SNBA and LH to stop paying commissions to travel agencies

OO-VEX · Post by **OO-VEX** » 26 Jun 2004, 11:27

From next year, SN Brussels Airlines and Lufthansa will stop paying a commission to travel agencies. As these commissions are the only source of revenue for small travel agencies, it is expected that they will increase the ticket price. It is also expected that more airlines will follow this trend.

source: Q-music and VTM teletext

OO-VEX

Jumbolino · Post by **Jumbolino** » 26 Jun 2004, 12:34

OO-VEX
and as you can buy all these tkt online without extra fee, who cares ?
ok maybe an old grandma without computer, but when I remember how lousy the behaviour of all travel agency's was, when I liked to buy tkt's there (doesn't matter with which airline) I have to admit I like this decision

ATC · Post by **ATC** » 26 Jun 2004, 17:47

Indeed the idea is not bad...
and I also think that more and more airlines will stop with these commissions, because they want to do direct business with the customer (the internet).

But for SNBA ...?
How many % of the SN-passengers book by a travel agencie...?
Because if, for example 20% or 30% of the passangers are being brought to the airline by a travel agencie... this could have serious consequences in passanger feeding traffic.

Does anybody have more facts about this item ?

greetings,
ATC

A318 · Post by **A318** » 26 Jun 2004, 22:05

KLM already cut off the commisions paid to agencies. Don't worry about the online agencies also, most of them charge around €20,- booking costs or administration costs, so they already aranged that loss in money

greetz,

Erwin

Captain · Post by **Captain** » 27 Jun 2004, 20:54

I don't have anything against travel agents or travel agencies:

In the last decade the majority of airlines have introduced online booking and have saved money this way and even better, have passed on this saving to the consumer. This was a revolution at the time, but nowadays you don't think twice about it, it's almost the same as buying petrol for your car at a station with only an ATM machine and no personnel.

Travel agencies will never dissapear, but a lot of them will close down or downsize because for many decades they were just the middle man. A user with the Internet can now become their own travel agent and very simply and quickly book holidays which include: flights, hotels, car rental, on site activities/excursions...

Many travel agencies are looking at diversifying and offering different types of services and deals. This is great for competition.

Captain

Jumbolino · Post by **Jumbolino** » 27 Jun 2004, 22:12

Is there a problem with the database or are you nervous Captain ? I can see your posting four times which is three too much

Post by **luchtzak** » 27 Jun 2004, 23:34

Jumbolino wrote:Is there a problem with the database or are you nervous Captain ? I can see your posting four times which is three too much

Removed the messages.

Captain, please only push once the submit-button. I know the server is sometimes responding slow.

Avro · Post by **Avro** » 29 Jun 2004, 17:45

I haven't got anything against this meausre. The future is the internet and that's how the companies have to adapt. I'm sure that for the moment a lot of reservations are done via the internet for many airlines (not only LCC).

BTW I don't think that SN will loose a lot of pax through this measure, especially not if other airlines will follow.

Greetz
Chris
8)

Post by **sn26567** » 30 Jun 2004, 09:05

Some people cannot use Internet or simply don't have a computer. They will be penalised by such a measure, which is more and more common among air carriers all over the world.

The travel agencies will simply add a flat fee on all tickets they sell. Poor travellers...

Captain · Post by **Captain** » 30 Jun 2004, 14:59

sn26567 wrote:Some people cannot use Internet or simply don't have a computer. They will be penalised by such a measure, which is more and more common among air carriers all over the world.

I see your point but:

A person will less income or who doesn't have a computer can always go to an Internet Cafe and pay 1 or 2 € to surf the web for an hour and make their booking. Instead of going to a travel agent they would simply go to a loca Internet Cafe or to a friend's house.

Also, mobile phone technology is moving so fast that one can now surf the net on a mobile. In Japan they are a few years ahead of us and many popular websites have enabled their sites to run nicely on web browsers on mobile phones. The price of phones is constantly falling and within a couple of years everyone regardless of their income will be able to afford an internet connected phone.

Captain.

flyinghigh · Post by **flyinghigh** » 02 Jul 2004, 03:09

I couldn't agree more with ASTA's : "without a travel agent, you are on your own" (in the middle of the airlines' jungle).