Agents boycott Singapore Airlines

[ws8n]

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/ag...rlines/402663/

Gayatri Verma Posted: Dec 25, 2008 at 0048 hrs IST

New Delhi: Following the collapse of negotiations with Singapore Airlines regarding restoring the practice of giving a 5 per cent commission to travel agents on ticket sales, the Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) along with all other such bodies in the country have declared a boycott on the sale of Singapore Airline tickets starting Monday for an indefinite period.

Rajji Rai, President, TAAI, said, “We’re not asking for anything extraordinary. An agent offers a service to both the client and the airline. Why should we run an entire business for airlines and receive nothing in return?”

However, given that small and medium-sized agencies’ finances are not geared to survive a strike of more than a few days, they have had to move cautiously to avoid foreign carriers coming together to oppose this move. Singapore Airlines is the only international carrier that has been approached so far by the TAAI. The rationale behind this, says Rai, is that as they were the first international airline to switch to the transaction fee model, now that Indian Airlines, Kingfisher, Jet and even Air India have reverted to the traditional model, international carriers should follow suit. “Qatar Airlines is next on our list,” added Rai.

Close to 85 per cent of all airline tickets are sold by travel agents. However, despite potential losses of as much as Rs10-15 crore a day as long the the boycott stands, Singapore Airlines does not appear to be hugely concerned. When approached on the issue, Foo, General Manager India for Singapore Airlines, told TAAI that only the head office in Singapore was empowered to take such decisions and that process could take as much as 6 months.

[zvezda]

I'd rather pay a fee to the travel agent and know that he's working for me rather than working for some of the airlines. I don't need an agent to have financial incentives to give me something other than what I want.

[milehighj]

However, despite potential losses of as much as Rs10-15 crore a day as long the the boycott stands, Singapore Airlines does not appear to be hugely concerned.

Yes everything is all hunky-dory up in the ivory tower.

Goldman Sachs: first loss since going public...
Toyota: first operating loss in 71 years, credit downgraded...
Singapore Airlines: ???

[YK@HKG]

Not to mention Cathay Pacific's massive loss already reported recently.

[N_Architect]

I'd rather pay a fee to the travel agent and know that he's working for me rather than working for some of the airlines. I don't need an agent to have financial incentives to give me something other than what I want.

End of July 2008. Me on Skype calling (from South Korea) a TA in ATH, Greece. Trying to book a ticket for my mother to come to Korea this Xmas.

Agent gives me a price on LH (to PUS), Eur 1230 (Q & V type). Blah blah blah, we talk about frequent travelers, about flights withing the U.S., blah blah blah, then I ask (for the 2nd time) for alternatives on the route ATH-xxx-ICN or PUS.

He says to me "well, the 'classic' carriers to Asia are LH, TG, SQ and QR." He does not seem too keen in going further, though. We continue our conversation, blah blah blah, he's angry about a 17yo who he had issued a inter-U.S. ticket for and the teenager missed his flight and then started calling and accusing the TA, etc. Blah blah blah...

Anyway, I say to the TA, "any other offers? how about QR?" Then I get an instant response:

"oh, no, you just DON"T want to travel with QR!"

"Why?" I reply.

"oh, God" he says, "Let me tell you. Firstly, there are no women on these flights, it's all men. Secondly, they all take their shoes off and the plane smells a lot. Finally, the food stinks, it's all spicy stuff and your mother won't like it."

????????
(I am left speechless, but as I begin to realize the way he works, I continue my 'investigation' for quotations.)

"How much is that?" I ask.
He checks and gives me a price of Eur 890 (!). Of course he omits to inform me about the one 'technical' stop the plane has on the leg DOH-ICN, as he does not know it. [plane stops in Osaka for about an hour.] Price is much cheaper than LH, though it reaches ICN and not PUS.

"How about SQ?" I say to him. [my mother loves SQ but we'd prefer she comes to PUS w/o having to change airports and planes in Seoul, so the choice was going to be LH anyway, but I just wanted to check the extent of his bad professionalism.]

"Oh, no, no" he says immediately. "SQ is fully booked till mid-February and people are actually using any kind of 'leads' they may have in SQ GR to be able to bypass the waiting lists." [I had already checked SQ web prior to that phonecall and SQ was giving me seat available in Y for Eur 1,285...] "Yes, yes" he continues, "there is a very big problem with SQ, their flights are usually fully booked."]

I did not bother to ask for a quote on TG. It was obvious he was rather unprofessional. I have ever since stopped working with him and am glad I only had one transaction with his 'business'.

[concept|infinit]

End of July 2008. Me on Skype calling (from South Korea) a TA in ATH, Greece. Trying to book a ticket for my mother to come to Korea this Xmas.

Agent gives me a price on LH (to PUS), Eur 1230 (Q & V type). Blah blah blah, we talk about frequent travelers, about flights withing the U.S., blah blah blah, then I ask (for the 2nd time) for alternatives on the route ATH-xxx-ICN or PUS.

He says to me "well, the 'classic' carriers to Asia are LH, TG, SQ and QR." He does not seem too keen in going further, though. We continue our conversation, blah blah blah, he's angry about a 17yo who he had issued a inter-U.S. ticket for and the teenager missed his flight and then started calling and accusing the TA, etc. Blah blah blah...

Anyway, I say to the TA, "any other offers? how about QR?" Then I get an instant response:

"oh, no, you just DON"T want to travel with QR!"

