The story buyers are hearing vs the reality they face: Corporate travel is full of competing narratives, some airlines are telling buyers: 'If you want full content, better fares, and the latest features, you need to connect directly to us'.
The pitch is simple: cut out the middleman and you’ll see everything we have to offer.
For travel managers under pressure to improve traveler satisfaction, deliver measurable savings, and modernize their programs, that message is tempting. Why not go straight to the source?
But the data tells a more complicated story. Analysis of leading U.S. airlines — representing more than 117 million annual Sabre bookings — together with a global survey of 500 agency executives across 14 markets shows a clear pattern: direct connects often promise more than they deliver.
This is not to say direct connections have no role to play. They are part of the industry’s evolution, especially as airlines pursue new retailing models. But for corporate buyers, they are not the silver bullet they are sometimes sold as.
What matters most to corporates is not the plumbing of the system: the APIs, the formats, the ratios. What matters is whether travelers can see and book the right options, whether programs have control, and whether costs are being managed effectively.
That’s where the distinction lies. TMCs connected to large-scale platforms already give corporates what they need: a full view of content, consistent traveler experiences, scalable infrastructure, and measurable value. Direct connects, when relied on as the primary solution, fall short on each count.
Cost savings and program value
The perception
It’s easy to assume that “cutting out the middleman” must make corporate travel cheaper. If you connect directly to the airline, surely you avoid extra costs? Some airlines have leaned on that perception, suggesting the lowest fares can only be found through direct connections.
The reality
Airline websites and APIs are designed to maximize yield for the individual airline, not minimize cost for the buyer. They may show only certain itineraries, exclude cheaper combinations of fares, or restrict which carriers can be ticketed together.
How modern marketplaces uncover hidden value
A marketplace model looks at all available fares and constructs itineraries in ways that airline.com doesn’t:
- Split tickets: Sometimes two one-way tickets are cheaper than a single roundtrip. Airlines often don’t surface these, but marketplaces do.
- Combinable fares: A flight on Airline A outbound and Airline B inbound may cost less than staying with one carrier both ways. Marketplaces can build these options, while many airline sites cannot or will not.
- Validating carriers: Some routes allow tickets to be issued on different carriers’ ticket stock. Choosing a different validating carrier can unlock lower fares. Airlines rarely show these alternatives, but marketplaces include them.
- Sum of locals: For connecting markets, pricing each leg separately can be cheaper than the through fare. Marketplaces run these calculations automatically.
- Mix and Match: As NDC adoption grows, marketplaces can still combine NDC and EDIFACT offers, or even mix multiple NDC offers, on a single itinerary to give corporates maximum flexibility.
These aren’t edge cases — they’re frequent scenarios in corporate travel, where itineraries are complex and fares change constantly.
What the benchmarks show
Sabre’s benchmark analysis in June 2025 representing over 117 million bookings across top U.S. airlines supports the point:
Sabre Mosaic™ Marketplace Fares were lower than airline.com in 41% of cases.
They were equal most of the rest of the time.
Only a tiny fraction of searches produced higher fares.
Read the full story here.
