Agents have been fuming about what they fear could become a trend – social media posts reveal a new fare rule that has popped up relating to payments for certain airlines’ negotiated airfares.
An agent interviewed by Travel News said she had tried to issue a negotiated airfare ticket via GDS for Virgin Atlantic for a client on a credit card and got the response “CREDIT CARD NOT VALID FOR THIS NEGOTIATED FARE”.
She said she called the airline and was advised that this was a new rule that had been implemented recently and that Virgin Atlantic no longer accepted credit card payments for negotiated airfare bookings, only cash.
“I had to upsell the ticket and charge my client an additional R500 to be able to issue the ticket on his credit card. Our agency is on IATA GoLite so we cannot issue cash tickets (IATA GoLite does not allow for cash tickets). Does this mean that we no longer have access to those negotiated airfares for our clients?” asked the agent.
Another agent on a social media group said she too had had the same response and she had to upsell a business-class ticket for a client costing an additional R4 500, 10% more than she had quoted her client on the negotiated airfare.
But for Virgin Atlantic, it appears it might all have been down to a system problem. When contacted by Travel News, Marc Harding, Country Manager for Virgin Atlantic said: “It was an error on our end that credit cards were not being accepted for negotiated fares. I’m happy to confirm that this has now been rectified, and agents can proceed with using credit cards for negotiated fares moving forward.
“As for the impact on GDS bookings, the correction applies to all negotiated fares across our booking platforms. Agents using IATA GoLite should also be able to issue tickets as normal without the requirement for cash payments,” he said.
British Airways too has a fare ruling that stipulates private negotiated airfares can only be paid for by cash, not credit card. This means that agents on IATA GoLite do not have access to negotiated fares, which require cash payment only. The EasyPay transaction is entered as a CC credit card payment on GDS bookings and so cannot be used to issue negotiated airfare tickets.
The ruling here specifically states: “TICKETS MUST BE ISSUED ON BA.
PAYMENT MAY NOT BE MADE BY CREDIT CARD.”
Travel News spoke to Cristina Graham, Regional Commercial Manager for British Airways. She confirmed that the terms, conditions and elements of Agency Agreements with British Airways Preferred Selling Agents are contracted and confidential. “We are unable to provide any information about negotiated airfares.”
