Thriving with NDC: Smart Strategies to Beat Look-to-Book Penalties

As travel sellers, you’re at the forefront of a rapidly evolving landscape where New Distribution Capability (NDC) is transforming how airline content is distributed. But with this opportunity comes a challenge: customers are browsing more than their booking, driving up your look-to-book ratio. In this blog, we’ll break down actionable strategies to optimize your conversion rates, master NDC shopping, and maintain strong relationships with airlines.

Understanding the NDC Landscape and the Look-to-Book Challenge

NDC empowers airlines to create, manage, and distribute richer, personalized offers directly to travel sellers and consumers. While this leads to more dynamic content and improved shopping experiences, it also introduces challenges:

• High Look-to-Book Ratios: Many travelers browse and compare offers, but only a small fraction of those interactions result in bookings.
• Airline Relationship Risks: Airlines may limit access to NDC if your booking volume is too low.

Key Strategies for Success

1. Optimize Your Search and Booking Experience

• Utilize Deduping Logic: Be wise about deduplication. We recently observed a 50% increase in bookings from AmTrav after they modified their deduping logic to favor NDC, reducing redundant searches and streamlining the booking process.
• Query Smartly: This step involves multiples considerations including:
  • Avoid querying an airline via an NDC connection if you are not ready to book and service via NDC. Make sure your NDC enabled Online Booking Tool has been set up and your fares are in place before using NDC.
  • Minimize the number of products which you request during the initial shopping query. Most airlines recommend a two-step process where the customer is given limited product options (e.g. Basic Economy and Main Cabin) during the initial shop and then as a second step, the traveler is offered upsells after the itinerary has been selected.
  • Some airlines, especially those with a proprietary NDC solution, prefer for you to avoid shopping on routes where they do not operate flights to a particular destination. In these cases, leveraging a schedules database can help ensure that your queries are targeted and relevant, saving resources and improving response times.
• Leverage Data Analytics: Regularly analyze your look-to-book data to pinpoint friction points. If you see high drop-off rates at a particular step, investigate and resolve the issue.

2. Strengthen Airline Relationships

• Transparent Communication: Maintain open dialogue with airline partners. Sharing insights from your data shows your commitment to improving conversion rates.
• Establish Performance Metrics: Collaborate with airlines to set mutually beneficial performance metrics that emphasize both volume and quality.
• Create a Feedback Loop: Regularly seek feedback from airlines regarding your performance and be prepared to adjust your strategies to meet their expectations.
• Make It Personal: A common theme we hear from our NDC airline customers is that their relationships with agencies have become more collaborative and personalized. NDC has created opportunities for more direct engagement, allowing airlines to provide better support, share insights, and work together to improve performance. Strengthening this kind of partnership is key to long-term NDC success.

3. Adopt Agile Technology Solutions

• Seamless Integration: Ensure your system integrates smoothly with airline APIs. Frictionless integration minimizes technical issues and enhances overall performance. If you’re an Accelya customer, our team can help you audit and improve your integration as part of our support program.”

Conclusion

Mastering NDC isn’t just about leveraging the latest technology—it’s about creating a seamless, engaging booking experience that benefits both customers and airline partners. By optimizing your search and booking experience through data analytics, smartly applying deduping logic and targeted querying, you can overcome high look-to-book ratios.

Implementing these strategies will not only improve your conversion rates but also position you as a trusted, reliable partner in the evolving NDC landscape.