WASHINGTON -- Amtrak said it is concerned that the travel agent
community's steady shift to charge service fees for all
transactions is forcing consumers to pay more than necessary for
train tickets.
"We think since we've supported agents by maintaining the 10%
commission, they shouldn't be charging [service fees] for Amtrak,"
Kathleen Gordon, Amtrak's assistant vice president of sales said.
Travel agents can earn up to 12% commissions on Amtrak vacation
packages.
Gordon said her concern was heightened after a recent meeting
with Amtrak's computerized reservations systems advisory council,
made up of 12 agents from around the country. "Virtually every
agent on the council was charging fees for everything," Gordon
said.
Gordon said she understands the need of agents to charge for
airline tickets to compensate for the commission cuts, but she
contended that tacking a service fee on to a fully commissionable
Amtrak sale "unfairly discourages our customers [from choosing] one
of our distribution outlets."
Nevertheless, Amtrak intends to capitalize on the airline
commission cuts by making train tickets easier to sell. It is
developing a front-end program for agents' computerized
reservations systems and new educational training to help agents
become sales experts in rail products.
"The reservation system will incorporate a low-fare finder,
which agents do not have available to them today," Gordon said. "It
would automatically price the lowest fare if agents ask for
it."
The front-end system also will allow agents to use their regular
CRS commands to access information, freeing them from learning the
nuances of booking over Amtrak's system.
"Many agents have difficulty selling Amtrak on the [CRS]
systems," Gordon explained. "They have difficulty with the
interactions, our fare codes. The beauty of [the new system] is
agents will be able to use familiar commands. Our goal is to make
it as intuitive as possible so that agents can use the processes
they already use."
Agents also will have the option of making bookings in a
fill-in-the-blanks, formatted, "guided" mode, or in an expert mode
using CRS commands. The system will enable agents to switch back
and forth between modes. "If we do this right, even new agents
won't feel uncomfortable about selling Amtrak," Gordon said.
The system, which could be in operation by summer, largely is an
outgrowth of Amtrak's Web site. The site enables consumers to
access train information and make limited purchases of low-priced
tickets, generating some $600,000 a month in sales that Amtrak
believes agents would prefer not to bother with. The average ticket
sold on the site is $145.
"We would love to put [the agent system] on the Internet,"
Gordon said, "but the Internet is too slow for travel agents, so we
decided against it."
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Railway Sets Educational Initiatives for
Retailers
WASHINGTON -- Amtrak's new educational programs for agents will
include distributing "The Amtrak Experience," a Windows-based
CD-ROM detailing routes, accommodations and services.
In addition, according to Kathleen Gordon, assistant vice
president of sales, the railway also has been in contact with the
Institute of Certified Travel Agents in an effort to develop a
correspondence training course designed to help travel agents
become Amtrak specialists. -- M.M.