This week’s Update features updates on several recently featured stories, including Booking.com’s ongoing payment and fraud challenges and new legislative efforts to limit junk fees.
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- OTAs Raise Issues with Airlines’ Aggressive Tactics. Online travel agents, On the Beach and UK Holidaymakers, have raised objections with the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) over the aggressive tactics of Ryanair (and other discount airlines) to push travelers to book direct. According to the paper presented to the CMA and UK government, discount airlines are harming consumer choice by blocking sales of certain products (seat-only offerings), charging excessive OTA fees and delaying refunds. The OTAs are asking the UK competition authority to mandate that airlines provide with fair access to products and services and create a code of conduct for airlines and their OTA partners. Really?
- Citi and Navan Announce Partnership. Further to my comment in last week’s Update about the explosion of interest in small and medium businesses (SMB), Citi and Navan announced this past week a new partnership under which the parties will offer a travel and expense solution for Citi’s Commercial Bank cardholders. For those companies that provide Citi cards to their employees, the new solution will provide services that rival competitors SAP Concur and Egencia. With the deal, Citi will be well positioned to grow its commercial card member base by offering travel and expense services.
For those of that attended the recent Georgetown hospitality law event, it was great seeing so many of you in person. Have a great week everyone.