Lufthansa Group of airlines to charge 16,00 EUR booking fee for all reservations/tickets made through GDS
Earlier today ACTA was informed through our counterparts of the WTAAA that throughout Europe the Lufthansa Group of airlines have the intention of charging a 16,00 EUR booking fee as of September 2015 for all reservations/tickets made through GDS. It is understood that the fee will apply to all airlines of the Lufthansa Group including LH, LX, OS and SN. It will apply to all GDSs and in all European Markets and be applicable per ticket/PNR.
LH is suggesting that this new fee is a direct consequence of their increased GDS distribution costs. As an alternative the LH Group of airlines will offer a booking channel in the form of a B2B web-based service similar to "direct connect" used by American Airlines in the US.
It is unknown at this time if a B2B web based service may potentially operate as a GDS in future and it is unclear if the transactions processed through this B2B platform will be processed through the BSPs
ACTA has contacted Mr. Hans DeHaan directly on this topic to confirm the details and its future impact on Canadian distribution. We find it discouraging that the Lufthansa Group could not find other mechanisms to absorb the "distribution costs" of E16,00. By passing this cost on to the agent, or forcing them to use an alternate booking platform, will have major impact towards off-selling Lufthansa product. We simply do not understand why Lufthansa would make such a move to make things more difficult and expensive for the Travel Agency Community to sell Lufthansa. We will continue to monitor this story as more information becomes available and appreciate any comments that you may have.
Amadeus also commented on the topic and stated "LHG have chosen to go in a different direction by introducing charges that will penalise travellers based on the shopping channel they use. Travellers will either pay more for the same service or, in the case that travel agencies are forced to accept this new commercial strategy by modifying the way they access content just for LHG, there will be extra IT costs that may ultimately be passed on to the traveller, putting the travel agent, and/or the end consumer, at a disadvantage. Also, this new model will make comparison and transparency more difficult because travellers will now be forced to go to multiple channels to search for the best fares. Ultimately, the industry overall stands to lose from this distribution model."
Sincerely,
David McCaig, President and COO | ACTA
