GDS abuse a weak excuse
A HEADLINE reading ‘Airlines
clamp down on GDS abuse’
must have raised the ire of the
retail industry. This newspaper
also printed a call from the
national carrier to ‘Partner
with us’ – so what is it? Do
the airlines want us to work
in a harmonious environment
for the benefit of both ends of
the industry or do the airlines
want to continue to look for
any means to penalise and
annoy agents for issues that
should not even be termed
‘infringements’?
Do airlines honestly believe
that agents simply sit
around making bookings,
changing bookings, and
rebooking just for the
fun of it? Do airlines not
understand that people
spending huge amounts of
money need to take time to
commit? Do airlines believe
the executive who travels
on business can finalise all
meetings etc. in moments?
Bookings and re-bookings
happen and airlines need
a little more understanding
of the challenges we
agents face in getting
that passenger a seat
on their aircraft. Instead
of penalising us for an
excellent job they should be
rewarding us.
Airlines bleat: “We incur
costs for GDS use.” Well,
just as airlines also recently
discovered that they could
recover an additional charge
for pre-seating, so they
need to come up with some
solution to reduce that cost.
GDS abuse is the weakest
of weak excuses airlines
can conjure up to annoy
agents because it is so
easy to circumvent the
system and keep rebooking
and holding bookings for
months if necessary.
