Service fee transparency

The withdrawal of manual
key function could impact
how agents charge their
service fee.
Common agent practice
has been to quote and
invoice a client for a total
airfare cost that includes the
airfare, taxes, fuel surcharge
and agent service fee.
While the service fee was
separately processed, a
client would only be able
to see the service fee
transaction on their credit
card statement after paying
for the booking.
The one time password
requirement that is predicted
to become standard practice
in the future will mean that
agents will either need
to advise clients of the
breakdown between the
airfare component and
service fee in advance, or
process the full airfare and
service fee amount together
in one transaction.
David Pegg, md of Sure
Viva Travels, explains that
the first option will require
frequent travellers to
complete multiple payment
entries per ticket that they
booked through an agency,
complicating instead of
simplifying the process.
The latter option would
continue to hide the agent’s
service fee from the client
but would incur substantially
higher costs as the agent
would need to pay a 3-4%
merchant fee on the
entire airfare transaction
rather than only on the
service fee.