By the way, United outsourced only some of the reservation people to India. Premier Execs and 1Ks do not get India call center. In addition there is no $5 charge for phone bookings for 1Ks. Then again, United has one of the weakest websites and there are trips that you cannot book in there. Asking for a $5 fee for something that you cannot book is nothing but extortion if you ask me. Baha Fan of piper aircraft -----Original Message----- From: The Airline List [mailto:AIRLINE@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of David Mueller Sent: Monday, October 17, 2005 7:53 PM To: AIRLINE@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: Re: Delta Reservations - Boston Michael Burris wrote: > Another party that appears to be out of the picture > are travel agents. They have historically charged > fees, but if a PAX changes their travel plans, who > eats that charge? I'm sure their business is moving > quickly toward the vacation travel markets (ATA > flights) and boat cruises. Since everyone is booking > online, I can see even overseas jobs becoming a lost > art someday. Tough business to be in this travel > business. The passenger pays the change fee. And if you change a ticket booked through an agent or online site that assesses a change fee, you pay both the airline's fee and the agency's fee, unless you can get the airline to change it (sometimes they will, but sometimes they'll send you back to the agency). There's a reason that the big online sites push buying packages ("book your flight and hotel together and SAVE") -- that's where the profit is. Yes, they can make a little profit off of airline tickets, but the real money is in the packages. David / HNL