Getting you great fares and rates

At TruTrip, our primary goal is to enhance the value derived from your company's travel activities. A significant aspect of this is managing costs effectively, which is why we commit to providing sustainable and honest fare options. However, purchasing travel products is inherently complex, and we believe in the importance of transparency regarding these intricacies. Through this article, we aim to shed light on the challenges and realities we face in the travel industry. We hope this insight will help you better understand and evaluate our efforts in consistently optimising travel costs.

The Quest for Fare Pricing

In an ideal world, every passenger would pay the same rate for an economy seat from Singapore to London on Singapore Airlines. Yet, the reality of airline pricing is far from this ideal. A glance at SkyScanner shows 13 different prices for the same flight, ranging from SGD $1,706 to $2,100, with the airline's price sitting at an intermediate $1,754.

So, why the discrepancy? Price variations can stem from numerous factors:

• Non-Channel Factors: These include flight load, special events affecting demand, etc. but these are largely the same for everyone. 
• Channel Factors: These encompass private deals, marketing strategies, point-of-sale differences, distribution channels, airline pricing strategies, timing in updating fares, human mistakes, or aggressive marketing tactics.

At TruTrip, while recognizing the airline as a standard, we focus on minimising the gap between their prices and ours. Chasing the lowest price against large OTAs, with their hefty marketing budgets and questionable service offerings, is not our aim. Instead, we benchmark our prices against direct airline rates and other TMCs to ensure transparency and competitiveness.

Benchmarking Insights:

• When compared to other digital TMCs, our clients typically enjoy a 5% saving on a diverse travel "basket" (encompassing various routes and hotels). 
• Traditional TMCs do not make their fares, nor their fees, that clear to offer a real benchmark.  (I think we all know the result here is going to be much more than 5%).
• Relative to direct bookings, we are, on average, 1.7% more expensive than airlines but generally offer 3-5% lower rates than direct property bookings.

Note: We define a "Basket" by reviewing over 200 airlines and 150 hotels, aligning them against our top 10 clients' travel patterns to obtain our basket variation data.

However, it's important to recognize the inherent fluctuations in pricing. Our rates may vary by +/- 15% compared to direct bookings from airlines or hotels. This results in some clients occasionally paying more than if they booked directly, while others enjoy substantial savings. Notably, those who save often report less, skewing perceptions. Nearly half of our fares match or undercut direct prices. 

Approximately 71% of our fares remain within 5% of direct airline rates. It's the remaining fares, showing significant disparity, that our team diligently works on to better align with direct pricing. Our aim is always to provide the best value without compromising on service.

Before diving into the specifics, we must clarify and ensure your understanding: the fares and rates we present are the same as those we incur. TruTrip operates transparently, ensuring no markups on fares, meaning we strive to offer you the best possible rates without any added profit on our end.

The Main Sources of Fare Variation

1. Point of Sale: Airlines adjust their fares based on the geographical location of purchase. For example, a British Airways flight may be priced differently when bought in the UK compared to Malaysia, reflecting variations in demand, taxation, and market strategies. 
2. Distribution Channels: Airlines use a mix of New Distribution Capability (NDC), Global Distribution Systems (GDS), direct bookings, consolidators, and more, each with its pricing strategy.
3. Promotions: Airlines often deploy tactical promotions that can significantly alter fare availability and pricing.
4. Private Fares: Exclusive rates are offered to specific groups, further complicating the pricing landscape.
5. Cached Fares: Outdated fare information can result in discrepancies until systems are updated.
6. Membership Benefits: Programs like SQ's HighFlyers offer unique rates, adding another layer of variation. However, it is worth noting that come May 2024 you can also get those rates directly from within TruTrip.
7. Natural Conflict: Airlines naturally prefer direct bookings to retain customer loyalty and reduce distribution costs, occasionally at the expense of broader market competitiveness. 
8. Human Error: Surprisingly, simple typos or spreadsheet errors during fare uploads can cause inconsistencies across distribution platforms.
9. Funded fares / acquisition costs: OTAs’ goals are to ensure they are on top of SkyScanner on certain routes with strategic investment in fares. When Fares are all very close, funding $2-3 to the fare can get you top and a significantly larger share of the searchers.

Our Approach to Price Matching and our guarantee 

Although we do not want to encourage people to be concerned about the rates and fares they get on our platform, we recognise there is trust to build and some routes are not competitive. With this in mind, we offer a price match. As long as the rate or fare is highlighted to us in advance along with the proof backing up the claim.

We guarantee the lowest cost possible by leveraging our automation-first approach to efficiently fulfil our promise every time. Our strategy includes forming global partnerships with leaders like Agoda, Booking.com, Bedsonline, and various flight partners across more than five markets, ensuring you receive quality inventory without any markup—the price we get is the price you pay.

Our guarantee centres on offering you the best rates for flights and accommodations, applicable when your monthly spend exceeds SGD 10k (or equivalent), focusing on a "real basket of fares and rates" rather than individual bookings. 

Should our rates not be in line with or better than the market, we commit to giving you cashback equal to all fees associated with your account and an additional three-month 5% cashback on accommodation bookings. To know more about this guarantee and how you can make a claim, click here. 

We offer these pragmatic approaches to ensure clients know, that we are always working to bring them the best fares possible.

The Road Ahead

Looking forward, we are committed to enhancing our service offerings by emphasising TruTrip as the one-stop shop. Highlighting the convenience and efficiency of managing travel through TruTrip:

• Direct Airline Connections: Strengthening partnerships for more direct fare access.
• Strategic Point of Sale Partnerships: Leveraging global networks for optimal pricing.
• Transparent Agreements with Airlines: Advocating for fairer fare conditions.
• Integration of Membership Plans: Incorporating loyalty benefits into our offerings.
• Real-time benchmarking: We are looking at utilising technology partners who will be able to share insights around current airline pricing. This enables us to pause the purchase process on fares with a variation greater than 5%

TruTrip stands out in the industry by not only undertaking comprehensive benchmarking activities but also sharing these insights with our clients. This transparency is our commitment to fair pricing and satisfaction. 

While the challenge of achieving uniform fare pricing persists, TruTrip remains dedicated to navigating the complexities of the travel industry to secure the best possible deals for our clients. If you're curious about how you can further benefit or have any questions about your current plan, we invite you to get in touch. Our team is dedicated to ensuring your TruTrip experience is as rewarding as possible.