It’s no secret that the U.S. government wastes huge amounts of money on airfare, and that waste has been institutionalized. So it’s hardly a surprise that Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul has done the same, as an Associated Press story pointed out yesterday.
The reason for the story was the apparent discrepancy between Paul’s crusade against excessive government spending and his own spending. But while he did waste taxpayers’ money, he didn’t break any rules. So perhaps it’s time for the rules to change.
Government employees are usually required to buy full-fare tickets — meaning Y or B booking class — when traveling on business. The main reason for that is to have the flexibility to change and cancel those tickets for free.
Because of the massive amount of business the federal government gives the airlines, they provide it with special fares, which still carry the Y and B codes but are much cheaper than the regular published Y and B fares. For instance, the discount on a round-trip coach ticket to Europe can be over $2,500. I gave a specific example in a column last July.
However, those special fares are still much more expensive than the lowest published fares, which of course come with penalties for changes and cancellations — and while most of them are non-refundable, one can almost always use the amount paid, minus the change fee, for a future ticket.
I would guess that buying regular non-special fares and paying the penalty if necessary would be much cheaper than purchasing full-fare tickets. History shows that changes are not made too frequently.
There is another source of waste. Although the government fares are free to change and cancel, that “free” applies only to the airlines, meaning there are no airline-imposed penalties. Booking government travel is handled by large travel agencies, which charge as much as $90 per transaction — every time one of their agents touches a ticket to issue, change or cancel it.
First and Business Class tickets are usually allowed only on very long intercontinental flights, though each government agency can set its own policy. The rules are often bent for top management, and members of Congress certainly fall in that category.
The AP story said that Paul flew in paid First Class dozens of times since May 2009 on Continental flights between Washington and his Texas district. In addition, even when his office bough coach tickets, he often got upgraded, because Continental offers instant upgrades on Y and B fares, depending on availability.
So while it may be more prudent for Paul to put his money where his mouth is, the much bigger question is whether the current rules for government air travel need a fresh look.
In fact, any government agency could probably save millions if it used the Kralev Method from “Decoding Air Travel.” Pardon the shameless plug, but I’d be happy to teach them.
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How do you know that an airline agent is trying to charge you much more than necessary to change a ticket? Two agents attempted that on me just yesterday, but they quickly realized they were messing with the wrong guy and retreated from their positions. The difference was thousands of dollars.
In my book, I explain why it helps to know what exactly you want before calling an airline, and more importantly, to know the outcome of an agent’s actions. I never trust agents to tell me how much I need to pay for anything — I call them simply to accomplish something I can’t do online.
A couple of months ago, I issued a Business Class ticket for a client who flew the outbound portion but had to cancel the return. I called the airline to take him off that flight and said I wasn’t ready to rebook yet but would call back when I was. The agent said, fine, call us then.
That’s what I did yesterday, but the agent I got was told by the rate desk that the new flight had to be booked at the same time the original segment was canceled — in other words, it was too late. That was the biggest claptrap I’d heard in a long time, so I hung up. After all, what was the alternative? Buying a new ticket?
I immediately called again to speak to another agent, but in the one minute that took, the first agent had managed to notate the record that changes weren’t allowed. As calm as I try to stay with reservations on the phone, spiteful agents like that one annoy me hugely. Naturally, I asked for a supervisor to make my case that the rate-desk person was wrong.
First, even if the change had to be made at the same time as the original cancellation, I should have been informed of that when I made the cancellation, if that would leave the ticket with no value — not when it was too late.
Second, the fare rules said the following: “Original reservations are cancelled prior to the original scheduled flight and the new intended travel is scheduled.” If the authors of that sentence meant that both actions had to be completed at the same time, they would have put “and the new intended travel is scheduled” before the words “prior to the original scheduled flight.” In that case, both actions would have been covered by “prior to…” — as I understand it here, the first action does need to take place “prior to…,” but not the second.
The supervisor didn’t even argue with me. She deleted the spiteful notes and authorized the change.
But the rate desk’s shenanigans were far from over. The original Z booking class wasn’t eligible for an upgrade to First Class, which was available on the new flight and my client wanted it, so he had to buy up to the higher D class. I’d looked at the airline’s tariff and determined that the difference in fare would be about $1,000.
However, the rate desk wanted to charge $4,000. Customers don’t have access to the rate desk, so I had to reason with a reservation agent. I pointed out what I’d seen on the tariff and explained that the rate desk wanted to charge a one-way D fare, but this was a round-trip ticket, and they should be charing half of the lower round-trip D fare.
