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Fellow Travel Agents, I have been bombarded with requests for direction, help, leadership, suggestions, ideas, anything from dozens and dozens of travel agents all over America, some of whom marched on Washington last October and many of whom did not. Lots of you are literally frozen in place wondering which way to turn. Some have already thrown in the towel. And many are suggesting some action designed to thwart the actions of the airlines in eliminating commissions to travel agents. I believe that for the moment, we all had better 'take care of business', our individual businesses, and that begins with taking care of our customers first. For without them, we do not have a business. So I am providing a positive approach to solving not your problem of lost commission, but your customers' problem of not having access to all the fares through you, their travel agent. By only offering published fares and not web fares also, we have helped drive many of our customers to the web and away from us. So I suggest that by solving our customers' problem, we will have a great chance at solving our own problem of lost revenue. That's how the marketplace works. No one wants to hear about your problems or mine. They only want to hear about new solutions you and I have for their problems. And often they will pay for our solutions. And speaking of solutions, the new fare search service I mention in the following letter can be augmented with new software that is now available to travel agents. It isn't free, but is worth considering. I will have more information on some of these options later. One such program can be researched at www.agentware.net. So here goes. Let me know what you think. I know it ignores all the emotion and rage that is dominating our industry right now. But folks, we've got to pull ourselves together and take control of our own destiny. And by doing so, we just might regain control of the entire blessed retail function of being the primary intermediary between the airlines and consumers once again, something the airlines certainly don't want and never anticipated we could ever accomplish again. So take a deep breath and give serious consideration to what I am presenting. I will have more to say regarding CRS contracts and other important issues soon. Hang in there, and take control. Try to see how the reins of your destiny and mine have actually been released by the airlines. It's up to you and me to take hold of new opportunities they have created. And oh yes, we will try to get a hearing, and oh yes, we will still push the DOT to place web fares in our CRS's. But for now, we've got to take care of business!!! God Bless!!! Lawton Roberts Founder, Travel Agents of America www.TravelAgentsOfAmerica.com Lawton@AlaskaTravelExperts.com Owner, Uniglobe Country Place Travel Lawrenceville, GA |
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Date: March 20, 2002 To: The Customers of XYZ Travel Subject: New Array of Airfares Now Available Through XYZ Travel NEW SERVICE OFFERING: Effective immediately, XYZ Travel will be offering non-published web fares in addition to traditional published airfares to both our corporate and leisure customers. Web fares were previously available to travelers exclusively on various consumer Internet websites, and were usually not included among the various airfare options offered by travel agents to their clients. This was because some web fares were not offered by the airlines to travel agents as a part of the traditional travel agent database of published airfares. However, our agency will now search for the lowest airfare from among numerous airfare websites and compare the lowest fares from these websites with our travel agent database of published airfares. This new service of XYZ Travel is the result of a fundamental change in the traditional relationship between airlines and travel agencies that you may have read about recently. And once again, marketplace forces driven by consumer needs have created a solution to a consumer problem, the need to have all airfares available to consumers through one centralized source, your professional travel agent. This allows consumers to bypass the airline strategy of having flexible published airfares available to consumers only through travel agencies while having inflexible non-published but sometimes lower web fares available to consumers only from the airlines websites. Now once again, all airfares are available to you from one source, your professional XYZ travel agent. WHERE ARE THE LOWEST FARES: Recent comparisons of airfares between traditional travel agent published airfares and non-published web fares reveals that the lowest airfare for business travelers is usually (BUT NOT ALWAYS) found on traditional travel agent databases, while the lowest airfare for leisure travelers able to travel over a weekend is usually (BUT NOT ALWAYS) found on web fare databases, both of which our travel agents will now offer to you. Recent fare research has also identified cases whereby midweek business fares can sometimes be lower on the Internet and leisure fares can sometimes be lower in published fare databases. Therefore, having access to only one source of fares, either from an airline website or from a travel agent’s published fares database, is no longer an assurance that you have access to the lowest fare. Having access to all sources of airfares, both traditional published fares and web fares, is now absolutely essential to ensure that you have been offered the truly lowest fare. LOWER WEB FARES MAY MEAN HIGHER AIRLINE RESTRICTIONS: While a wider array of airfares will now be available through XYZ Travel, it is important to note that a wider array of inflexible restrictions are usually imposed by the airlines on web fares. Although XYZ travel agents will be offering our corporate customers the occasional option of a lower non-published web fare whenever it exists, it will not be without the airline restrictions on such fares that virtually eliminate most options for changes or refunds to such fares. Each traveler will have to carefully weigh the potential benefits of a lower inflexible web fare against the severe and sometimes-costly restrictions such fares carry. However, in today’s challenging economic times, our agency realizes the importance of offering all fare options to our customers, including inflexible web fares. CUSTOMER BENEFITS OF THE NEW SERVICE OFFERING: A separate schedule of XYZ Travel’s professional service fees is available that emphasizes the average corporate and leisure traveler’s nominal investment in this new all-inclusive fare search capability. Our new fare search option will create an immediate return on investment for our customers in both time saved from laborious searches over numerous internet websites as well as actual dollar savings from having both published and non-published airfares available from one source, your professional travel agent. Now, you will be able to select from both the lowest inflexible web fare as well as the lowest flexible airfare. Having all fare options presented will result in savings to you that should far exceed your investment in professional fees with XYZ Travel. THE VALUE OF YOUR TRAVEL AGENT: Consumers have known throughout the history of commercial aviation that limiting their airfare search capability to any one airline’s reservation agents or website is not in their best interests. And now, consumers can be assured that the business of searching for the lowest airfare is being minded with the assistance of a professional travel agent who has access to all fares, including traditional published fares, consolidator fares, and now web fares. And when combined with new fare search technology, your professional XYZ Travel Agent who knows far better than airline reservationists or consumers how to employ such legitimate fare calculation tools as ‘breaking the fare’ is now equipped better than ever to serve your best interests in the very complicated, consumer-unfriendly world of airline travel. For further details concerning this valuable new service offering, please contact XYZ Travel. Sincerely, President, XYZ Travel |