Travel agent surcharge on airline tickets

[SearchGuy]

Who says the costumer disputed?

This is what I understand

[benjie1305]

Who says the costumer disputed?

While he might have not done so yet, he did mention how he is thinking about it and the whole point of his thread was to know what he can "do about" it. So its along the same lines.

[SearchGuy]

You understood correctly.

I called AMEX which will allow a dispute even though the charge was 11 months ago but would rather a peaceful resolution that will not get her boss upset at her.

I mentioned $25-$50 booking fee, which I have seen before. Her response: "that minimal mark up is on a regular ticket and not even in most cases-. A $25 or 35 mark up on a ticket would make any agent go out of business pretty fast."

Do you think she has any discretion re: her fee or is set by the agency? (Seems to me that they went for $899 and raised their fee accordingly)

[beeweegee]

Quote from: bubkiz on December 18, 2015, 12:10:56 PM
You understood correctly.

I called AMEX which will allow a dispute even though the charge was 11 months ago but would rather a peaceful resolution that will not get her boss upset at her.

I mentioned $25-$50 booking fee, which I have seen before. Her response: "that minimal mark up is on a regular ticket and not even in most cases-. A $25 or 35 mark up on a ticket would make any agent go out of business pretty fast."

Do you think she has any discretion re: her fee or is set by the agency? (Seems to me that they went for $899 and raised their fee accordingly)

Sounds like he/she did not dispute, but would consider it.

[benjie1305]

Quote from: bubkiz on December 18, 2015, 12:10:56 PM
You understood correctly.

I called AMEX which will allow a dispute even though the charge was 11 months ago but would rather a peaceful resolution that will not get her boss upset at her.

I mentioned $25-$50 booking fee, which I have seen before. Her response: "that minimal mark up is on a regular ticket and not even in most cases-. A $25 or 35 mark up on a ticket would make any agent go out of business pretty fast."

Do you think she has any discretion re: her fee or is set by the agency? (Seems to me that they went for $899 and raised their fee accordingly)

Sounds like he/she did not dispute, but would consider it.

This was literally just quoted directly above you.

[beeweegee]

This was literally just quoted directly above you.

I'm aware. SearchGuy quoted that to back his position that he believes that the OP disputed;I merely reposted that same quote and bolded the line which indicated that the OP did, in fact, not dispute.

[Moshe123]

I work in a different industry, but the TA is an idiot!

The biggest margins are made when the customer has no freaking clue how much you paid and just pay the market price. Many customers world drop a vendor if they knew the margin. There is no way even your best customer will let you make crazy markups if he knows what you paid.

No, it's not normal to show that to your customer. Nobody should see how the sausage is made.

[ilherman]

I work in a different industry, but the TA is an idiot!

The biggest margins are made when the customer has no freaking clue how much you paid and just pay the market price. Many customers world drop a vendor if they knew the margin. There is no way even your best customer will let you make crazy markups if he knows what you paid.

No, it's not normal to show that to your customer. Nobody should see how the sausage is made.

Only in the Yiddish world. I am proud to be a Jew....  I know the business, never heard a non Jew complaining about a upcharge as long as the TA charges what was made up. With Jews they will always for some unknown reason want the TA to work for free and will give problems for every upcharge. Doesn't matter that the TA gave you a total price which was a bargain.

Let me ask you this, if a ticket is $8000 and an agent is able to get it for $100, what do you feel he's allowed to make?

[SearchGuy]

There is Halachic guidelines on how much a store is allowed to mark up a product, but this may not be Shayech as he didn't charge higher than the normal price at that time

[Emkay]

he didn't charge higher than the normal price at that time

Says who, OP never said if he checked or what the online rate was

[Moshe123]

@ilherman, well not in my industry. Goyim will be just as mad at you when they know what markup you made on a particular thing.

[Emkay]

@ilherman, well not in my industry. Goyim will be just as mad at you when they know what markup you made on a particular thing.

Not in his industry either. He's fooling himself. It's just that we don't ever assume that anything we do is standard protocol. If he sent one of his clients a detailed receipt clearly saying $600 for ticket charge and $250 as a fee they would just as likely not be happy

[ilherman]

Well, I know plenty of TAs who deal with non Jews and as long as they know that they get a even better deal than their colleagues they are more than happy and they don't care that it was done with miles. They clearly know that it's done with miles.

Again, a normal person is happy when he gets a better deal than hiss friends and he does not care what the TA makes. (Unless he is a Frum Jew)

Think about real estate, when someone is buying a house for 300k and for some reason in one month the value of the house goes up to 1MM, will I be upset that the guy is making 700k? No. Im happy as long as a i get a good deal.

[Centro]

Well, I know plenty of TAs who deal with non Jews and as long as they know that they get a even better deal than their colleagues they are more than happy and they don't care that it was done with miles. They clearly know that it's done with miles.

Again, a normal person is happy when he gets a better deal than hiss friends and he does not care what the TA makes. (Unless he is a Frum Jew)

Think about real estate, when someone is buying a house for 300k and for some reason in one month the value of the house goes up to 1MM, will I be upset that the guy is making 700k? No. Im happy as long as a i get a good deal.

I actually know of a real estate deal which the buyer almost backed out cause he found out that the broker is making a nice amount on the deal.

