The booking is just the beginning for NDC

Booking a flight through a direct airline connection is simple. The industry spent years focused on the front end of New Distribution Capability (NDC) — building pipes, negotiating access to cheaper fares, and ensuring premium seat options appeared in the search results.

But checkout is just the kickoff.

The real test of an enterprise travel program happens when plans fall apart. When a traveler needs to change a flight mid-trip, add a bag on the fly, or navigate a severe weather disruption — the underlying connectivity matters far less than the support infrastructure behind it.

If a corporate travel platform can only handle the booking but forces travelers or travel managers to call an airline directly to handle changes, the system breaks down. True programmatic scale requires an end-to-end servicing layer designed for the complications that occur after checkout.

The Complex Reality of Post-Booking Care

Selling direct airline content is a solved problem. Servicing it without manual friction is where the complexity lies.

Legacy distribution systems spent decades standardizing how tickets are changed, exchanged, and refunded. NDC strips away those old universal rules, requiring technology platforms to build custom operational workflows for every type of NDC connection.

To make NDC viable for enterprise travel programs, a platform must solve specific back-end challenges:

• Voluntary and involuntary changes: Giving travelers the self-service tools to alter their dates or flight times in the app, without requiring an agent to act as an intermediary with the airline.
• Ancillary management: Ensuring passengers can add baggage, select seats, or upgrade cabins post-purchase without fracturing the data trail.
• Settlement and reporting: Maintaining precise data flows for internal corporate reporting — including accurate PRISM flows — so finance leaders retain total visibility into contracted airline performance.

When these elements are missing, the costs of unmanaged changes can erode any upfront fare savings.

Building a Workable Operational Layer

Navan approached NDC as a servicing challenge rather than a simple inventory integration. Roughly two years ago, the team began investing heavily in building out a robust servicing layer.

Today, Navan supports around 26 NDC and direct carriers, including extensive workflows for early partners like United Airlines and American Airlines. This architecture was shaped by working alongside these airlines to define exactly how data flows back and forth between systems so corporate clients don’t lose program visibility or operational control.

This structural investment is intended to help ensure that when customers need help, they can self-serve via the Navan app or work with a Navan agent without having to call the airline help desk for every adjustment.

Enablement Is a System, Not an Afterthought

Software alone cannot handle every edge case on the tarmac. True scale requires experienced travel professionals who understand the nuances of specific airline APIs.

Navan hires experienced agents with 3–5 years of corporate travel experience and prepares them through a structured 10-week training program that pairs classroom instruction with hands-on technical training. This curriculum includes dedicated education on airline-specific NDC variations, followed by a supported shadowing period. Because direct-connect technology is always evolving, consultants participate in continuous learning loops to master new operational workflows.

The engineering architecture works in tandem with human travel expertise. This model ensures that when a traveler encounters a complicated disruption that automation cannot solve alone, they can talk to an expert equipped with the data and tools to fix it.

Early Performance Indicators

Data from mature NDC carrier integrations shows that a unified servicing approach yields measurable operational results.

Why Servicing Matters for Your Program

Lower baseline ticket prices mean very little if your support queue falls into chaos during a weather delay. Corporate travel managers need confidence that modern, direct-connect content can be modified, managed, and audited at enterprise scale.

When booking and servicing work together in a single platform, the business realizes the value of NDC: faster traveler resolution, less administrative friction, and modern inventory access without a sacrifice in support quality.

Managing global travel benefits from a platform built for the entire trip lifecycle — from search to schedule changes. Request a demo with Navan today to see how end-to-end NDC servicing works at scale.

United Airlines is a registered trademark of United Airlines Holdings, Inc. American Airlines is a registered trademark of American Airlines Group Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. This post contains forward-looking statements about Navan’s operational capabilities, service performance, and product development. These statements are based on current expectations and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. For additional information, see Navan’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.