Amadues introduces Meta Pricer

Amadeus introduced a new technology service this week called Meta Pricer. The service "allows airlines to optimise marketing and distribution reach by making cost-efficient use of travel search engines". This is a clear effort to re-insert the GDS into the travel booking value chain in an era of increased fragmentation of content. There is no doubt that there is some benefit to suppliers on reducing hits on their Websites from site scrapping technology. In an era of disintermediation, this major distributor is trying to diversify beyond segment revenue and add value in a new way. Interesting move, let's see if airlines who have successfully dintermediated Amadeus by negotiating deals with meta search engines (SideStep, Kayak, Mobissimo) would be willing to add another layer in their distribution strategy in order to reduce automated hits on their sites. Kayak has implemented an alternate strategy using ITA software to calculate fares (with a cache of availability from a GDS) limiting the query to booking only. If more meta-search vendors adopt this strategy, the opportunity for Amadeus will be further diminished.