ACTA deplored Northwest Airlines’ announcement that, effective September 1, it will share part of its GDS expense…
ACTA deplored Northwest Airlines’ announcement that, effective September 1, it will share part of its GDS expense with travel agencies by charging CA$4.75 for one-way tickets and CA$9.50 for roundtrip tickets when bookings are made with the GDS. In addition, effective August 27, 2004, Northwest will charge consumers a $5.00 fee for bookings made through its call centres and a CA$13.00 fee for each ticket purchased at an airport ticket office.
This announcement clearly indicates that Northwest wants to compel agents to book on its Web site. Not only will it result in higher costs for consumers and travel agents, but it will also significantly reduce agencies’ efficiency.
Furthermore, Northwest states it “will offer consumers and travel agents options that allow them to choose the level of service they desire when purchasing or issuing tickets for travel.” In point of fact, this is far from the case for Canadian agencies since they cannot use the U.S. Web site and are therefore being forced to book through the GDS and to pay the GDS fee, which in ACTA’s opinion is grossly unfair to Canadian agencies.
ACTA has tried, thus far without success, to obtain from Northwest information as to when Canadian agencies will be able to access the airline’s Web site in order at least to have a real choice of booking channel. ACTA will keep its members apprised as soon as information is received from Northwest.
“With the new deregulation, ACTA thought a certain level of peace would be attained between GDS and the airlines. From what we see today going on between Northwest and Sabre, that does not seem to be the case,” commented Marc-Andre Charlebois, President and CEO of the Association of Canadian Travel Agencies (ACTA).
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
