• What's ticked?
• Accolades
• Contact us

c o l u m n s

• Cheap Charlie
• ChrisCrossings
• Err Travel
• Leocha
• Travel Notes
• Archives

I'm On Your Side
Cheap Charlie · April 12, 2002

I have been bombarded by emails from travel agents that feel I have maligned their industry and the "Mom and Pop" integrity in my last column, Watch Your Wallet. I have been called every name in the book and them some.

Whoa. I'm on your side. The airline/travel agent world is changing. Mark my words. Call me ignorant. Ask me to work behind your desk. Tell me to do my homework.

Travel agents will not be able to stop the change in the new relationship between airline providers and travel agents and the new relationship between travel agencies and their clients. Small travel agents can all keep their collective Mom and Pop heads in the sand, but only at their peril.

The majority of the emails came from a phalanx of Mom and Pop agencies. Almost to an email, these small agencies swore that they have never seen any boodle being handed out their way. They all claimed they would never take a kickback at their client's expense. They all noted that the "mega agencies" get all the palm greasing and they are left out.

I was not singling Mom and Pop agencies out, only dramatizing that the shift in who pays the agent will change the very fiber of the travel agent world. Travel agent relationships with clients have changed and will change dramatically.

According to a notice in Travel Weekly on April 11th, ARTA plans "several projects, including a 'super agency' concept that matches small agencies to larger ones with airline override agreements." It won't only be the "megas" anymore.

Once the client begins paying agency bill, they are in the driver's seat. In the past, many travel agents were "nice" or "ethical" and always did what was "best for the client" (and according to many emails to their own detriment). The airlines are forcing changes on all travel agents.

My column was directed against the airlines who out of one side of their mouths are announcing "zero commissions" and out of the other side "blitzing travel agents in Chicago" and announcing that they will be awarding "incentive payments."

Once the client begins paying the bills, the airlines can not have it both ways - neither can the travel agencies. Both will be forced to reveal the backroom deals and incentives. This is not the same as buying appliances from Sears, where many sales persons are on commission, as many of your emails stated.

At Sears, consumers simply purchase washing machines, lawn mowers, snow blowers and pots and pans. They may "ask" a commissioned sales person which machine they may or may not recommend, but when a customer makes a purchase they, the consumers, make the final decision. If consumers aren't happy, they can normally take it back for a full refund in 30 days.

In the Old World, when airlines paid agencies commissions, agencies and airlines could have as many deals as they desired. Travel agents, as good business people, knew that a happy customer was a customer who returned regularly. Travel agents had no reason to mess with their good customers and in many cases; the backroom deals between agency and airline could work to the customer's advantage with special fares, drink coupons and upgrades.

A travel agent's job (unlike a salesperson's job at Sears) will soon become that of the decision-maker. Agents will be paid by consumers to make decisions as to what travel product the consumer should purchase. Agents will become the certified guides through the travel maze that has been constructed.

Travel agency customers can not take a botched vacation back for a full refund. Even if the agent wanted to give the client such a refund, agents don't have that power, only the airline does.

Getting customers the best deal will no longer be based only on small or large agency integrity or sense of fairness. Taking boodle from airlines to "shift market share" without telling the client paying the bill, is disingenuous and always will be. Now agents may be liable for a "shift."

Write and tell me I am crazy. Tell me I am taking a cheap shot at Mom and Pop agencies, but travel agents of every size will soon be forced to have clients sign disclaimers about what services agencies can provide and what is out of their hands. And they will have to disclose more than they ever considered.

Agents should not compare themselves to department store salespersons. Travel agents will have more of a translating job - translating the complexities of travel. Agents can compare their job to that of a lawyer, translating the law; or a tax preparer, translating the IRS codes.

The airlines have cut base commissions to "save money." However, they will soon find themselves mired in a New World of legal entanglements when they try to use their Old World incentive fees. Unfortunately, travel agents will be dragged along as well.

PS: Curiously, Southwest Airlines, one of the only airlines to consistently make a profit, still pays a five percent base commission. But that's another column.

Charlie Leocha is the Boston-based author of Travel Rights: Know the Rules of the Road and the Air Before You Go. Cheap Charlie appears every Monday on this site. E-mail him at leocha@aol.com or access his Web site.