Starting Friday, five major U.S. airlines will start charging travel agents — both online and traditional agents — additional fees to book flights, which many travel agents say they will pass along to customers.
Continental, U.S. Airways, Northwest, United and American airlines will charge travel agents an additional $3.50 for each segment of each ticket booked through the commonly used global distribution system.
Tango-Bravo From United States, joined Jun 2001, 3328 posts, RR: 37 Reply 1, posted (3 years 2 months 1 week 19 hours ago) and read 2559 times:
Who's being forced to pay more? Simply translated, further incentives are apparently needed to encourage pax to book at the airlines' respective websites. Booking by phone with the airlines, even with the $10.00 ticket fee charged by most/all will, in many cases, cost less than booking with online and traditional travel agents.
There will hopefully be no backpeddling on this decision. Online agencies in particular have become notorious, almost legendary, for wretched to non-existent customer service (after a customer's credit card has been charged) whereby messes for which they are responsible are dumped onto the airlines at considerable cost to the airlines. When online agencies are actually willing to help their customers, their (real, live) agents will often call the airline to speak with an (airline) agent to essentially do their job for them -- making the agent of the online agency not only a redundancy but also a cost to the airlines. Last but not least, the airlines incur a GDS fee, typically $5.00-10.00, for each ticket issued on their "plate" by online and traditional travel agencies. Finally, there will hopefully be no circumventing of this policy by airlines "cutting deals" with high-volume agencies like Expedia et al inasmuch as in the real world, higher volume means higher costs to the airlines.
DTWAGENT From United States, joined Jan 2006, 1254 posts, RR: 0 Reply 2, posted (3 years 2 months 1 week 18 hours ago) and read 2461 times:
Hold on here. It depends on what brand of GDS you have. Each GDS has the several different packages that Travel Agents can purchase. If they did not change over to the package that protects them for the surcharges, then they will be charge that per segment fee. I know for my agency that we have the correct package with Worldspan and we will not be charging these segment fees. So if you have any questions about it. Check with your travel agent. They will know. Because they will be passing this along to the customer. I just know that Sabar is the one that started all of this and AA may lose alot of business bacause of this and same as the other airlines. Allot of travel agency's are starting to not do airlines tickets because of this. They will tell their clients to call the airline or go on line. Which is wrong, but I can see where they are coming from. The airlines have cut all commission to us an now they want to charge us for booking on their airline. Not going to happen. So check with your Travel agency and ask if they charge the segement fee. Now remember that is not the same as a service fee. The segement fee would be on top of the service fee.
Good luck to all. And hay if you need air tickets let me know. And I will do them for ya with no segment fee.
Leskova From Germany, joined Oct 2003, 6075 posts, RR: 82 Reply 3, posted (3 years 2 months 1 week 17 hours ago) and read 2416 times:
Quoting Tango-Bravo (Reply 1): Online agencies in particular have become notorious, almost legendary, for wretched to non-existent customer service (after a customer's credit card has been charged) whereby messes for which they are responsible are dumped onto the airlines at considerable cost to the airlines.
Not much more than airlines dump messes that they have created on travel agents... at considerable cost to the travel agents, with the airlines almost acting as if it were the travel agents who decided to change the airline's schedules, or cancel flights, or overbook the plane, ...
Not saying that some (or maybe even a lot of) travel agencies don't create problems, but acting as if airlines don't is being blind to reality.
Quoting Tango-Bravo (Reply 1): Finally, there will hopefully be no circumventing of this policy by airlines "cutting deals" with high-volume agencies like Expedia et al inasmuch as in the real world, higher volume means higher costs to the airlines.
Yeah... right... there's about as much probability that that'll happen as that proverbial cold day in hell... or as much chance of AA and DL dumping all of their Boeings and buying nothing but Airbusses starting tomorrow...
In other words: there'll be deals - the chances of no deals happening are an absolute 0%.
DTWAGENT From United States, joined Jan 2006, 1254 posts, RR: 0 Reply 4, posted (3 years 2 months 1 week 17 hours ago) and read 2372 times:
Thank you Leskova. And Tango-Brovo, if you get a travel agent that charges your credit card and does not give you customer service afterwords on problems,(with in our control), questions. Then you need to find a different agent.
I bust my butt off for each of my clients from the day the contact me until they get back home. And then I call them to find out how things went. If they did have any problems and I can do something about it, I will... Or what I have been doing is giving out my card with my home and cell phone number along with the travel documents so they can call me if they have any problems. One of the things I can do because I work out of my home.
So if you get a lousy travel agent, then find someone else that can do better.
Trust me we are out there. It's aways the bad ones that make it bad for everyone.
Tango-Bravo From United States, joined Jun 2001, 3328 posts, RR: 37 Reply 5, posted (3 years 2 months 1 week 17 hours ago) and read 2279 times:
Quoting DTWAGENT (Reply 4): I bust my butt off for each of my clients from the day the contact me until they get back home. And then I call them to find out how things went. If they did have any problems and I can do something about it, I will...
There are indeed many "traditional" travel agents/agencies who give outstanding customer service, who understand and take care of their responsibilities to their customers and call upon the airlines to become involved with ticketing issues only when the proverbial ball is in the airlines' court (schedule changes, reprotects, etc). In fact I speak with such "traditional" travel agents on a daily basis and have utmost respect for their professionalism; it is a pleasure for me to assist such agents while at the same time feeling regret for the manner in which the airlines have devalued them. Can easily understand why some "traditional" travel agents have chosen to discontinue airline ticketing.
The online agencies and their agents are an altogether different story; sorry if I wasn't strong enough in my emphasis upon online agencies (in Reply #1) when describing the liability these have become to the airlines who choose to continue to do business with them in spite of their "take their money and run" games.
