Q – Thank you! Amazing how much of the “travel truth” escapes media interest given the huge ad spending stats from the industry. My wife and I are in our early forties and we are waiting to travel internationally until we get a bit closer to retirement age. We do most of our own planning, not because we think we are saving money but, rather, because we enjoy the planning part of every domestic journey.
We have taken your advice regarding securing rebates of the built in travel agent commission when we book hotels. We have had only moderate success but it has been fun trying and watching them defend charging us the travel agent commission when we never worked with a travel agent.
But the fun aspect does not apply to the airlines. Our demands for a commission rebate have fallen on deaf and sometimes “rude” ears. Are we missing something?
A – We admire your tenacity in the light of truth but the airlines are a dead end street when it comes to getting the commission returned to you. The reason is simple – they stopped including the travel agent commission in ticket pricing more than a decade ago. That is why almost all travel agents have to charge ticket fees for the processing of airline tickets. The larger agencies do negotiate override commission deals but the consumer really is not entitled to any commission rebate on air tickets because it is not, as it is with hotels, cruises, and tours, baked into the final pricing.