The agent suggested that perhaps the lower D fare was not combinable with the Z fare on the already flown outbound flight. I had an answer to that, too: The last three letters of both fare-basis codes were the same, so they were indeed combinable. I could also prove that by booking a new reservation in Z class on the outbound and D class on the return.
She went back to the rate desk and quickly returned with the news that I was right and the fare difference would be about $1,000.
Was this incompetence or did they try to take me for a ride? I don’t know — what I do know is that something that should have taken 10 minutes took instead more than an hour to accomplish.
So make sure you do your homework and don’t trust agents, even if they tell you that they have 20 years of experience.
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Volunteering to get bumped from a flight is an issue often raised by participants in the events on my book tour. As is the case with most situations I discuss in “Decoding Air Travel,” I advice travelers to think carefully before giving up their seat and examine the alternative ways to get to their destination — and to know exactly what they would get in exchange.
U.S. airlines, which overbook flights all the time, offer discount vouchers valued at as much as $400 for bumps on domestic flights, and up to $800 on international flights. Those certificates are very tempting and can save you lots of money. In fact, many travelers take certain trips only because they have vouchers to use.
However, unless you are familiar with alternative flights that will get you to your destination, you may be asking for trouble.
I’ve never volunteered to get bumped. Comfort and convenience are very important to me during travel, so I’m unlikely to give up a Business or First Class seat for Economy.
I was prepared to relinquish my seat on a flight for the first time late last month, and even put my name on the list, but then I removed it. I was to fly nonstop from Denver (DEN) to Milwaukee (MKE) on a coach-only Canadair regional aircraft, and I could afford to arrive in MKE as much as four hours later than scheduled. I also knew my flight was oversold.
During online check-in the day before the flight, I was asked whether I’d give up my seat if it were needed, and I said yes. Later that night, however, I decided to take a look at my options. The only other nonstop flight to MKE was not until 8 p.m., which was too late for me, so I’d have to connect in Chicago (ORD). I checked out the DEN-ORD flights — there were two I could take, but one was sold out, and on the other one I would be stuck in a middle coach seat.
As soon as I got to the airport in the morning, I asked to be taken off the volunteer list.
Had I stayed on the list, I would have negotiated with the gate agent exactly what I would have received for diving up my seat, on which alternate flight I would have been rebooked, and whether I would have sat in Economy or First Class.
Even though most U.S. carriers are moving toward the discount-voucher approach, some agents might still try to give you “a free round trip anywhere in the United States.” Before you accept it, keep in mind that those certificates come with many restrictions, such as advance purchase and minimum-stay requirements. They must be booked in a certain coach booking class, which may not be available on the flights you want. In addition, you won’t earn any frequent-flier miles on that trip, and it cannot be upgraded.
A discount voucher, on the other hand, is just that — it will take $400 or more off a future ticket for you or someone else designated by you. Any restrictions depend on the rules of the fare you purchase, and any published fare is eligible. You will earn miles, including elite-qualifying ones, and you can upgrade your ticket.
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When was the last time you used a travel agent? I asked that question in my book “Decoding Air Travel.” Last month, President Obama asked it, too, and the American Society of Travel Agents speedily protested. So let’s examine the modern — or perhaps not modern enough — travel-agency system and the value it brings.
Many young people don’t even remember the time when using a travel agent was the only practical way to book a trip. While many consumers today book their own travel, using travel agencies is still quite prevalent in the corporate world.
However, many business travelers I know are unhappy with their company’s travel agency. It’s clear the current system isn’t working well anymore for a variety of reasons. Without taking sides, let’s look at those reasons from the perspective of travel agencies and their customers.
If you are a traveler — for work or pleasure — you probably have at least one of the following problems with travel agents:
• They don’t always offer you the lowest fares or best itineraries;
• They only book tickets and leave the rest to you;
• They know little, if anything, about frequent-flier programs, elite status, miles and upgrades;
• They are not familiar with on-board products and don’t know which airlines have flat beds in Business Class;
• They don’t travel frequently, if at all, but sit in an office and rely on computers to tell them what to do;
• They are inflexible when schedule changes affect your tickets;
• They don’t take care of all your travel needs.
As the air travel system has become more complex and customer-unfriendly in recent years, the needs of the modern traveler have grown and diversified enormously. The traditional travel agency model has so far survived the Internet threat, but its relevance has diminished significantly, because it hasn’t caught up with the changes in travelers’ needs and demands.
Booking a ticket is no longer even close to enough. You have to be able to compare fares and products of different airlines and alliances, and to offer your customers the options that provide the best combination of price, comfort, convenience, maximizing frequent-flier miles, progress toward elite status, best upgrade opportunities and the most effective use of elite benefits.
