DALLAS — ASTA and its members continued celebrating their victory over American Airlines Thursday at the Travel Advisor Conference here at the Hilton Anatole.
The previous day, American Airlines announced that it would reconsider its strategy for introducing NDC (New Distribution Capability) bookings, which ASTA had strongly opposed from the start.
After American Airlines removed fares from its traditional distribution system in April 2023 and forced travel agencies to make NDC bookings, acrimonious back-and-forth between American Airlines and ASTA began and did not ease until a year later when American gave travel agencies more time to reach the NDC booking threshold to become a “preferred” distributor.
Now, American Airlines has abandoned plans to award AAdvantage points for bookings made through travel agents that do not qualify as preferred NDC distributors.
And there was something to celebrate.
During a general session, CEO Zane Kirby showed a slide that depicted ASTA and American Airlines, much smaller than ASTA, as warriors. The audience cheered.
A graphic from the ASTA conference portraying ASTA as on the losing side in its battle with American Airlines. Photo by Jamie Biesiada.
“Today I completely agree with American Airlines,” Kirby said to laughter and more applause.
“It's fitting that we're here in Dallas, American's backyard, because American Airlines yesterday announced a 180-degree turn on their NDC implementation, completely abandoning their previous anti-competitive, anti-advisory plan,” Kirby said, to more cheers. “Anyone who books through you will get to keep their miles.”
The celebrations began in earnest the night before with an ASTA ceremony in which Kirby rode a mechanical bull. ASTA set the tone with a celebratory mood in its video description: “Our courageous President and CEO is feeling confident following Travel Advisor's big win yesterday in ASTA's battle with one of the airlines,” ASTA said.
Kirby said Thursday that ASTA's victory will benefit all advisors and agents who sell air tickets, and he credited ASTA members with the massive grassroots campaign the association organized.
“That is the power of ASTA and why every travel advisor should be a member of our trade association, because together we can and do make a difference,” Kirby said.
Speakers at Thursday's conference offered congratulatory remarks.
“This is a great David and Goliath victory. It's very impressive,” said Chris Voss, an author and former FBI lead hostage negotiator who was promoting educational sessions to hone negotiation skills.
Carnival Cruise Line President Christine Duffy also spoke about the AA news.
“I believe the attitude and work of Zane and the ASTA board and team really influenced the changes announced yesterday,” Duffy said.
