Stats show where agents can avoid ADMs

NEARLY a quarter of
the airline bookings
made by SA agents
in February were cancelled,
according to statistics
released by the creators of
travel data management
product, Agentivity. Riaan van
Schoor, co-founder, says there
are identifiable areas where
agents get ADMs that they
can avoid – and making bulk
cancellations is one of them.
Last month several agents
wrote to TNW after being
slapped with ADMs for
what the airlines said were
“excessive cancellations”
(see TNW March 29).
Because airlines set
the rules on what booking
behaviour incurs a penalty,
agents only discover much
later where they could have
prevented an ADM, says
Yolande Bouwer, gm of
Agentivity Southern Africa.
Furthermore, although
agents can receive ADMs for
both ‘excessive cancellations’
and ‘churning’, there isn’t
clarity on the difference
between the two. Because
there isn’t a common
definition of churning, Iata
cannot compare this against
‘excessive cancellations’,
hence today both are subject
to individual airline policies,
says an Iata spokesperson.
The Iata ADM working group
is moving toward identifying
a common understanding of
churning to address issues
on the confusion around it.
“Trying to avoid an ADM
is like walking through a
minefield,” says Riaan. He
says often agents are either
forced to make last-minute
cancellations or hold multiple
bookings for clients and that
this type of behaviour can
drive up costs and result in
penalties for the agency.
“By offering visibility on
the accounts or consultants
where this type of behaviour
is habitual, TMCs can
educate their clients and
staff on the consequences,”
says Riaan.
Airlines often issue ADMs
on what they call GDS
wastage, he says. This can
include segments that were
changed to HX status (after
the agent failed to ticket
within the allotted time)
and ‘churned’ or duplicated
bookings.
According to Agentivity’s
statistics on SA TMCs
booking air travel for
February, 16% of segments
booked by agents had their
status changed to HX by the
airline.
Of February’s bookings, 22%
were cancelled either by the
airline or agent. “This means
almost a quarter of the work
consultants did went to
waste,” says Riaan.
Just under 1% of bookings
were either duplicates or
‘churned’ bookings. Although
the percentage might be
quite low, if an agency did
200 bookings, two of those
would be at risk of being
issued with an ADM, Riaan
says. “And ADMs can be so
costly, they can put a little
agency out of business.”
Riaan defines a churned
booking as one in which a
PNR was reused, whereas, he
says, duplicates are multiple
bookings on the same trip.
Agentivity can provide
several types of reports that
offers agencies with visibility
on booking behaviour,
including warning agents
about when certain segments
are about to be cancelled
if not actioned and reports
that can identify which clients
regularly make last-minute
bookings.