Travelport Backs Down on Agility Plan

Faced with widespread opposition and threats of defection over its Agility program, Travelport told U.S. subscribers that it was “streamlining” the package, which had bundled new technologies with core GDS features at a hefty price tag.

Now, Travelport’s new Smartpoint application and its Worldspan counterpart, Translator, will be removed from the bundle and offered separately for purchase, subscribers learned in a Dec. 30 email from Derek Sharp, president and managing director for the Americas Region and Airline IT Solutions.

He said the other products previously announced as part of Agility, including Travelport Rooms and More, will remain in the bundle, but Travelport will waive the Agility fee for the life of an agency’s current contract.

Responds to ‘customer feedback’
“Based on customer feedback, we have made limited changes to the Americas Agility package,” Travelport said in a statement. “We are discussing those details with our customers in the Americas.”

Travelport unveiled Agility on Nov. 30, with an effective date of Jan. 1. It packaged Smartpoint or Translator with a dozen other features such as profiles, queues and MIR/TAIR transmission, which provides the ability to generate a single data set for accounting and management information purposes.

Under the original plan, applications included in the Agility bundle would no longer be available as stand-alone products, Travelport said.

Monthly fee a problem
The stunner for agents was the cost: $35 per month, per active addressable device. For large agencies, that could have run to a six-figure annual bill.

Some agents who had secondary systems told Travel Market Report they were planning to move their business entirely off Apollo or Worldspan. Amadeus said it was seeing a spike in inquiries.

Agents were also distressed over the timing of the announcement, coming in the midst of the holiday season when many key executives were out of the office.

One agent, speaking off the record, said Travelport was headed down a slippery slope with the move, because “this signals to airlines that agents are willing to pay for distribution.” That concept is not likely to serve a GDS company well when it negotiates new contracts with airlines, the agent said.

Agents pleased with revisions
The news of Travelport’s decision to revamp Agility was greeted with relief.

“I’m pleased with the decision TravelPort made,” Joe McClure, president of Montrose (Calif.) Travel, said. “It’s an honorable one.”

Tim Smith, president of GlobalPoint Travel Solutions in San Diego, who signed a new contract with Travelport just a few weeks ago, said the modification to Agility “seems OK.”

“We are accustomed to paying for new technology, but not for things that were part of the core system,” he said.

Travelport’s ‘miscalculation’
If Travelport had introduced the package as agents negotiated new contracts, “that would have been fine,” he said. But changing the rules in midstream was “a miscalculation.”

Smith emphasized, however, that “Travelport has been a pretty darn good partner, and they’ve worked hard to develop good relationships with their users. They’ve also created some good technology.”

Throughout the brief dispute, Travelport executives “were extremely gracious from the get-go,” he added. “They were very understanding.”

Smith also praised ASTA for its strong, swift response to the issue. “ASTA stepped up immediately,” he said.

What’s next?
The unanswered question is what Travelport will offer when contracts come up for renewal.

The company has hinted that it wants to nudge agencies toward a model in which they pay for technology that provides a material benefit to them.

The company believed that Smartpoint fell into that category.

The application blends graphical, point-and-click technology with the Focalpoint cryptic environment, creating a “hybrid” of native, cryptic-command and point-and-click navigation. Travelport said Smartpoint would speed up the reservations process, reduce call handling time and improve the agent’s user experience.

Seen as interim step
Smartpoint and Translator, the Worldspan version, also would serve as an interim step toward the Universal Desktop, essentially putting everyone on the same platform.

But for agents, the price tag seemed “draconian,” and the bundling of Smartpoint with essential core features seemed designed to give them no choice.