There's a row brewing on the other side of the pond, which is Europe-bound sooner rather than later.
It centres on US airlines - namely American and Delta - charging travel agents and distributors for the right to sell their seats.
The US industry is in uproar over the suggestion and say, ultimately, the customer would pay.
The GDS fraternity is equally unhappy, but then they already pay many agents incentives to use their technology.
What's behind it, once again, is that airlines are suffering - Delta lost $794m in Q1 - and distribution costs are an easy target.
The GDS argument is that they provide value and can prove it especially when it comes to business travel and other premium traffic.
They also say it doesn't make sense to reinvent the wheel and at the Travolution Summit last week, Amadeus said airlines should be in every possible channel.
The agents' argument is that the majority of customers aren't just looking for a flight but a whole package of travel.
The airlines have not said it will happen - both CEOs have suggested they could see it happening in time.
It's ironic that the airlines founded the whole GDS system and now fail to see the value in them.
Would it mean the return of frantic switch-selling, could airlines get away with it, could it be anti-competitive?
Whose side are you on?
[By Linda Fox]
The kind of organisation you need to connect 30 airlines with 40,000 agents is not the kind of organisation that you need to connect 30 airlines with 20 large online travel websites
The future of the GDS is closely tied to the future of independent travel agents who require commodity product booking capability.
If agents move towards non-booking generated revenue streams (i.e. paid for referrals rather than bookings) then they won't need GDS systems.
"The agents' argument is that the majority of customers aren't just looking for a flight but a whole package of travel. "
If this was correct I'm sure it would be possible to enable agents access to airlines inventory - but only if booked as a package.
"The GDS argument is that they provide value and can prove it especially when it comes to business travel and other premium traffic."
I'm sure that is at least partly true, (as is) with many corporate deals, payment systems etc etc all set up to work for GDS distribution not necessarily with the airline direct.
Simplicity need not always come with inventions driven by needs. If I could buy a bus ticket from JFK to Penn Station sitting in front of a computer and pay directly to the bus company or its appointed agents via online, why can't I do the same with an Airline company ?. GDS is a 19th century ‘heavy weight’ concept, it was then required but not in the current modern days of technological revolutions. I think GDS framework has become a liability to airline – hence it adds to the massive losses they are making right now. But, as a matter of fact - it still a revenue earner for thousands of companies and feeds daily bread for millions of people, so it is likely to remain sentimental terms for the next 10-15 years at least.