Flyboyaz From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 6, posted (3 years 2 months 1 week 16 hours ago) and read 2244 times:
This is indeed causing a big stink. I also work for my friend who has a home-based travel agency and uses Amadeus for air/hotel/car rentals. They are currently still negotiating the fees with airlines and actually initiated a law suit against NW for imposing the fees. We are considering changing GDS programs to one that has come up with a plan to not charge fees. We love Amadeus and I hope they do negotiate something so we don't have to switch.
Most travel agents don't promote air tickets anymore. I personally love doing it, mostly because I am familiar with the process working for an airline too. Like Chuck said it really hurts the agents that DO a good job. I've had numerous problems with Expedia and Travelocity while working at the airline. There's nothing like having a smaller agency to watch out for you...and really give a crap!
Leskova From Germany, joined Oct 2003, 6075 posts, RR: 82 Reply 7, posted (3 years 2 months 1 week 16 hours ago) and read 2228 times:
Quoting Tango-Bravo (Reply 5): The online agencies and their agents are an altogether different story; sorry if I wasn't strong enough in my emphasis upon online agencies (in Reply #1) when describing the liability these have become to the airlines who choose to continue to do business with them in spite of their "take their money and run" games.
Incidentally, they're not just a nuisance for airlines, but for traditional travel agents as well: seeing how many customers of online agencies walk into our offices, hoping we'll sort out their problems (preferrably at no charge ) because they cannot reach anyone at their online-agent and the airline always points them back to said agency... I wish airlines were to weed some of them out, but I guess the volume simply is too much to ignore.
SA7700 From South Africa, joined Dec 2003, 2211 posts, RR: 10 Reply 8, posted (3 years 2 months 1 week 15 hours ago) and read 2113 times:
AIRLINERS.NET CREW FORUM MODERATOR
Quoting FlyingTexan (Thread starter): Starting Friday, five major U.S. airlines will start charging travel agents — both online and traditional agents — additional fees to book flights, which many travel agents say they will pass along to customers.
Hopefully these airlines will open up their websites in order for non US residents to purchase their US flights online....
Danild From Mexico, joined Jun 2005, 80 posts, RR: 0 Reply 11, posted (3 years 2 months 1 week ago) and read 1509 times:
AA and Sabre just reached an Agreement so Sabre and Worldspan have full contracts with the major airlines and Travel Agencies can avoid this fees just by talking to their GDS Sales Representatives.
Flyboyaz From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 12, posted (3 years 2 months 6 days 23 hours ago) and read 1427 times:
Quoting Danild (Reply 11): AA and Sabre just reached an Agreement so Sabre and Worldspan have full contracts with the major airlines and Travel Agencies can avoid this fees just by talking to their GDS Sales Representatives
Yes I just read that. However I believe Worldspan is still working with Delta. I'm sure they will work things out...
Searpqx From United States, joined Jun 2000, 4331 posts, RR: 28 Reply 13, posted (3 years 2 months 6 days 20 hours ago) and read 627 times:
Quoting Tango-Bravo (Reply 1): Last but not least, the airlines incur a GDS fee, typically $5.00-10.00, for each ticket issued on their "plate" by online and traditional travel agencies.
Quoting ThePRGuy (Reply 9): Seems a bit rough to charge for each and every segment,One would have thought it would be a singular booking fee.
The GDSs charge a set fee for each air segment booked on each participating carrier, which is why they (the carriers) are charging a fee to the travel agents. Its just a continuation of the trend by the airlines to push all costs to the consumer, similar to the fee for booking via a live res agent at their call centers or ticket offices. I'm only being partly facetious when I say don't be surprised if down the road they don't impose a .02 charge per segment booked via their online sites, to recoup processing costs of their servers!
"The two most common elements in the universe are Hydrogen and stupidity"
Bruce From United States, joined May 1999, 4946 posts, RR: 28 Reply 14, posted (3 years 2 months 6 days 20 hours ago) and read 497 times:
I do not see much of a future for Travel Agents' careers. Besides airlines, almost everything can be booked online like hotels and cars at deep discounts like priceline etc so who needs an agent?
Travel Agents aren't looking out for YOU, they need to make a little money too so you probably aren't going to get the absolute cheapest rates.
Travel Agents will soon be memories like smoking cabins and inflight meals.
Bruce
Bruce Leibowitz - Green Bay, WI (GRB/KGRB) - Canon 20D/100-400L IS lens
Leskova From Germany, joined Oct 2003, 6075 posts, RR: 82 Reply 15, posted (3 years 2 months 6 days 19 hours ago) and read 413 times:
Quoting Bruce (Reply 14): Travel Agents aren't looking out for YOU, they need to make a little money too so you probably aren't going to get the absolute cheapest rates.
If you say so... ... believe it or not, even while trying to make money, it is also possible to look out for other people's benefits... people who have good travel agents know that...
Quoting Bruce (Reply 14): Travel Agents will soon be memories like smoking cabins and inflight meals.
Ah... ok... well, since inflight meals are not even close to disappearing, I guess I actually agree with you.
Sponsor Message: 
From , joined Dec 1969, posts, 
From United States, joined Jun 2001, 3328 posts, 
From Germany, joined Oct 2003, 6075 posts, 
) because they cannot reach anyone at their online-agent and the airline always points them back to said agency... I wish airlines were to weed some of them out, but I guess the volume simply is too much to ignore.
From South Africa, joined Dec 2003, 2211 posts, 
From Mexico, joined Jun 2005, 80 posts, 
Printer friendly format 