[coralsnake]

I actually know of a real estate deal which the buyer almost backed out cause he found out that the broker is making a nice amount on the deal.

Thats pretty stupid because the brokers fees come out of the sellers end.

[Chaikel]

Thats pretty stupid because the brokers fees come out of the sellers end.

I don't think smart would ever be used to describe a person like that. More likely he was trying to bluff to get a better deal for himself

[alpicone]

Thats pretty stupid because the brokers fees come out of the sellers end.

Buyer always pays the broker... It comes out of his cash... The seller just authorized which broker the buyer will pay... If there was no broker involved the buyer would pay less.

[Phase IV]

A Tzedakah I'm involved with authorized a ticket purchase for an extenuating circumstance. The fellow said he can have his sister-in-law, who works for a travel agent, book the ticket for him.

I gave him a CC number and she booked a $660 ticket (billed by the airline)and added a $238 agent surcharge (billed by her company).

She claims that this is normal as this was a "student ticket". I can't imagine 35% is normal.

What are standard travel agent surcharges?

$238 may sound like an astronomical markup, but not necessarily is it so. Do you know what the flight availability was like? Very possibly the flight (as well as all other flights for that route and date) were fully booked or only had availability in the higher classes of service (which were very expensive). That TA may have used her pull/connections to confirm a lower class of service with her sales rep. Can you assess what the value of this favor is worth? If there's no one else who can confirm this rate, why can't she charge more? In this industry it's almost impossible to rip off a customer. Everyone can access the published fares online, and many loopholes like hidden city ticketing are public knowledge. If someone is not savvy enough to figure out how to do these things on their own then there's always a relative or friend who's in the know. It’s a tough industry. The average person will not use a TA if he’s selling him a published fare with even a slight markup of $20. When a TA does have a niche, why isn’t he entitled to make a bigger profit? As I explained the published fare is definitely a pricing barometer. No one is charging 899 for a ticket that is available online for 799. If a ticket is available on the web for 1200, and the TA can confirm it for 660, would 238 sound like such an unreasonable markup?

And just one more point to consider. This markup may be the combined profit of a few agencies.  The agent that you’re dealing with may have already paid $200 to the agency that confirmed the fare for her.  She may be making $50 on the deal. Understandably she may not want to share that with you and therefore cannot fully defend herself.

Disclaimer: I did not book this ticket and I have no idea who did. As a TA, I wanted to share the other side’s perspective.

[chff]

$238 may sound like an astronomical markup, but not necessarily is it so. Do you know what the flight availability was like? Very possibly the flight (as well as all other flights for that route and date) were fully booked or only had availability in the higher classes of service (which were very expensive). That TA may have used her pull/connections to confirm a lower class of service with her sales rep. Can you assess what the value of this favor is worth? If there's no one else who can confirm this rate, why can't she charge more? In this industry it's almost impossible to rip off a customer. Everyone can access the published fares online, and many loopholes like hidden city ticketing are public knowledge. If someone is not savvy enough to figure out how to do these things on their own then there's always a relative or friend who's in the know. It’s a tough industry. The average person will not use a TA if he’s selling him a published fare with even a slight markup of $20. When a TA does have a niche, why isn’t he entitled to make a bigger profit? As I explained the published fare is definitely a pricing barometer. No one is charging 899 for a ticket that is available online for 799. If a ticket is available on the web for 1200, and the TA can confirm it for 660, would 238 sound like such an unreasonable markup?

And just one more point to consider. This markup may be the combined profit of a few agencies.  The agent that you’re dealing with may have already paid $200 to the agency that confirmed the fare for her.  She may be making $50 on the deal. Understandably she may not want to share that with you and therefore cannot fully defend herself.

Disclaimer: I did not book this ticket and I have no idea who did. As a TA, I wanted to share the other side’s perspective.

Hello again!! Well said!!

[ah]

$238 may sound like an astronomical markup, but not necessarily is it so. Do you know what the flight availability was like? Very possibly the flight (as well as all other flights for that route and date) were fully booked or only had availability in the higher classes of service (which were very expensive). That TA may have used her pull/connections to confirm a lower class of service with her sales rep. Can you assess what the value of this favor is worth? If there's no one else who can confirm this rate, why can't she charge more? In this industry it's almost impossible to rip off a customer. Everyone can access the published fares online, and many loopholes like hidden city ticketing are public knowledge. If someone is not savvy enough to figure out how to do these things on their own then there's always a relative or friend who's in the know. It’s a tough industry. The average person will not use a TA if he’s selling him a published fare with even a slight markup of $20. When a TA does have a niche, why isn’t he entitled to make a bigger profit? As I explained the published fare is definitely a pricing barometer. No one is charging 899 for a ticket that is available online for 799. If a ticket is available on the web for 1200, and the TA can confirm it for 660, would 238 sound like such an unreasonable markup?

And just one more point to consider. This markup may be the combined profit of a few agencies.  The agent that you’re dealing with may have already paid $200 to the agency that confirmed the fare for her.  She may be making $50 on the deal. Understandably she may not want to share that with you and therefore cannot fully defend herself.

Disclaimer: I did not book this ticket and I have no idea who did. As a TA, I wanted to share the other side’s perspective.

+1