Travel Agents do far more than simply 'issue tickets', well at least the good ones do. Things have been greatly simplified recently, but travel agents capture a lot of information and feed it into reservation systems. In 2002, there are still many things that a web-based order entry system can't do. To prove it, try booking an infant-in-arms passage on Air Canada through their web-site. Or arrange for your Australian tourist visa, as a Canadian citizen through The Trip.Com. (Try going BACK to a reservation made on united.com a day later and changing your meal selection... I don't think it can be done... But a travel agent can fix that in seconds.) Hell, most airline web sites can't even get online seat selection working correctly. What's gotten me extremely curious is not that airlines have cut commissions (seems logical from a financial perspective), but that they know exactly what there result is going to be. Airlines lower fares to attract buyers. The whole concept of load-management is price driven. Then they know (by the fact that 75% of their tickets are sold through agents) that agents are going to find their operating expenses elsewhere. In a perverse manner they increased the price of their product (likely to show a similar decline in sales) without putting the increased revenue in their own pockets! And even more weird, is that at a time when airlines need all the friends they can get they decided to collectively piss of their best friends. (Maybe only remaining friends is a better term.) As Nick duly noted, SouthWest/WestJet/JetBlue will continue to pay commissions; AirCanada's press release came with a little footnote; that their commission structure for Tango is not affected. Now a Travel Agent makes more money taking a customer and putting them on Tango for $700 than selling them a full-fare $3300 YVR-YYZ round-trip on the mainline AC flight Weird. Matthew > -----Original Message----- > From: The Airline List [mailto:AIRLINE@LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU] On > Behalf Of Mark Greenwood > Sent: March 25, 2002 6:42 PM > To: AIRLINE@LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU > Subject: Re: Airline Travel Agent Commissions > > > And why Nick, do you feel that the airlines should have a > free distribution network? > > Mark > > Nick Laflamme wrote: > > > At 11:42 AM 3/25/2002 -0800, Matthew Montano wrote: > > >Now let me see if I get this right... > > > > <snip> > > >The funny thing is those extra 'fees' is that they never end up in > > >the originators pocket. If airlines figured out how to raise their > > >prices AND keep the sales reps for 75% of their product happy they > > >would of done much better. The customer would still have ended up > > >paying the same price anyways. > > > > > >The first person in an executive board room that announces "Let's > > >achieve growth by dismissing 75% of our sales force" would > be asked > > >to leave, point blank. > > > > > >I guess the airline industry continues to show they just don't get > > >it. > > > > With all due respect to list members who are travel agents, I'm not > > sure if it's the airlines or the travel agents who "just don't get > > it." (And I'm tired of hearing travels bemoan each cut in > > commissions.) > > > > Airlines like Vanguard, Sun Country, WestJet and maybe > JetBlue ought > > to be paying commissions. Why? Because they need something to level > > the playing ground against the advantages the majors have: name > > recognition, schedule advantages, and convenience. > > > > But why should Delta pay a travel agent a commission for a > ticket? How > > often does a customer choose Delta over a competitor just because a > > travel agent recommended them because of a commission? > People choose > > American, United, Delta, Northwest, and Continental because they're > > convenient and well known. In lots of cities both large and small, > > it's not hard to figure out a relatively fast, > comparatively cheap way > > to get to some other city. It's a no-brainer for me to look at both > > United and Northwest when I'm considering travel between Washington > > and Minneapolis. Why would either United or Northwest pay a travel > > agent? Heck, United wants me to call them directly so there's no > > chance for someone to say, "Or you could fly Sun Country." The > > airlines want me to come directly to them; they've got call centers > > and web sites with retail access because customers look for them. > > > > The first person to walk into a board room and say, "Let's > pay someone > > else to sell what we're already equipped to sell > ourselves," has some > > explaining to do. > > > > I'm not saying I never use travel agents. But when I do, air > > transportation is never the driving factor; I'm looking at > things like > > resort trips where once I've picked a resort and a time, the air > > travel will fall into place. And even then, if the travel > agent says, > > "I'll just put you on Airtran for the travel," the majors know I'll > > ask, "Can I get there on..." and name two or three majors. > No amount > > of commission paid to the travel agent is going to get me to pick > > Airtran. United, Delta, and the others don't have to pay that > > commission. Airtran and the other non-majors ought to try. > > > > None of this applies to Southwest, of course. They're in a class by > > themselves. :-) > > > > >Matthew > > > > Nick >