You are absolutely correct that all businesses should be up front about their fees and charges. It is the travel agencies though who have been screwed by the airlines, though. For years airlines paid travel agencies a commission of 10% of ervy domestic ticket (tax not included) and 8% of every int'l ticket as a commission. They woul deven regualrly send around sales representative sto the agencies to encourage the travel agents to book a particular carrier. Then they cut the domestic commissions to 8%, the they limited them to $50 RT or $25 one way, then 5% and now nothing. A few airlines and Amtrak still pay commissions on many tickets, but the majority do not. As a result. many agencies now use fees to cover their costs. They may still get the $1 off their computer service (apollo, Sabre, Worldspan etc) for each booking but they cannot survive on that. The fact that without agencies the lines at the airport would go out to the street i slost upon the airlines. There ar emany ou tthere who require travel professionals to assist them with travel planning. Thus, as lon gas the agency is honest and up front about any fees, I think they are being fair. Of course, there are good and bad travel agents out there. Stations could give you more options in this respect.
ยทยทยท
From: Elliott Shapiro <elliotts@joimail.com>
Reply-To: vpFREE@yahoogroups.com
To: vpfree@yahoogroups.com, vp-mail@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [vpFREE] Stations travel rewards
Date: Fri, 04 Jul 2003 09:09:38 -0700For Las Vegas locals, who are Platinum or President, travel benefits
are available from Prestige travel.
Platinum pays 1200 points per dollar, President pays 1000 points per
dollar and Fiesta members pay 1400 points per dollar.In Sundays newspaper, an ad by Prestige showed an airfare to London at
$519. This fare is totally fictitious. It is the fare that is
available ONLY in the lowest season and then only with very limited
availabilty.Therefore Prestige ads are misleading and incorrect.
They also charge $25 to uissue any ticket but $50 for an international
ticket.For those of you who want to travel, I would suggest that you write to
Stations asking to be allowed to use a more reputable travel agency,
one that does not gouge you with fees and one that advertises
honestly.
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