Travel agents are raising concerns over increasingly restrictive airline fare conditions, warning that even high-value tickets now carry severe cancellation penalties. In some cases, business-class fares costing close to R100 000 are completely non-refundable.
Tony King from Fares Fair Travel said restrictive rules were once associated with cheaper economy fares. “When one is selling a ticket of almost R100 000 to be non-refundable, it is daylight robbery. Fares have become increasingly harder to sell and more burdensome.”
Conditions have become more restrictive across all classes, particularly on European carriers.
“The cheaper the fare, the more restrictive the tickets – that was always the case. It is unfortunate that we now also see this in high-value ticket sales like business class, which was not always the case,” said Mirinda Bosman, Owner of Postcard Moments.
“On one hand, airlines beg clients to join their frequent flyer membership offering significant benefits and then later try to justify keeping massive amounts of their money in these situations,” said Melanie Tucker from Mel Tucker Travel.
ME carriers preferred
Agents say Middle Eastern carriers are preferred over some European airlines due to more flexible fare structures. “We try to persuade passengers to not book these airlines and rather use carriers like Emirates and Qatar,” said Tucker.
King said he avoids selling any airline with restrictive practices. “These are usually the European carriers, hence why we use the Middle East airlines as their rules are far less restrictive.”
Unbundling of fares
In her report ‘The State of Airline Retailing 2026’, Ann Cederhall, Travel Technology Specialist at LeapShift, noted that a few airlines were unbundling some products that used to be bundled into the fare such as “cancel for any reason” and flexible change options.
She argued that flexibility products should be separated from the airfare itself so passengers are not effectively forfeiting their entire ticket value when cancelling.
“A fare should actually just be a price and then everything that you want to do should be products. You want to cancel it or you want to change it – those should be products. Nobody can relate to rules like ‘if you cancel on a certain day it’s going to be a 75% cancellation fee’.”
She added that broader market conditions were also contributing to rising airfares and stricter conditions.
“Every crisis will drive up airfares and airlines know that people have to travel. In Southern Africa, travellers are particularly vulnerable because there isn’t a great deal of competition, so airlines can practically do whatever they like,” said Cederhall.
Managing expectations
Agents say transparency has become essential when selling premium fares. “It is important for agents to advise passengers of the airline rules and then the passengers must make the decision if they want the ticket with its restrictive rules or not,” said King.
Agents can no longer assume expensive fares automatically include flexibility. “Agents should always check the fare and, if it belongs to a fare family, not to assume that the rules are flexible simply because the fare is expensive,” said Naomi Jansen from Destini Travel.
She said bookings depended largely on the reason for travel. A more flexible ticket is advised for business travel as schedules often change, while leisure clients usually travel on fixed dates, so a more restrictive fare is suitable. “Premium economy fares are becoming increasingly popular for that extra comfort, without the exceptionally high business-class fares,” said Jansen.
Bosman said she presented clients with multiple fare options to weigh flexibility against cost. “This way clients can see what the restrictions are. Sometimes they have no choice but to accept the terms of the tickets and sometimes they opt to pay more to get more flexibility.”
However, this is becoming increasingly difficult and time-consuming for agents. “Agents now spend vast amounts of time understanding fare rules to convey them correctly to the client. More time is now spent per booking,” said Jansen.
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