[net.consumers] Air Travel

shaprkg@sdcrdcf.UUCP (Bob Shapiro) (12/01/84)

	I told at least 2 people in net-mail that I did not wish to write
directly to the net concerning this subject but I am afraid that my cup of
anguish runneth over so I hope they will forgive me.

	My wife and I have owned a small retail travel agency for the last
seven years. (she runs it and I put the bread on the table from my computer
income).  I would like to respond to the discussion of "discount airlines"
and the use of a travel agent.

	One could divide airlines in the United States into five categories.
Luxury, large standard, small standard, commuter, and discount. Each serves a
purpose, each has a market, and I will try to describe it to you.

	 Luxury Airline:  The only one I know is Regent Air. It is for the
person who has an unlimited budget and wants to be pampered to death. They
have fabulous food, limo service right to your house, computers on board for
your use, and you can even get a haircut and your nails done. All for a price
of almost twice that of their nearest competitors first class fare.  I guess
if you are a movie star or the president of a major company and the Lear jet
is tied up then it is just what you want.

	 Large Standard Airline:  Examples would be TWA, United, American.
These airlines provide comparible service. I know that some of you have had
a very good or very bad experience on any one of them but in balance my
experience is that they are reasonably similar in performance. These airlines
provide a very important function called inter-lining.  You may buy a ticket
which has a joint fare for more than 1 airline on the routing. Thus it may be
no more expensive to change airlines than to stick with a single airline and
in a few isolated cases may even be cheaper. These airlines will let you
write a single ticket which contains other airline legs and will at no cost
to you automatically transfer your baggage to other airlines.

	Small Standard Airline: Examples would be Piedmont, PSA, Air Cal.
There is no difference between these airlines and the large standard airline
other than the size of the airline and its route structure. All of the
inter-lining rules apply and the service is usually comparable. One slight
difference is that the small airlines tend not to use wide-bodies while the
larger ones do. A few of the small airlines even have exceptional service.
Alaska Air is my best example.

	Commuter Airlines: Examples would be Imperial Airlines, Air Midwest,
Gull Air. These airlines are almost always non-jet and serve the smaller
cities. They are not necessarily inexpensive. Almost all of them have
inter-lining agreements with the small standard and large standard airlines.
Their service has a large range but usually it matters not because when you
are using one of these airlines you rarely have another choice. One problem
you should concern yourself about is that a large number of these airlines
have gone under financially. Be careful when you purchase tickets.

	Discount Airlines: Examples would be Southwest, People's Express,
Tower, and recently Continental. These airlines offer lower fares and in
almost all cases inferior service. They are the typical example of "You get
what you pay for". They have a definite place in the marketplace but are
usually misunderstood by the travelling public. Many travellers expect to get
the same service that they got from standard airlines from the discount
airlines. This does not even make sense. That is exactly why the discount
airlines are able to give you the cheaper prices. Therefore you get no
inter-lining, you may not get any food, you may have to pay extra for your
baggage, and the seats are usually more crowded. Some of these airlines -
notably Southwest are a pretty good bargain. BUT!!!  Almost all of these
airlines have inferior computer systems resulting in lost reservations. Many
of them are in touchy financial condition. Few of them have any back-up if
problems arise . e.g. If a mechanical problem arises they may not have a
back-up plane or an agreement with another airline to carry you.
	Before I leave the subject of discount airlines I would like to point
out that just because an airline calls itself a discount airline does not
necessarily mean it has the cheapest fare. One of the phenomenons I have seen
over and over again is that when a discount airline enters a market the
standard airlines reduce or even undercut the discount airline. Thus you can
get standard service at discount prices. This is one of the reasons so many
discount airlines go under.  Also most standard airlines give large financial
rewards to people who will book their reservations early. In many cases you
do not even have to buy a ticket - merely get your reservation in. Examples
of these would be the Q M L and K class fares. Typically they are exactly
the same service and restrictions as a straight Y fare. What the airline does
is allocate a portion of the economy area of the airplane (say about 35%) to
the discount class. The first people who book get those seats. After that
the price goes up.  You may end up sitting next to a person who paid twice
as much for their ticket as you. Therefore procrastinators get screwed when
they buy airline tickets. I guess I should also add that agents get the same
commission rates from discount airlines that they do from others so all things
being equal there is no incentive to either sell or not sell discount
airlines.

	Now for my favorite subject. I have seen several people mention that
they either book directly with the airlines and in one case a person felt
that it was disadvantageous to use a travel agent. Since I obviously am very
biased on the subject let me vent my spleen.