"Why?" I reply.

"oh, God" he says, "Let me tell you. Firstly, there are no women on these flights, it's all men. Secondly, they all take their shoes off and the plane smells a lot. Finally, the food stinks, it's all spicy stuff and your mother won't like it."

????????
(I am left speechless, but as I begin to realize the way he works, I continue my 'investigation' for quotations.)

"How much is that?" I ask.
He checks and gives me a price of Eur 890 (!). Of course he omits to inform me about the one 'technical' stop the plane has on the leg DOH-ICN, as he does not know it. [plane stops in Osaka for about an hour.] Price is much cheaper than LH, though it reaches ICN and not PUS.

"How about SQ?" I say to him. [my mother loves SQ but we'd prefer she comes to PUS w/o having to change airports and planes in Seoul, so the choice was going to be LH anyway, but I just wanted to check the extent of his bad professionalism.]

"Oh, no, no" he says immediately. "SQ is fully booked till mid-February and people are actually using any kind of 'leads' they may have in SQ GR to be able to bypass the waiting lists." [I had already checked SQ web prior to that phonecall and SQ was giving me seat available in Y for Eur 1,285...] "Yes, yes" he continues, "there is a very big problem with SQ, their flights are usually fully booked."]

I did not bother to ask for a quote on TG. It was obvious he was rather unprofessional. I have ever since stopped working with him and am glad I only had one transaction with his 'business'.

My gosh.. Unbelievable.

Well good thing there's the internet these days

[zvezda]

There are some very good travel agents. However, it's a lot to expect from anyone to offer passengers the best choices if they don't pay a commission versus choices that do pay a commission. When all airlines stop paying commissions and travel agents are paid only by their customers, then things will be much better because travel agents will be motivated only to offer the best services to their customers.

[blast-off]

Yes everything is all hunky-dory up in the ivory tower.

Goldman Sachs: first loss since going public...
Toyota: first operating loss in 71 years, credit downgraded...
Singapore Airlines: ???

Ironical how the BANKING industry has a hand in all these....if I were a banker....I'd hide my face

[stargold]

You think that's bad.. KE is stopping all commission paid to TAs in Korea from 2010!

Fact is, there is no longer a "service" element provided by TA for most simple ticket purchase and amendments when the passenger can find equally good fares on the airline's website, book it himself (and even get special benefits such as seat selection on SQ) and no need for a paper ticket. Even for amendments, often the airline is in charge of making amendments to ticket so the TA often stops helping you once you depart.

So, it has been my opinion for a few years that with near-perfect e-ticket facilities, the role of the TA in merely reserving and issuing flight tickets is basically zero. For certain complex routings, or when the customer prefers to have their own point of first contact, then the TA may be able to charge a service charge, but I think the age of commission from airlines is starting to draw to an end.

[slacker]

If there's no commission, what do the agents gain for helping one book a ticket? Thru some transaction or service fee charged to the passenger?

[zander]

If there's no commission, what do the agents gain for helping one book a ticket? Thru some transaction or service fee charged to the passenger?

Usually they charge you a service fee of $50 for issuing you an airline ticket. Thats one source of revenue stream for them but not very profitable nowadays with all the online booking etc.

[SQ All The Way]

It comes down to the "% rate" paid to the TA.

"Assuming" SQ pays a flat $50 commission/ticket, the rate would equate to as follows based on revenue:

$500 fare = 10%
$1000 fare = 5%
$1500 fare = 3.33% (based on 5% should be $75 commission)
$2000 fare = 2.50% (based on 5% should be $100 commission)

Hence, TA will be less motivated on selling higher fares as they end up getting less as a rate compared to other airlines in India.

The question becomes, what is the average SQ rev / ticket? If it's more than $1000, the TA's loose. It would appear $1000 is the breakeven point for the TA's?

Cheers.

[stargold]

Usually they charge you a service fee of $50 for issuing you an airline ticket. Thats one source of revenue stream for them but not very profitable nowadays with all the online booking etc.

That's why they now have to concentrate on making package deals and other value-add services (like RTW ticketing, for example, that involve a lot of time and effort). Those that provide excellent CS by maintaining a good relationship with customers and being experienced/knowledgeable will probably be able to continue receiving revenue from ticketing operations because their customers will prefer to pay a little extra for the service they receive from the TA.

In Korea for example, a lot of the small to medium sized travel agents are likely to fold because the ticketing commission (in particular, from KE) constitute a large proportion of their income, whereas the larger operators that organise package tours etc and do not rely so much on simple ticketing commission will be affected much less. AFAIK most hotel, car rental and other miscellaneous products still attract commission which makes it profitable for the TAs to organise the whole trip, rather than just the flights.

[scooby5]

My TA did manage to get me fares to Manila a month or so ago that saved me a few hundred dollars from fares available either from the PR or SQ websites. I don't know how they did it at the moment is still seems worth cross checking with a TA even if you might only buy 10% of your tickets from them.

Problem with buying so few tickets with so many enquiries is that CS can suck.

[Singapore_Air]

I thought this was the best quote out of this SQ fiasco:

However, despite potential losses of as much as Rs10-15 crore a day as long the the boycott stands, Singapore Airlines does not appear to be hugely concerned. When approached on the issue, Foo, General Manager India for Singapore Airlines, told TAAI that only the head office in Singapore was empowered to take such decisions and that process could take as much as 6 months.