R42 000 ADM shock!

AGENTS have been
slapped with ADMs
ranging from R10 000 to
R42 000 after the Lufthansa
Group introduced a new fare
rule, allegedly without proper
notice. The rule states that
agents are issued ADMs of up
to the full fare for cancelling
return legs on round trips,
which is encouraging agents
to make clients no-shows
rather than cancel return legs.
Agents claim they only
found out about the rule
when exorbitant ADMs landed
on their desks. Daniela
Ossato, owner of CTT Travel
Johannesburg, says she
was issued an ADM of
R42 000 for cancelling the
return leg on a round trip from
Johannesburg to Mexico for a
client who decided to extend
their stay. She explains that
it was cheaper for the client
to cancel their return leg
and book direct on another
airline’s website than to
change their return date on
Lufthansa.
Nicole van Blerk, BSP team
leader of Club Travel, Karin
Smit, air operations and
shared services business
leader of Flight Centre Travel
Group, and Nicole Coetzer,
national sales manager of
Pentravel, have also had
agents incur ADMs of up to
R41 840, R30 000 and
R10 000 respectively. Daniela
argues that this practice is
unfair and unethical because
the rule wasn’t properly
communicated to agents and
is out of an agent’s control,
while the airline doesn’t suffer
a financial loss.
Nicole says, while she
understands that the
Lufthansa Group implemented
this rule because some
agents issue return tickets
to get better fares knowing
the client won’t fly the return
leg, sometimes clients who
intend to fly the return leg
have to cancel for unforeseen
circumstances. “These
airlines assume that we
knowingly issue return tickets
instead of one-way tickets in
the case of clients who cancel
their return legs. It is unfair
to penalise agents based on
an assumption, and so this is
encouraging agents to make
their clients no-shows rather
than cancel return legs.”
Wally Gaynor, md of Club
Travel, also points out that if
a client books a return ticket
direct on an airline’s website
and cancels the return leg,
there is no way the airline can
penalise them, which makes
the rule discriminatory against
agents. “The problem is that
many of them outsource
their ADM collection and it
is a major income stream,”
he says. Rachael Penaluna,
business manager of Sure
Maritime Travel, agrees:
“These airlines are milking
the ADM situation for all it
is worth. Because it goes
through the BSP with the
assistance of Iata, agents
have no choice but to pay
their ADMs and dispute
them later.”
When approached
for comment, an Iata
spokesperson said the
association wasn’t a
regulatory body and therefore
could not intervene in
commercial matters between
agents and airlines. Similarly,
Otto de Vries, ceo of Asata,
said the body could neither
comment on airlines’ specific
commercial rules nor advise
agents on how to deal with
them. The Lufthansa Group
was unable to comment at
the time of publishing. TNW
will keep readers updated on
this story.
 Travelinfo is compiling a
workshop on ADMs. If you
have ideas on what content
should be included, email
Linda at editor@travelinfo.
co.za.