HOUSTON -- Continental said it will pull its electronic ticket
availability out of Apollo effective March 1 in response to the new
50-cent surcharge for electronic tickets imposed by the vendor's
owner, Galileo.
The carrier instructed Apollo agents to book paper tickets for
Continental or, if a customer requires an electronic ticket, to
call the airline directly. Continental said it would pay agents who
book electronic tickets directly an additional $10 for their
trouble.
Beginning March 1, Apollo agencies should call Continental's
Executive Desk at (800) 323-5366 to book electronic tickets.
Commissions on those transactions will be handled separately: Each
Tuesday, the carrier will mail a check for the commission plus the
$10 transaction fee for Continental e-tickets booked directly the
previous week. Details are available in Apollo at S*COB/ETKT.
Steve Cossette, Continental's vice president of distribution
planning, said Continental probably would lose a little money
initially by paying the $10, but "we understand how ugly this
manual process is, having to telephone us and then integrate the
information into their accounting systems."
He said Continental stood to lose $20 million over the next
three years if it paid Galileo's 50-cent fee. But he said it was
"not just an issue of the 50 cents. It's the continuing rising
[computerized reservations system] costs."
Cossette said Galileo may have made a strategic mistake if it
persists with the fee. He said Continental had automated its side
of the phone-in electronic ticket process, and "if we can figure
out how to automate the agency side of it, we can bypass the CRS
altogether."
Continental was the second carrier to react to the surcharge on
electronic tickets imposed by Galileo.
Earlier, Northwest said its new flat-fee commission structure on
claim PNR transactions would pay 50 cents less -- $14.50 versus $15
-- for electronic tickets issued in Apollo through claimed
reservations. ASTA slammed that move as an attempt to "undermine
the travel agent-client relationship." Al Lenza, Northwest's
managing director of distribution planning, said the percentage of
electronics tickets issued through claim PNR would be in the
"single digits." He said the carrier did not pass the 50-cent
charge onto Apollo agents for all electronic tickets because it
wanted to express its displeasure to Galileo "without shooting
ourselves in the foot" by discouraging large numbers of agents from
booking electronic tickets.
Lenza also disputed Galileo's estimated cost savings for
airlines of up to $7 per electronic ticket. "It's nowhere near
that," he said, "and it won't be significant until we have critical
mass."
Lenza also said that in terms of Northwest's response to
Galileo's action, "we're not done yet."