make the deal.

 

How to Connect to GDS

 

• Get IATA or ARC accreditation.

• Pass the GDS terminal training.

• Sign an agreement.

• Negotiate competitive deals.

 

Expansion (inventory and coverage)

 

 

GDS Integration

 

1.  Amadeus GDS:  Inventory and Coverage

 

Amadeus GDS enables leading travel providers to run their businesses efficiently and effectively. From global network airlines to low-cost carriers, from multinational travel agencies to independent hotels Amadeus technology is used by a wide array of sectors to create successful commercial environments. Amadeus applications streamline and enhance the value of business processes for travel providers and users both and deliver a decisive competitive advantage to them.

Flights: The classic flight search and booking functionality are presented in all GDSs, Amadeus included. Amadeus also has services for business travel (useful for TMCs) and air booking.

Hotels: Not offering much in terms of content, Amadeus gives basic hotel booking capabilities, with search and pricing details. It also owns a hotelier GDS, that offers connectivity to all main GDS, combined.

Car rentals: Apart from basic car booking, Amadeus has rich visual content and airport shuttle/transfer options.

Cruises: Amadeus Cruise Web Services provides extensive cruise booking availability with transfers, special services, excursions, bus availability, and more. Apart from regular booking, it supports modifications and cancellation opportunities.

 

2.  Sabre GDS: Inventory and Coverage

 

Sabre Global Distribution System, owned by Sabre Corporation, is used by travel agents and companies around the world to search, price, book, and ticket travel services provided by airlines, hotels, car rental companies, and tour operators. Sabre aggregates airlines, hotels, online and offline travel agents, and travel buyers.

The Sabre distribution channel unites around 440 airlines, 37 car rental companies across 40,000 destinations, 20 cruise lines, and more than a million hotel properties.

Flights: Sabre offers extensive functionality for flight booking, including mileage count, seat maps, queue activity, and more.

Hotels: Similar to Amadeus, Sabre has limited hotel data availability that provides basic search, booking, cancelations, and access to loyalty program data.

Car rentals: Sabre has several APIs for car rentals, which allows for building a comprehensive search and booking platform: calculating rate depending on length and fees, precise geo search, search by special requirements, and so on.

Cruises: Despite the smallest inventory of cruise providers, Sabre gives access to full cruise content, including interactive maps and cabin images.

 

3.  Travelport GDS: Inventory and Coverage

 

Travelport provides distribution, technology, a payment solution for the travel and tourism industry. It is the smallest, by revenue, of the top three global distribution systems (GDS) after Amadeus IT Group and Sabre Corporation. The company also provides IT services to airlines, such as shopping, ticketing, and departure control.

Travelport GDS aggregates and distributes information across channels on access to airlines, cruises, and car rentals. Additionally, it allows for parsing information on available hotels and tours.

Travelport GDS is likely to be the only GDS equally covering all directions and continents. It’s evenly represented in the Americas, though to a greater extent in South America, EMEA, and the APAC region. In its distribution channel, Travelport combines 650,000 hotel properties, 400+ airline partners, 125 low-cost carriers, car rental units in over 38,000 locations, 50 cruise lines, and 19 railway carriers.

Flights: Travelport gives access to booking direct flights, connected air, and ancillary services, such as baggage, meals, and insurance.

Hotels: Apart from basic hotel content and booking, Travelport offers deals from non-GDS providers: Agoda, Tourico, and others. It also has support discounts for corporate clients.

Car rentals: Travelport’s car rental functionality is standard: search, pricing, images, vehicle details, and cancelation.

Cruises: Important to note, currently Travelport provides cruise booking opportunities only to travel agents who request direct booking via a web-based platform.

 

API Integration

 

API is the acronym for Application Programming Interface, which is a software intermediary that allows two applications to talk to each other. Each time you use an app like Facebook, send an instant message or check the weather on your phone, you’re using an API.

If you have been working in this business long enough, you know that API connectivity is still one of the main methods of data exchange in the travel industry. Here’s a recap of APIs' main GDSs offer and the data they provide.

 

1. Amadeus APIs

 

Amadeus Travel APIs connect you to the richest information in the travel industry. Amadeus APIs allow you to build up high-quality apps.

