Whose customer is it anyway?

TRAVEL agents need to
share customer information
with airlines, urged Vuyani
Jarana, ceo of SAA, and
Michi Messner, deputy
chairperson of Barsa and
regional manager: Africa for
Qantas Airways.
Discussing customer
ownership, Michi said:
“We have to make sure
they get from A to Z in a
safe manner, which means
collaboration between
airlines, associations and
retailers or wholesalers.”
She emphasised the need
for seamless transportation
from start to finish.
Vuyani said it was
essential for the trade to
collaborate with airlines
about the sharing of
customer information. He
stressed that, particularly
in times of difficulty,
the customer must be
reachable by all parties
facilitating travel. “We must
build trust so that the
customer wins.”
XL Travel’s Marco
Ciocchetti suggested that
technology had contributed
to the drifting apart and
hesitancy to share customer
information between airlines
and the travel trade. “We
used to be extremely close
because we depended
100% on each other.”
But he argued that
technology also had
an important role in
re-establishing the
relationship. “In our
business, we are using
technology to get closer to
our clients and engage with
them again. In the future,
I think technology will also
allow travel agencies to
get close to their airline
partners again and the NDC
will be one of the tools that
allows us to work together.”
Asata’s Otto de Vries
said there was a lot of
misunderstanding around
the NDC, describing it as
a standard that enabled
airlines to communicate
offerings to all their value
channels, including direct,
with the same consistent
information and content. “If
we look at the complexities
travel agents have to deal
with today – they use one
tool to make a booking and
then have to go through
to the airline’s website
or another channel for
ancillaries -- hopefully, the
intent behind NDC is that
travel agents will be able to
service their customers on
one platform.