Travel Agents are not happy with the Consumer Protection from DOT.
Full disclosure: While most travel agents don’t mind Southwest Airlines, we seldom book them.
While in 2007 Southwest was the last major carrier to eliminate basic travel agent commissions, they have now pivoted to becoming not only unhelpful, but mostly punitive in dealing with agency bookings, with penalties for the slighest violation. (For a major example, when a Southwest reservation was held for a client for 24 hours and 30 minutes and then canceled, it resulted in a $100 per person booking fee.)
Travel Agents/Advisors had no power to deal with the Southwest Airlines meltdown last winter.
Most travel agents I know just suggest to clients they book Southwest online, and it works out fine. But last year, when Southwest melted down during the holidays, there wasn’t anything we could do except offer other airline alternatives.
Now the DOT is imposing major fines on Southwest, and they may have worked out a deal where the airline gives travelers transferable vouchers for $75 for delays. https://thehill.com/policy/transportation/4365459-passengers-could-get-75-for-delays-under-southwest-settlement.
Again, fine. But in a press conference today, Secretary Pete Buttigieg talked about the vouchers and said he hoped competitive pressure might cause other airlines to follow suit. By giving travelers a small but meaningful future credit for every delay, what could go wrong?
Well, except without a serious tweak, which the airlines ARE capable of but may not on their own be inclined to do, such a program could cause serious harm to the travel agency community.
Often, airline vouchers cannot be redeemed through most travel agent systems.
Here’s the catch: Historically there have been vouchers that travel agents could use as partial payment, but these days, almost every discount voucher or credit MUST be used by booking with the airline directly, either by phone or online. Even when an agent travels and has a customer service issue and gets a voucher, they can’t be redeemed through our agency system.
It’s been maddening for years, because most of us in the industry have horror stories of spending hours, even days, when a client has a serious issue that is neither ours nor the client’s mistake, but some airline problem, and then the airline compensates them with a voucher that we cannot use towards their next trip. (And airline sales executives tell me they sympathize, but it’s not a priority.)
Fortunately, these cases are somewhat rare, but if major airlines follow Southwest’s potential lead and hand out vouchers like candy when they have, say, an hour delay, and if those vouchers are still only usable on airline websites and call centers, then it will force many, many travelers — even those who usually use an agent — to book direct, when travel agents can’t help with a future problem, as our help desks only help with agency tickets.
Travel agents/advisors are still important distributors of tickets.
And for anyone who asks are there still travel agents… Not only did travel agents book almost $7 billion in air tickets just in November 2023, (https://finance.yahoo.com/news/november-u-travel-agency-air-153000536.html), but also as of last May, over 53,000 Americans were employed as travel agents (https://www.statista.com/statistics/917069/number-of-travel-agents-us/). This number is rebounding from a big COVID drop and my sense is that the number is rising again, as many — if not most — agencies are hiring.
In addition, every time the airlines have a bad day, whether it’s strikes or weather or computer issues, they depend on travel advisors to bail out their travelers. (As a United frequent flier myself, I laugh when I hear the “We are experiencing higher than normal call volume — if you booked your travel through a travel agent, please contact them for assistance.”)
DOT could require airlines issue unique codes for travel agent/advisor use.
Again, it is technically possible for airlines, if they decide to compete with Southwest in the future discount apology model. They can make such discount vouchers usable by travel agents — both OTAs (online travel agents) and brick and mortar agents — even if many human agents now work remotely. But it will take at least some work for them to come up with a system where a unique code could be used one time for a travel agent to issue a ticket.
Airlines cut our basic commissions, but sometimes contract with larger agencies for commissions and discounts. Then, at the same time, they push travelers to book direct and then need us to fix their problems, and when their planes aren’t full, for any reason, they want us to recommend their flights and send them business.
Travel agents keep the system honest.
The DOT, however, even if they don’t talk about it, also has a strong incentive to keep travel agents/advsors in business. We are not only the problem solvers when things go wrong, but we are the guides and guardians who help travelers find their way through the fare and rule mazes to keep airlines competitive and honest.
Here’s hoping Secretary Pete and the DOT look out for consumer guardians while they are looking out for consumers.
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Janice Hough is a California-based travel agent a travel blogger and a part-time comedy writer. A frequent flier herself, she’s been doing battle with airlines, hotels, and other travel companies for over three decades. Besides writing for Travelers United, Janice has a humor blog at Leftcoastsportsbabe.com (Warning, the political and sports humor therein does not represent the views of anyone but herself.)
