SMessier - your quote --
"So while I do not think I am missing the point of the change/cancel fee, I would suggest you are rather lost on this point. There are many intineraries and circumstances under which dealing with a live person (whether it be a travel agent or an airline rep) is both necessary and helpful.

In this case, DL is trying not only to pass on the cost of handling reservation/ticket issuance to a third party, but also to do so without compensating the party in question.

I wonder what DL's costs would look like if even a small share of the 70% of customers that use travel agents started calling DL directly instead"

How is Delta passing on the cost?? - they are certainly not putting a gun to the head of any travel agent to use them. I hardly think DL's or any other airlines costs would raise by dumping the commissions they pay to travel agents - on the contrary they are saving multi-millions of dollars and gain passengers directly by telephones or websites.


[This message has been edited by misstree (edited 03-18-2002).]