Many seem to have opinions on what is Modern Airline Retailing and those in denial keep saying that there is no such thing—despite several airlines being very successful with it. Year after year we see the growth of ancillary sales in the reports by Jay Sorensen and IdeaWorks.
So what's real, what's hype, and what should airlines actually do? I break down the difference between order-based and PNR-centric systems, and why you don't need to rip and replace to start retailing effectively.