When word of American Airlines' plan to charge non-preferred channels a $3.50 per segment fee for bookings went around the National Business Travel Association's convention, the reaction was one of disbelief.
When three other airlines, United, Continental and North West followed suit in the next few days, the reaction, one can guess, would have been of consternation.
Just what are the US airlines up to? Is it a game of bluff, of hardball as one commentator suggested, or are they serious?
And more crucially for Europe, if the four American carriers "succeed" in what they are doing, how likely is it to cross the Atlantic? Would BA, Air France-KLM or Lufthansa adopt such a policy?
If the old saw that what starts in America will eventually come to Europe is true – and zero commissions is the prime example – can anyone be sure it will not?
American outlined their plans to impose the fee in a statement headlined Source Premium Policy and dated July 12.
The statement divided its channels for content display into "Competitive Booking Sources" and "Other Booking Sources". Broadly speaking the first are the GDSs and channels with which American has signed a contents deal: Galileo/Apollo, Worldspan, G2 Switchworks and Farelogix.
The second are the GDSs with which they have either no deal or one that is about to expire: Sabre and Amadeus.
Bookings through these channels would be charged at the rate of $3.50 per segment from September 1. Such charges will apply only in the United States.
United, Continental and North West subsequently announced that they too would charge the same fee per segment for bookings through non-preferred channels, again in the United States.
In its statement American does not give a clear reason why it is pursuing this policy but it does give an ominous warning: that it "may eventually withhold content from Other Booking Sources, particularly if an Other Booking Source fails to display American content on neutral terms as compared with other airlines."
In other words, display our content fairly, regardless of any deal or we will withhold it from you.
Andrew Solum, director of consultant Travel Industry Associates, said: "I find what American is doing is, strange, bizarre but I can understand why they are doping it."
The aim seems most likely to be to reduce their distribution costs, a perpetual aim of airlines, and that any prospective deals so far negotiated by American with Sabre and Amadeus are not to its liking.
So the plan for a booking fee puts pressure on the two GDSs to lower their demands.
But it is a scheme which could backfire for American.
Mr Solum predicts that any fee is likely to be passed onto the travellers who will see it as yet another tax and likely to increase their anger with the already numerous "hidden charges" – fuel surcharges, taxes, airport dues – which airlines add to the basic cost of a ticket.
"For the TMCs and corporate buyers this is shocking. They are going to put small agencies out of business and in the short term it will also hurt the airlines.
"The charges will be $3.50 per segment so with a four segment trip, the extra cost is going to be $14. There are many typical four segment trips in America, like Miami-Dallas-LA-Dallas-Miami or Boston-Chicago-Denver-Chicago-Boston.
"I think people are waiting to see what will come but it is not going down terribly well. I think the courts could be involved because people are so angry."
But what is bizarre about it is that American was one of the airlines which created Sabre and it has spent many years persuading agencies to adopt it as its preferred GDS. Most of American's bookings go through the GDS which in turn is the most dominant in the US.
Why it should apparently pick a fight with its obvious ally, is indeed strange.
The next few weeks will see how much American and the three others are in a game of bluff or something with more divisive andfragmentary consequences.
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