American Airlines (AA) has led the charge to direct connections and always been willing to take on the challenges associated with GDS distribution. This step is a move to incentivise those agents and drive adoption of the NDC standard. By paying $2 per segment for all AA marketed flights they are now competing with the GDS in some segments of the agency market that currently receive little or nothing in terms of incentives. T2RL's research suggests that GDS incentive money is not evenly spread. The OTAs and larger TMCs receive far more than their fair share of the booking fee incentives. This allows smaller agents to compete with their larger rivals with AA content.