As a true commitment of comprehensiveness, transparency and neutrality, iXiGO.com wants to reiterate to iXiGOers that we will continue to display and allow bookings on Jet Airways, just like we always do !
The media is reporting that travel agents across the country have stopped selling Jet Airways and JetLite airline tickets effective from today, after they arrived at this conclusion as a way to protest against the zero commission regime and the removal of transaction fees on airline sites, a smart move that resulted in cheapest fares available on the airline's own website and on airline-friendly channels such as iXiGO.
Not publicized much in media, but verified by us on their sites, Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) in India have also stopped displaying and selling these airlines, leading to a less comprehensive product. Surprisingly, they do not tell their consumers about this on their result page or home page either!
This is a serious issue. If the Travel Agents really want a healthy ecosystem and long-term survival and growth of airlines in India, they will need to find innovative business models and partnerships to enable it for consumers. Knee-jerk reactions are only short-term solutions.
Here's one to smart and savvy consumers who will only find this as another reason to shift away from travel agents onto travel search engines, airline websites and more transparent and comprehensive sources of information.
Travel Agents - We feel bad for you. Airlines - We are with you !
Love,
The iXiGO Team
PS: Jet Airways is still available on iXiGO, and so is Kingfisher, and so is Air India, just like all the other airlines in India.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
May be Jet Airways is available on Ixigo, and so is kingfisher and so is Air India and so every other airline in India.
ReplyDeleteBut I feel sorry for your 'Bus ticket search'. I only find ticketvala 's bus tickets and not finding any from redbus. I am sure I have seen tickets from redbus earlier on Ixigo but now they vanished. I urge Ixigo to adapt the same 'healthy' eco system which it is advocating for airline search for its bus ticket search too.
Travel portals like Cleartrip, Yatra and Ezeego1 are not even displaying the option of Jet Airways or Jetlite for any of the flights, Makemytrip shows the option but says both Jet and JetLite are "blocked airlines" and that tickets for neither are available for sale.
ReplyDeleteVipul - RedBus chose to deny access to their inventory to us, and that is something we have never forced anyone into. Any bus aggregator who sees business value in metasearch participation and direct brand building is welcome to participate on iXiGO. Contrast this to what the blog entry talks about.
ReplyDeleteWe have Ticketvala and Ticketgoose and are adding 2 more bus aggregators in a few weeks.
We always believe in healthy ecosystems and we believe we are a part of one.
Redbus (and any other bus aggregators) are always welcome to work with us.
- iXiGO Team
Guys, the zero commission model is prevalent worldwide and OTAs across the world have learnt to live with it. The OTAs here will also sooner or later learn to deal with it and perhaps realize that this is a reality they need to accept.
ReplyDeleteHowever, their stance to boycott Jet comes more as a show of solidarity with rest of the travel industry. Please note that offline agents, OTAs and metasearch like yourself are all intermediaries and in one way or the other in the same boat.
Your comment "Travel Agents - We feel bad for you. Airlines - We are with you !" shows a hint of arrogance which I didnt expect coming from Ixigo.
In the zero commission regime, there will be net rates and special deals available to OTAs which will sometimes be cheaper than the airline websites as well. So meta search players will need to collaborate with OTAs at that point.
Hi Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteYour point is valid. When we say that we feel bad for travel agents, we mean that we sympathize with them. As you might have seen, they are valuable collaborators on our non-air products. However, we still feel this is a knee-jerk move that will set a bad precedent for the industry as a whole.
We want to reiterate that we are not intermediaries - we are infomediaries, since we do not own the customers.
Regards,
iXiGO
Sorry Sir,
ReplyDeleteBut I think I also got Jet results in www.CompareSasta.com
So please kindly change your message.
@Aloke It is sad to know that redbus is not participating. I prefer a search engine like ixigo / kayak over going through each travel agent sites. I hope for more participation from Bus OTAs and more options are available for Bus tickets on Ixigo.
ReplyDeleteWith just tickets from one or two OTAs, currently it is pretty useless.
Hi,
ReplyDeleteCan someone explain me the logic behind different rate in Taxes and Fuel surcharge on same route by same flight. Currently Spicejet have different tax amount for DEL-BOM for morning and noon flight. Is it not fixed and charged by government? Is this amount goes to Airline companies or government?