Originally Posted by
D582
.
There is little to no incentive to AC for allowing you to book a revenue ticket that doesn't contain any flights marketed or operated by AC. It is a money losing transaction for AC as they are paying the credit card processing, they are the ones that have to handle customer service, they are the ones that have to pay the other airline when you fly and they are the ones that have to collect and remit the taxes. But they get no direct revenue out of it.
Interesting. This admittingly is not my area of expertise, but I was under the impression that:
1) the ticketing airline received a basic amount (e.g. 2% and/or $5 per segment) from any other airline included on that ticket as a "handling fee", which is deducted from the revenue forwarded to the operating carrier
2) the ticketing carrier received a % for certain (premium) fares - similar to TAs (with a similarly complex system based on market, cabin, booking class, routing etc.
At the end of the day it probably makes little financial sense to offer this "service", but I'm not convinced that they are making a loss on every transaction.