For this to happen, you need a wealth of knowledge, which most travel agents don’t have. For example, you need to know what booking classes are eligible for upgrades and which don’t earn miles. It’s certainly unreasonable to expect one person to be familiar with each airline’s requirements, but there are ways to deal with that — an agency can have employees or teams specializing in the different alliances or groups of carriers.
Probably the two most important and consequential weaknesses of the agency model are its use of limited data and booking sources — often just one Global Distribution System (GDS) — and its almost exclusive reliance on automated systems to do all the work.
If you’ve read my book, you already know more than the average travel agent — and you realize why those two weaknesses result in millions of customers paying much more than they could be. Automation is no doubt vital for the travel-booking process, but given the intricacies of airfares and the tricks airlines have adopted to “maximize revenues,” sometimes we need to rely more on our brains than on machines.
One other thing to keep in mind when dealing with a travel agency is whether it has contracts with specific airlines. Airline commissions were discontinued years ago, but large agencies still have contracts. How does that affect you? The purpose of those contracts, of course, is to encourage agencies to send more business to the respective carrier. If your agency receives its biggest commission from American Airlines, it might book you on American even if Delta has a lower fare.
Now let’s look at the above-described picture from a travel agency’s perspective. Most agencies don’t have the pull of American Express and Carlson Wagonlit, and they don’t receive airline commissions. They do get GDS kickbacks, as well as transaction fees for provided services directly from clients — about $35 on average, though some charge as much as $90.
For what you pay them, they have decided that it’s not worth more than several minutes of an agent’s time to work on booking you a ticket. Then how do you expect them to do more than letting the computer do all the work? Would you pay them more to take care of your upgrade and other needs? I suppose it depends on whether you trust that agent to do a good job. There is no point in paying for something that you later have to fix yourself.
So what’s the solution? Should everyone stop using travel agencies? Of course not — they do have a place in the travel industry. Many companies simply can’t handle their travel volume without outside professional help. At the same time, the gap between agency services and travelers’ needs keeps widening.
One solution could be for agencies to have teams dedicated to high-end, high-demand executives, who are willing to pay more for additional services. Some large agencies already have such teams, but their tasks usually don’t include creative ways to save on airfare or any of the frequent-flier services described above.
There is another solution, which was suggested to me by — ironically — travel agency owners last year. They shared my observation about the gap between what they do and what their clients want, and urged me to bridge it. How? First, by educating their clients in seminars and private training how to do for themselves what the agencies don’t offer. Clients who don’t have the time or patience to learn can ask me to provide those additional services to them.
So to bridge that gap, I started my company, Kralev International LLC. As one of my clients says, we can do your homework if you don’t have time to do it yourself.
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Flying Blue, the frequent-flier program of Air France/KLM, has banned customer service agents from revealing the codes the airlines use when booking awards or upgrades. If you ask them, they will tell you it’s none of your business. Is this misplaced paranoia or do carriers have the right to keep that information secret?
For smart and sophisticated travelers, the importance of having access to raw airline data cannot be overstated. Benefiting from that access has changed my travel life — it has ensured that I always pay the lowest possible fares and fly in comfort and luxury at the same time. Booking codes, of course, use letters of the alphabet.
Earlier this month, I needed to verify the codes Air France and KLM use for awards and upgrades for my upcoming book, because Flying Blue is making some changes beginning June 1. So I called the Flying Blue North American call center outside Toronto. An agent called Henry Esteban refused to share the information, saying he and his colleagues had specifically been forbidden by management to do so.
I’d never heard such a response to the same question I’d asked so many times before at other airlines, so I requested to speak with a supervisor. Esteban resisted repeatedly, which also surprised me given my Platinum elite status, but eventually he put me through.
The supervisor, Roberto Quote, was just as vehement in his refusal to discuss booking codes. He insisted that was private company information and customers had no right to know it. If you wonder why I didn’t turn to Air France reservations agents, that was actually my first call — but they said they knew nothing about awards and upgrades and referred me to Flying Blue.
In 2009, I wrote about the challenges to airlines presented by the transparency of their data on the Internet. I also wrote specifically about the public availability of award data, which some carriers wanted to control. However, simply identifying the codes used for awards and upgrades has never been an issue — until now.
Although no carrier is legally required to disclose those codes publicly, I have a hard time understanding Flying Blue’s thinking. Does its management really believe that kind of information can be kept secret in 2011, with all the blogs out there and websites like FlyerTalk.com and Milepoint.com?
It may be time for the program to focus on more meaningful and useful subjects in the training of its customer service agents.
Continue reading about Should airline booking codes be secret?