	Now you may not be one of them but surveys taken have shown that the
majority of people in the United States think that it costs more to buy a
ticket from a travel agent than from the airline direct. In almost all cases
this is not true. (There are a few obscure fares almost always related to
stand-by situations which are sold only by the airlines).  Let me assure
anyone who thought this was the case that it simply isn't true. If you are
wondering how travel agents get paid - they get a percentage of the ticket
that they sell from the airlines. Why do the airlines do that - well once
again surveys have shown that it costs the airlines more to sell a ticket in
their city offices than it does to pay the travel agent. After all the agent
spends time with the client discussing all of the alternatives, performs all
of the paper work, guarantees the form of payment, and then does any refunds
free of charge. In many cases after discussing travel plans with an agent
or airline people decide not to buy. That costs money too. Finally the agent
is usually locally located and has hours of business which are usually more
convenient than an airline city office.
	One of the criticisms of agents on this net is that they are not very
competent.  I think that if you are unable to find a competent agent than that
is a reflection on you. Finding one is no different than finding any other
professional like a doctor, dentist, lawyer, accountant, programmer, rug
cleaner, house painter, car mechanic, etc. But just like a good car mechanic,
when you find one you have it made.  No more hours on the phone listening to
music while you are on hold, no more phoning half a dozen airlines trying to
find the best fare, no more borrowing the pocket airline guide from the guy
next door and missing the fact that by using a connection you could have gone
at a more convenient time, and when things go wrong you have someone to
champion your cause without any expense or time.
	Because of the complicated fare and route structures due to the
deregulated environment it takes a lot of tools and a lot of research to
optimize even the simplest trip. Most agencies have modern computer systems
linked directly to the airlines, up-to-date periodicals such as the OAG and
Airline Tariff, and are in constant touch with the traveling public to be
able to spot service deficiencies or bonuses.  You should watch out for
specialists. Agencies which specialize in corporate travel probably won't
do as well for you as one that specializes in vacation travel. The same
principle tends to hold true for agencies which specialize in an ethnic
market or specialize in large groups. (Unless you happen to fit into their
specialty.) We make it a policy in out agency not to get into areas which
we don't understand well. I am not prepared to handle General Motors corporate
account or move 20 people on an elephant safari in Sri Lanka.

	What do you get when you call the airlines? Well first of all, all
airline computer displays are extremely biased towards the airline you call.
As an Eastern agent told me once when I pointed out that Pan Am might have
cheaper space. "I don't work for Pan Am".  But more importantly the airlines
usually have several grades of people. Their least experienced people because
of the seniority system are the ones who work the swing and graveyard shifts
and deal directly with the public. The next level because of their seniority
get the day shift (but you frequently don't get to talk to them as that is
when you are at work also). The next level is on what is called the "agency
desk". Some airlines have a special telephone number given only to travel
agents and manned by experienced people. (After all it is a professional
talking to a professional). The conversations tend to be short and sweet and
the travel agent is expected to have done a lot of homework before calling.
The next level is the rate desk. This set of people are the experts at the
airlines in technical fare problems. They resolve all problems and also
compute very complex fares.  The public is almost never allowed to talk to
them and agents must show need-to-know. Normally when you are talking to a
rate desk person of an airline you are getting expert opinion from someone
who has been around for a long time. Very rarely is it wrong.  Finally
somewhere are the supervisors. The reason for this long-winded tutorial is to
show you that as the public you are normally talking to the weakest people in
the reservation staff of the airline. Obviously the chances for error are
higher.

	Finally, what else can a competent agent do for you? Well in this
day and age of constantly changing fares the agent can monitor the booking
and ticket you when it goes up. The airline can also advise you that the
fare is going up but only at booking time. They may not know then and unless
you call back constantly you will never know. Typically the airline will tell
you to have the ticket written immediately to guarantee the fare but if you
make your reservations in February for Christmas (as some of our clients have
learned to do) then you may not want to loan the money to the airline for
that length of time.  Fares go down as well as going up. I have never known
of a case when an airline called someone back to bring back their ticket in
order to take advantage of a fare decrease. Why do we do it? First of all it
doesn't even cost us a lot. The airlines protect our commission on the higher
fare but I love to call up customers and tell them to bring back their tickets
to be rewritten at a lower fare. If it never happened before they tell all of
their friends and neighbors about it and what a cheap form of advertising
that is.  As I pointed out some airlines are not in as good financial shape
as others.  We try to keep close tabs on this situation and try to advise our
clients accordingly. You can fly on a financially-suspect airline in certain
cases at little risk but the circumstances must be right and in certain cases
it is downright suicidal. I can brag by saying that no customer of ours has
ever lost a cent because an airline went under. Don't underestimate the
advantage of the agent as an ombudsman. If you have lost luggage, been forced
to pay a higher fare because of a missed connection, bumped from a flight
because of overbooking, or perhaps denied a no-smoking seat because the
airline said they were all sold out then the agent can go to bat for you. We
have got anything from a simple letter of apology to total reimbursement of
the entire cost of the trip for clients who have been mis-treated by airlines.

   I hope I have made my point. Those of you who are not using agents are
cheating yourselves.  The point of the above tutorial is to improve the
public's understanding of a very misunderstood profession and not to solicit
business for yours truly. That is what the first paragraph is all about.


			Bob Shapiro