BY MICHELE MCDONALD
CHICAGO -- United Airlines set a $10 flat fee commission for the
ticketing of bookings made on the Internet or other on-line
service, including multiple tickets booked on the same
itinerary.
The policy applies to bookings made on airline Web sites, on
booking engines such as Microsoft's Expedia and through United
Connection, the carrier's disk-based reservations system that are
referred to agencies for ticketing.
United is the fourth carrier to alter its commission structure
for on-line bookings.
Northwest and Continental set commissions for such bookings at
5% with a cap of $25 for domestic roundtrips and $40 for
international roundtrips.
American set a flat fee of $15 per passenger.
The airlines note that on-line bookings represent a tiny
percentage of the travel booked at this point.
In addition, a United spokes-man said, "nine out of 10 people"
who book on United Connection or Expedia opt either for an
electronic ticket or for the airline to send tickets by mail.
The carriers say the new levels are justified because the bulk
of the work involved in the transaction is done by the
passenger.
But one agent took issue with the premise that an agent's
involvement in such a transaction begins and ends with the issuing
of the ticket.
"If I issue the ticket, I'm responsible for the reservation,"
Lucile Hirleman of Berkshire Travel in Newfoundland, N.J.,
said.
"If the fare goes down, I have to reticket, and if there's a
schedule change, I may have to refund the ticket and rebook the
client on another airline," she said.
"It doesn't end with that 10-second booking."
Hirleman and other agents said they believe the airlines are
setting the stage for a move to across-the-board transaction fees
for all bookings.
David Orr of Ticket to Ride in Chicago called United's move
"another blow to what has been a perfectly viable distribution
system."
He said a 10% commission for issuing a ticket is not
unreasonable "but we'll be gone before anyone figures that
out."
Some agents said they would not ticket on-line bookings for the
lower commissions, and some said they would insist that the client
cancel the on-line booking and allow them to process the
transaction in the traditional way.
In any event, agents said, clients who use travel agencies only
as ticketing outlets are not getting the best deal.
Orr said he said he knew of some clients who had booked travel
on United Connection and had been "hammered" with high fares.
Hirleman said that in every case where a client has asked her to
ticket a do-it-yourself booking, "I have gotten a better fare or a
better schedule, usually on another airline."