The bastards are at it again. A rumor is circulating in the travel community which has the hideous ring of truth to it: the airlines are planning on cutting our commission in half to 4 percent. I will bet you anything you like that this happens within six months. I told you they don't want us to sell their tickets for them. They're throwing out the baby with the bathwater, and the traveling public is going to suffer for it.
First the airlines capped commissions. Then they cut them from 10 percent to 8 percent -- still capped at $50 per ticket, too. How would your company cope with a 20 percent cut, along with being told they could only ever earn X amount of dollars on a sale? All of mine have bent over backwards and eaten a lot of earnings in order to stay in business and offer the experience and services clients take for granted. But no one can make a profit on 4 percent commission, even with fees. Vast numbers of agencies will close, and there goes my career as well. It makes me feel bitter, angry, and victimized. But I'm a realist. It's all about how much money the airlines can make. And when the airlines control all of their ticket stock again, and the public has to cope with the poor service attendant on understaffed, overworked reservation centers, and they have to book everything on the Internet or phone the cruise lines and tour companies themselves because the agencies that used to offer those services had to close their doors, then the public will look back on the Good Old Days and wonder what happened.
Greed happened. Enjoy it. It's the future of travel.
