Double whammy was that right at the end of commissions that airlines actually capped them. As a "sales rep", it's easier to sell less-expensive items, right? In many industries, the MORE expensive the item, the HIGHER the percentage paid in commission. The airlines did the opposite. Cap the commissions so that the travel agents have no incentive to even offer a higher priced more flexible fare. Duhh. Doesn't matter now anyways. -- Airlines use the excuse that change fees are for the paper work. Load of crap. Changing a seat assignment is about the same effort as changing the itinerary. What it does do is screw up the load factors. With an inflexible cost structure it can be penalizing. Airlines with higher change fees tend to have higher costs and less flexible labour agreements. The full service carriers are obvious examples. Airlines with better cost structures seem to have lower change fees (if any), Southwest, WestJet etc. My opinion only. Matthew On Sunday, June 1, 2003, at 10:31 AM, Jon Wright wrote: > Presumably their administrative costs are the same whether the ticket > actually cost $500 or $29. Of course, if one were a travel agent, one > could > argue that back in the good old days when airlines actually paid > commissions, it took a travel agent the same amount of effort to book a > cheap ticket vs. an expensive one, yet the airline paid a percentage > of the > ticket price. > > Cheers, > Jon > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: <damiross2@xxxxxxxxx> > To: <AIRLINE@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> > Sent: Friday, May 30, 2003 3:49 PM > Subject: Re: Angry Airline News....but true ! > > >> Now, why in the hell should someone pay $25 to change >> a $29 ticket? >