At a glance
- The situation
- A corporate travel agency quotes flights to a long-standing client from a single GDS with a flat markup set years ago.
- What goes wrong
- The client's staff compare the quote with the airline's own site and a metasearch engine, find it dearer, and begin booking around the agency.
- What changes
- The platform runs a price parity check before each quote, searches GDS, NDC and low-cost fares together and applies tiered markup, so the agency quotes with the comparison already done.
An illustrative scenario: a travel agency quotes a fare, the client finds the same flight cheaper on another channel, and the agency can neither explain the gap nor fix it. With a price parity check before quoting, markup tiers and GDS, NDC and low-cost fares in one search, the agency quotes knowing where it stands.
The scenario
Consider a corporate travel agency that has served a mid-size company for years. Quotes come from one GDS, with a flat markup set when the contract was signed, and nobody has looked at it since. The service is good; the price has not been questioned — until the client hires a new office manager.
The new manager compares a quote with the airline's own website and finds the same flight cheaper there. A colleague finds a lower price again on a metasearch site. A screenshot is forwarded to the agency with a one-line question: why are we paying more to book through you?
The agency has no answer ready. It does not know whether the difference is an NDC-only fare the GDS did not return, a fare family with fewer inclusions, a currency or payment-fee effect, or simply its own markup. By the time it has investigated, the client's staff have started booking directly and claiming on expenses, and the agency is handling the disruptions on tickets it did not sell.
The irony is that on other routes the agency's negotiated fares beat the public price comfortably. It has never shown the client that, because it never compared.
Why it is hard to fix
Prices differ by channel for real reasons
Fare families, NDC-only offers, negotiated fares, currency and payment fees all move the number before markup does.
Markup is set once and forgotten
A flat percentage that was right at signing drifts out of line as the market and the content change.
One content source is not the market
If the search only covers the GDS, NDC and low-cost fares the client can see elsewhere never appear in the quote.
The client checks; the agency does not
Comparison is a few clicks for the traveller and, without a tool, a research project for the agent.
What changes with the platform
On the Innovate Solution platform, the agent's search returns GDS, NDC and low-cost fares in one normalised result set, so the fare the client would find elsewhere is already on the agent's screen, with its fare family and inclusions beside the negotiated fare.
Before the quote goes out, a price parity check compares the agency's price with other channels for the same product. If the agency is dearer, the agent can see why — markup, fare family, channel — and either adjust or explain. If the agency is cheaper, the quote can say so.
Markup is no longer one flat figure: tiers by client, route or product are applied automatically, and live margin dashboards show what each tier earns. Where a fare drops after booking, Drop Catch alerts the agency so it can review refundable bookings.
How it works, step by step
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The agent searches
GDS, NDC and low-cost fares come back together, each with fare family and inclusions.
-
The parity check runs
The agency's quoted price is compared with other channels for the same flight before the quote is sent.
-
The difference is explained
The agent sees whether a gap comes from fare family, channel, fees or markup, and adjusts or annotates the quote.
-
Tiered markup applies
The client's tier sets the markup automatically; no flat figure from an old contract.
-
The quote goes out with the comparison
The client sees the agency's price, the inclusions and, where the agency is cheaper, the saving against the public fare.
-
Fares are watched after booking
Drop Catch alerts the agency if a cheaper fare appears, so refundable bookings can be reviewed.
Before and after
| Before | With the platform |
|---|---|
| The client compares; the agency finds out from a screenshot | The agency compares before quoting |
| One GDS, one flat markup | GDS, NDC and low-cost fares together, with tiered markup by client and route |
| A price gap has no explanation | The gap is attributed to fare family, channel, fees or markup |
| Negotiated savings are never shown | Quotes show where the agency beats the public fare |
| Fare drops after booking go unnoticed | Fare-drop alerts flag bookings worth reviewing |
What it does not do
- It does not guarantee the agency is always cheapest; it shows where it stands so the agency can decide.
- Comparison depends on the channels and content the platform can see at the time of the check.
- Markup tiers are set by the agency; the platform applies them, it does not choose them.
Questions about this scenario
Why was the agency dearer than the airline website in this scenario?
The investigation showed a mix of reasons: an NDC-only fare family the single-GDS search did not return, and a flat markup that had not been reviewed since the contract was signed.
What does the agent see when the parity check runs?
The agency's price against other channels for the same flight, with the reason for any gap — fare family, channel, fees or markup — so the quote can be adjusted or explained before it is sent.
Could the agency have shown the client where it was cheaper?
Yes. On routes with negotiated fares the parity check shows the saving against the public fare, which can be stated on the quote.
Does this apply to hotel rates as well as flights?
The same principle applies to any product the agency quotes; this scenario follows a flight quote because that is where the client's comparison started.
Related
About this page. This is an illustrative scenario: the business is hypothetical and the story is drawn from problems that travellers and travel agents describe in public forum discussions. It contains no customer names and no performance figures. The problem itself is explained on Fare price competitiveness; for measured results from named customers, see the case studies.
Recognise this situation? We will walk through it on the platform with your own bookings. The full explanation of the problem — causes, approach and limits — is on Fare price competitiveness.
