Our anonymous travel buyer is driven to distraction by airline ancillaries...
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Life used to be quite straightforward: you would book a trip with your preferred airline, pay a fare that was most likely enshrined in some cosy bi-lateral agreement, receive a paper ticket as your receipt and be reasonably confident when checking-in at the airport that you and your baggage would be properly looked after all the way to your destination – you were getting a ‘full service’. Of course you didn’t know if you had a good deal or not, since everyone was paying the agreed published IATA fares. But since the airlines lost money more years than they made money, you could probably be content that you hadn’t overpaid.
Then along came deregulation and competition, fares fell and we suddenly had real choices to make! But, with stockholders having replaced governments as airline owners, the accountants found themselves under increasing pressure to produce dividends. So steadily, our highly competitive fares came with a raft of draconian restrictions and penalties attached – modification, cancellation, refunds etc… Then the ‘givens’ started to disappear, as the product was unbundled – unravelled! We found ourselves being charged for onboard meals, drinks, hold baggage, carry-on baggage, ‘better’ seats, emergency rows, priority boarding, paying by credit card, airport check-in…
Unfortunately none of this seemed to help overall fortunes of airlines, so now we read of the latest strategy: “Bundling” – where carriers such as American Airlines are looking to give their domestic customers all their needs ‘rebundled’ into a packaged at single price (which commands a premium of $88 over the basic round-trip fare).
As a travel manager, my contract of employments says somewhere that I should “ruthlessly embrace change”, but come on guys, hasn’t this all gone a little too far now? My job is to help save money by identifying and presenting the lowest reasonable available fare to the traveller. But with all these variables in the equation now, it’s near impossible.
We employ smart technology for fare constructions – but this is getting increasing indigestion and frequently finds itself “Unable to price”. Our self-booking tool should make life easier for everyone – but with all the options and extras to consider, completing a booking can take longer than doing the weekly online shop at Morrisons. At least at Morrisons I can compare apples with apples.
Over 80% of our air reservations are made through a self-booking tool (SBT) –our travellers like using it, because it’s quick and simple, and while the travel manager (me!) saves significant amounts in agency fees with the SBT, it also drives traveller behaviour towards accepting lower fares. But if having accepted the lower fare, a number of essential extras have to then be added at additional cost – the traveller may well end up having been better off accepting a fare with another carrier in the first place.
Airlines should recognise the corporate traveller at point-of-sale, by including the basics for a business trip in with the base fare – i.e. one checked bag, meals, ability to change for a modest fee, seat selection, no corporate credit card surcharge.
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