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You're Corrupt!
ChrisCrossings · April 6, 2000

Q: I read with interest your recent column about getting better rates directly than through a corporate travel agent.

I've got news for you. That may be true - and yes there are bunches of corrupt corporate travel agencies out there (I've worked for several of the biggies). But for every crooked travel agency, there is a crooked corporate travel manager.

If you suspect problems with your agency, and this is documented over a period of time, then your travel manager is getting a kickback - I guarantee it. Whether it's through free personal travel, upgrades, gifts, or flat-out cash, I've seen it all.

A good and honest travel manager would not allow that to continue, but would demand change or go to a new agency. And, on the flip side, for every traveler who said they could get a better deal they neglected to tell their agent they would take a two-stop flight, red-eye, compact car, Saturday night stay, etc.

Well over half the complaints I received as a corporate travel manager were from travelers who deliberately waited to book travel with the agent until the last minute, or did not disclose what restrictions they were willing to take to get better deals, sometimes in direct conflict with a companies travel policy.

It is always in the best interest of a company to have travelers book through a designated agency. That's how you create volume and generate market share. For every traveler going outside of the "box" to book travel, as small as it may be, it's hard for a corporation to keep track of these expenses. (No, I'm sorry but expense reports don't always cut it.)

I would strongly urge a higher level of scrutiny from those in the corporation who are in charge of travel and entertainment expenses. Far too many corporate travel managers just collect a paycheck, perks and go home.

-- Melanie Sanders

A: No doubt about it, there's corruption on both sides of the fence. There are crooked travel agents and corporate travel managers out there - indeed, travel is one of the businesses most susceptible to dishonesty - and your letter is a rare admission of that fact.

I don't want to turn this into an online free-for-all between travel managers and agents. Instead, I'd like to focus on how the corruption that you've seen firsthand has affected travelers.

Is accepting kickbacks such as free personal travel, upgrades, gifts, or "flat-out cash" such a bad thing? Does it make for a better or worse travel experience for the kind of garden variety passengers who diligently collect their frequent flier miles and don't qualify for any industry discounts when they travel?

You've suggested that corruption is common. As someone who has covered both travel managers and agents in the past, I tend to agree with you. The more I learned about the perks given to travel managers and agents, the less I wanted to know. The higher up the corporate food chain I looked, the worse it got.

Travel managers, with their substandard salaries, are easily wowed by first-class tickets, suites, and limousine rides. They're only human. So are travel agents, a group so abused by suppliers lately that any halfway decent gesture from a supplier is often met with an offer of lifelong loyalty.

But I would argue strongly that the kickbacks hurt consumers. A bonus (or a promise of one) that goes above and beyond the normal compensation forces the middleman or manager to weigh not only the traveler's interest, but the travel supplier's as well. That's wrong.

The agent or travel manager should be looking out for the company's bottom line, but more importantly, the consumer's. Another problem with these questionable incentives is that sooner of later, they shift your loyalty from your employer to the supplier. In other words, you stop caring entirely what kind of a job you're doing and focus on snagging even more incentives.

Accepting these freebies is an unacceptable compromise of your priorities that can directly lead to the two-stopover flights you wrote about. It can also result in higher ticket prices, uncompetitive hotel rates and an itinerary that looks like it was planned by a five-year old on the Internet.

Whether the directive to book a given airline or car rental company is coming from the travel manager of the agent is strictly an academic question.

Kickbacks are the crack cocaine of the travel industry. They aren't a victimless crime. They destroy the trust between the customer and agency, and they waste time and money.

I'd like to know how you feel about the freebies. E-mail me with your thoughts on whether it's OK to accept the travel industry's generous perks. Have you ever accepted the freebies? Know someone who did? Do you think it affected you? I'm all ears.

Christopher Elliott's column appears on Thursdays. All e-mailed questions to ChrisCrossings become property of Ticked.com and may be edited, condensed or republished at the site's discretion. You may reach Elliott at chris@ticked.com. Or visit his home page at http://www.elliott.org.