Eli Ostreicher

Unused airline tickets are a hidden cost for many businesses. Is your travel program impacted by them? Our client, AerCap, was feeling the drain of unused airline tickets on their travel budget. Luckily, BCD Travel’s specially designed audit process helped them reclaim six figures in airline refunds. Read the full story here: https://ow.ly/hFAs50X5vLh #BCDClients

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Airlines cannot manage corporate travel without TMCs. And yet, airlines continue to make access to their content unnecessarily complex. Cutting distribution costs is a legitimate goal, but forcing every TMC to navigate a maze of fragmented NDC connections is not the answer. The irony is clear: in trying to eliminate middlemen, airlines are fueling the rise of new aggregators, creating more layers, more cost, and more confusion. At Talma Travel Solutions Group we have the scale, resources, and flexibility to adapt. The question is not whether we can adopt NDC, we can and we do. The real question is whether airlines will choose to build a future of efficiency with their allies, or a future of chaos against them.

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The GDS world is running out of runway. Sabre Corporation is drowning in $5B of debt. Travelport is smaller, private, and still fighting for relevance. Amadeus? Pulling ahead. The market can’t sustain three legacy giants. Leisure has gone direct. Corporate is recovering but not shooting back. Airlines want control. So what happens if Sabre and Travelport keep fighting separately? → Higher costs for airlines and agencies → Legacy tech stretched too thin → Distressed carve-outs that weaken the whole ecosystem A Sabre+Travelport combination changes that equation: - Better economies of scale → lower per-booking costs in a system currently too expensive - Shared tech investment → faster modernization instead of duplicate spend - A credible counterweight to Amadeus → real competition, not decline This isn’t about killing choice. It’s about preserving it. Without scale, Sabre and Travelport fade. And with them, competition. The industry needs fewer weak players and one stronger alternative. Not for monopoly. For survival. #GDS #Airlines #TravelTech #Sabre #Travelport #Hypercommerce Guestcentric --------- If you like my posts and articles follow me and follow Guestcentric so that your boutique hotel brand is not just seen, but is chosen. Build the guest journey they’ll never forget.

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TWAI Acquires Travello, Advancing Travel Consolidation I am pleased to announce the successful acquisition of Travello, a leading Australia-based tours and activities platform, by TWAI, a U.S.-based travel technology company with a rapidly growing international footprint across India, Asia, and Australia. I was the M&A Broker on the deal. The acquisition strengthens TWAI’s expansion into the global tours, experiences, and activities sector while opening new market access across Asia-Pacific, Europe, North America, and Latin America. Founded in Australia, Travello has emerged as one of the world’s leading social travel platforms. It connects a vibrant community of over 1.2 million users across more than 180 countries, providing access to a curated catalog of 40,000+ experiences and activities spanning six continents. Through strategic integrations with leading reservation systems like Rezdy and FareHarbor, Travello seamlessly connects supply with demand across the tours and activities ecosystem. Its scalable, white-label B2B booking engine empowers a growing network of global travel resellers to efficiently market, sell, and manage inventory at scale. “It’s been a privilege to work closely with both the TWAI and Travello teams to structure this deal,” said Matt Zito, M&A Broker at TSi. “Travello’s consumer reach and digital community are a perfect complement to TWAI’s deep expertise in travel technology and B2B distribution. This acquisition is a strong strategic fit—and a prime example of smart consolidation within the experiential travel space.” Zito added: “Kudos to Ryan Hanly, CEO of Travello, and to Trideep and Moondeep Aggarwal, Co-Founders of TWAI, for their vision and professionalism throughout the process. I believe this partnership will accelerate innovation and scale for both companies.” Travello has raised over $25 million in funding and has rapidly scaled its presence in the global tours and activities market. Its mobile apps consistently rank among the Top 10 travel apps in more than 70 countries. Driven by the post-COVID travel rebound and increasing demand for authentic local experiences, Travello has achieved an impressive average annual growth of 228% in Total Transaction Value (TTV) over the past three years—particularly in the domestic travel segment. About Matt Zito and TSi Matt Zito is the founder of TSi and a leading M&A Broker in the global travel industry. With more than three decades of experience as a travel technology entrepreneur, investor, and strategic advisor, Matt specializes in facilitating mergers, acquisitions, and business sales between buyers and sellers of privately held travel companies. #toursactivities #tours #activities #travelexperiences #socialtravel #traveltech #traveltechnology #acquisitions #b2b #ceo #india #innovation #onlinebooking Follow me. Subscribe to my travel M&A newsletter on LinkedIn. Join my global M&A deal flow network at my website.

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Together with Lufthansa Group, we're shaping a future more aligned with today’s business travel needs. With a new expanded agreement, we accelerate NDC content availability across American Express Global Business Travel's proprietary platforms and third-party booking tools, including access to NDC-only rates and special promotions with Lufthansa Group airlines. Excited to see what we can accomplish with our airline partners. Read more in our latest press release: https://lnkd.in/e_fTJBEq

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The future of Travel Agencies isn’t booking, it’s owning the entire trip. AI will book faster and cheaper than any human. That’s not the battle worth fighting. The agencies that survive the next wave of disruption will be the ones that own the entire journey, not just the transaction. What does that look like? • Knowing the “oceanview” rooms face a building with only a sliver of the ocean showing. • Having the GM’s cell number when a client’s suite isn’t quite right. • Anticipating the transfer delay before the client ever feels it. • Designing a trip that feels effortless from door to door. Surface-level knowledge (“I went there once”) won’t cut it anymore. The bar is higher now. Clients expect depth, insider access, and someone who handles the details they’d never think to ask about. At Traveluxe, we’ve built our model around this. Our advisors go deep on specific destinations and property types. They don’t just book rooms, they manage relationships, solve problems before they happen, and create loyalty that no OTA or AI system can match. The question isn’t whether AI will impact travel. It’s whether your service is deep enough to be irreplaceable. I’ve seen the shift start already. Have you?

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