 

Self-Service APIs: Test, explore, build, and deliver apps to the market quickly

 

Amadeus Self-Service APIs feature simple, pay-as-you-go pricing that makes it easy to get your business off the ground quickly. Pay only for the calls you make, with no upfront costs or additional fees. Discover more about pricing for our Self-Service catalog and get started creating your application today.

• Varied catalog of REST/JSON APIs

• Instant access to the test environment

• Quick access to production

• Self-service documentation

• Pay for what you use

• Supported by Amadeus for Developers experts and the community

 

Enterprise APIs: Build rich apps with a tailored support package

 

Build fine-tuned applications to empower your business using our powerful Amadeus Enterprise APIs. Request access to over 100 Enterprise APIs and test them directly through the Enterprise APIs sandbox. Get support from one of our experienced travel consultants, who will guide you through our full APIs portfolio, and will help you select the offer that meets your specific needs.

• Extensive catalog of SOAP/XML and REST/JSON APIs, used by leading brands in the travel industry

• In-depth content and value-added features

• Access on a request basis

• Implementation and product consultancy

• Customized pricing

• 24/7 support and dedicated account manager

 

2.  Sabre APIs

 

Sabre APIs, formerly known as Sabre Web Services, provide easier, faster, and more flexible access to the Sabre system functionality and products. Through the Internet, you can integrate our products and services — all the functionality needed to sell travel — with your own applications and databases. APIs are ideal for developers who want to build or update a customized booking application for their website or use Sabre content within another application.

 

Pricing and Special Offers

 

The pricing structure for APIs features a recurring license fee, a support fee, and a transaction-based (or per-request) pricing system.

 

Key Benefits

 

• Extensive series of air/ car/ hotel/ passenger name record / miscellaneous services to access Sabre content

• Reduces development costs and streamlines development processes

• Provides a single point of access to the Sabre system

• Increases development speed - uses XML, SOAP, and travel industry standards

• Frees you from constraints of existing systems and technology

• Allows you to integrate any web service-enabled functionality in your own customized applications

• Using Event Notification Services minimizes mid-office robotic polling and can reduce scan volumes

 

Access and Availability

 

 

APIs are available in the Asia Pacific, Latin America, North America, and Europe with supporting documentation available in English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, and Italian.

 

3. Travelport APIs

 

Travelport API is one SOAP/XML API with multiple services and transactions. It offers a range of content: air, hotel, and car rental making it easy to develop a desktop, web, or mobile end-to-end travel application.

• Air API connect

• Rail API connect

• Travelport rooms

• Fares and ancillaries

• Customer profiles

Access to the API, as always in the cases of GDS providers, is available after direct contact with the Travelport team. It’s available via a single SOAP/XML interface.

 

NDS Support

 

NDC (New Distribution Capability) is a travel industry-supported program (NDC Program) launched by IATA for the development and market adoption of a new, XML-based data transmission standard.

NDC will enable the travel industry to transform the way air products are retailed to corporations, leisure, and business travelers, by addressing the industry’s current distribution limitations: 

• Product differentiation and time-to-market

• Access to full and rich air content

• Transparent shopping experience

 

NDC Adoption Across GDSs

 

The latest announcements made by the major GDS companies point out that they won’t quit the game yet. Obviously, GDS remained an all-purpose option for OTAs and TMCs. All three GDS giants have announced that they are going to participate in NDC adoption as a part of airline distribution evolution.

• Travelport was the first of GDSs to obtain level 3 compliance as an NDC aggregator, which is a required status to provide NDC services. Travelport’s NDC product was presented in 2017 via a roadmap, and it was announced that the product will be initially designed for airline companies. But the product will be enhanced in 2019 to be integrated with OTAs.

• Sabre made an official announcement at The Beat Live in October 2018, that it will reach level 3 compliance as an aggregator of NDC. That said, Sabre was recognized by IATA as a level 3 NDC IT provider in early 2018. The compliance level recognition means that the company is compatible with IATA’s NDC standards and can provide a full range of services.

• Amadeus is developing its NDC-X program and has also reached level 3 as an NDC aggregator.

For GDS aggregators, NDC adoption became a vital question. As it’s impossible for GDSs to integrate with each separate NDC channel, they decided to force the adoption of an XML standard for the industry.

 

Benefits of GDS

 

• Increased Access to Travel Agents for More Bookings

• More Efficient Booking Process

• Bundling Options for Other Travel Needs

• Less Expensive than Marketing

• Integration with Property-Management Systems