Only days after Vacation.com revealed a program that enables agents to make commission selling airline tickets, Ensemble Travel Group introduced a similar initiative for its members.
Ensemble said that by August its members will have access to a new air booking engine that offers the ability to "shop, book and earn" on up to 70 international and domestic carriers. The booking engine will be free to use.
"Some members are cruise-only and some just don't do a lot of air," said Libbie Rice, Ensemble Travel Group's co-president. "This gives them access to fares and the ability to make money on air."
Rice said agencies without their own ARC agreements will now be able to use Ensemble’s ARC number, a setup similar to V-com's program.
She said fares will be displayed in the booking system as net fares or published fares. Agents can mark up net fares and might make a commission on published ones.
Commissionable fares will depend on the route and class, with most U.S. carriers not paying commission on domestic segments. Rice said Ensemble does have commission agreements with U.S. carriers on long-haul flights.
About 15 agencies are using a beta version of the system, and it will be rolled out to the rest of Ensemble members by August.
Rice said that Ensemble started an air program in 2008, and while it offers "lucrative agreements" with long-haul carriers, it doesn’t have the breadth agents need.
"We knew we needed to grow it and grow it fast," she said. "This makes it a viable program that our members will want to use. It's one-stop shopping."
She said not all airlines in the program will offer the same incentives to agents, because with 70 carriers in the program, Ensemble can't offer much in terms of share shift. However, some carriers do have those agreements with the consortium.
"The booking engine will highlight which flights give them the best earnings potential," Rice said.
Rice said that Ensemble's largest air producers will probably not use the air program because they already have their own agreements with airlines.
"This is targeted to cruise-only agencies that really don't want to dabble in air, or agencies that may have air agreements but not with 70 airlines," she said.
Lindsay Pearlman, Ensemble co-president, said, With our strengthened U.S.-Canadian strategy, we can leverage deals on both sides of the border for all members, regardless of their size or business model. It's all about leveraging that buying power to the max for our members."
The consortium said that it provides "considerable earning power through agreements on both net and published fares." Specific commission will vary based on carrier, route and respective contract.
"While our members do sell a lot of business-class air, the earning potential is there in all levels of service," stated Brian Chapin, Ensemble’s senior director of air and business development.
"I'm really excited about Ensemble's new air program," said Ryan McGredy, owner of Moraga Travel in Moraga, Calif. "They have had a smaller air program for a couple of years now that we use and like because it gives us a way to earn commission from carriers that we would never be able to deliver the kind of volume that we do with our contracted carriers."
"The new program really steps that up even more by removing the manual lag time from the old process and bringing on many more carriers. This tool will really help us take air sales to the next level at Moraga."