Travel agents – circa 1990 – How did it work?
Were you a travel agent around 1990? I’m hoping to understand the US travel agency business in 1990. Specifically:
- When you used a service like SABRE or APOLLO to book a ticket where did the money go? Customer pays Travel Agent for Ticket and when does Travel Agent pay Airline? Does Travel Agent actually pay Airline or does Travel Agent pay SABRE or APOLLO?
- When did the Travel Agent collect commission? Did Airline/SABRE reimburse the commission or did Travel Agent withhold the commission?
- I presume that there were fees for having a SABRE or APOLLO machine, correct?
- How about the Airlines, what was their relationship with SABRE or APOLLO? What sort of fees did they pay? To whom?
I am trying to understand the cash flows and contractual relationships between:
- customer (passenger)
- travel agency
- Reservation system (SABRE/APOLLO etc…)
- Airline
Thanks so much!
JH
Moisha66 is almost right. Money goes first to ARC (Airlines clearing house), not Apollo nor Sabre., which are only booking engine.
Commissions are either earn upfront or paid by the ARC back to the travel agency, depending contract from airlines, tours, hotels, etc with each agencies. Commissions are stores at time of booking on Apollo or Sabre
There are fees for Apollo and Sabre,(lease) but is part of doing business.
Apollo and Sabre were started by the airlines (AA and other: Apollo / UA and others: Sabre)
Galileo is the name of Apollo in Europe and has been purchased a couple weeks ago by Travelport, which is also the owner of Orbitz. (English company).
Comments
I am a current Travel Agent in the corporate department and we still use the same booking procedures as the 90′s. If you book a ticket in Apollo or Sabre once the fare is stored we put in the form of payment and that goes directly to the airline. If it’s a credit card it is charged immediately if they pay in cash or cheque then the airline bills the agency. Apollo and Sabre charge both the airlines and the agency for their service. You collect commission at the time of booking when you store the fare. The airline checks their records at a later date as they have to verify with BSP (billing and settlement plan). If you collect commission on a non-commissionable flight for example you will be sent a debit memo demanding that the agency pay the airline for the money’s allready taken in commission. They also send debit memo’s if we do not charge enough for the ticket though it usually won’t issue if the fare is not stored correctly but you can over ride that which is why they check everything. The airlines either created Apollo or Sabre or the mask of them in the 70′s and they still use them to this day. So basically the traveller comes in pays the agent for the cost of the ticket( which nowadays they pay service fees on) they pay the airlines and if were lucky they pay us commission. They started cutting back commission in the 90′s which is why there are less and less of us these days.. Which is also why agencies now charge service fees for bookings because we make hardly any if any commission from the airlines now. I do not know the cost of the fees for using the Apollo or Sabre systems for either the agency or the airlines. Also just so you know the generic term for the systems we use is the GDS (global distrabution system). I am not a US agent but it’s the same here in Canada as it is down there. With a few exceptions. Ps techs do not understand the GDS systems when they come to "fix" them as most were not around when these systems were implimented so finding people who understand them is difficult! LOL! Hope that helps you a bit.
M
References :
myself
Apparently, SABRE bills us based on hits. Which I think is every time you ask the system for info like pulling up availablity. There are very few people who would really be able to explain how this works you would have to be in a high up programing, accounting or contract negotiation position.
Airlines do pay some sort of fees to the GDS systems b/c not all airlines can be booked through the GDS. Also when I worked for an airline we used Sabre but, to be honest I have no idea how those relationships works.
Also some International Carries do still give commissions. I think the other person anwered everything else.
References :
Moisha66 is almost right. Money goes first to ARC (Airlines clearing house), not Apollo nor Sabre., which are only booking engine.
Commissions are either earn upfront or paid by the ARC back to the travel agency, depending contract from airlines, tours, hotels, etc with each agencies. Commissions are stores at time of booking on Apollo or Sabre
There are fees for Apollo and Sabre,(lease) but is part of doing business.
Apollo and Sabre were started by the airlines (AA and other: Apollo / UA and others: Sabre)
Galileo is the name of Apollo in Europe and has been purchased a couple weeks ago by Travelport, which is also the owner of Orbitz. (English company).
References :
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