By BA Staff Amadeus, a leading technology partner for the global travel industry, announced the launch of the Amadeus Hotels Select web portal that allows hoteliers to promote their deals and offers directly to travel agents in Asia Pacific. For the first time, Amadeus travel agents will benefit from access to exclusive hotel rates and…
By BA Staff The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) today fined two ticket agents for violating the Department’s rules on disclosure of code-share flights. DOT issued a $125,000 fine against Carlson Wagonlit Travel and a $65,000 fine against Frosch International Travel, and both companies were ordered to cease and desist from further violations. The amount…
by Devesh Agarwal A ticket bought for Rs. 17,270 was sold to the Rajya Sabha secretariat for Rs. 67,270, a 389% mark-up!! We regularly hear either the Minister of Civil Aviation, Mr. Ajit Singh, or the Director General of Civil Aviation, Mr. Mishra, calling for airlines to curb their fares and not indulge in price…
As domestic full service carriers like Air India and Jet Airways are cutting back on their commissions, travel agents in India have decided to charge a service charge of Rs 225 from July 16 on tickets of full service carriers, issued by them. In this age of skyrocketing expenses, airlines are desperately trying to curtail…
The three month old stand-off between travel agents and Singapore Airlines on the zero commission issue shows no signs of abating. Both sides have tried to negotiate but remain apart. If anything, the dispute has entrenched both sides in to their respective stands even further. In the latest move to pressure the Singapore national carrier,…
I must tip my hat to the travel agents’ associations in India. Their strategy of targeting one airline at a time, has paid handsome dividends. From a paltry five per cent commission on the basic fare, they have successfully made all the airlines pay three per cent on the gross fare, which includes the fuel…
As I had indicated in my earlier story, Kingfisher Airlines announced that it will pay three per cent agency commission to travel agents on gross fare, effective from today. The decision to pay three per cent commission was acknowledged in a fax sent to TAAI office last night. “The airline has also withdrawn Transaction Fee…
The travel agents appear to have won Round 1 of the “Zero Commission” battle. Less than four days after the agents decided to boycott Jet Airways and low cost subsidiary JetLite, Jet Airways announced restoration of the travel agents’ commissions. As per the release from Jet Airways, Recognizing the difficult economic environment for the travel…
Read a nice article by Anjuli Bhargava in the Business Standard today, about the airlines’ ticket prices, the fuel prices, and the politicians. I strongly recommend your reading it. Ms. Bhargava asks Can someone enlighten me as to what’s going on? I am referring to this quid pro quo that’s been playing out through the…
The “Zero Commision” ruckus has been ratcheted up another step, by the travel agents. As per various news reports, In a move aimed at forcing airlines to revoke their decision to withdraw the five per cent commission, previously built-in to the ticket prices, and paid to the travel agents, over 2,500 travel companies, including IATA…
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