StevenSeagalFan

The TA industry is akin to print journalism....it's going the way of the dodo.... some print journalism (like NY Times) shifted and adjusted but most bit the dust... TA industry in my (uneducated) opinion will be a shell of its former self sooner than later. UA is on NDC now too.

ashill

The TA industry could be completely going the way of the dodo. However, airlines’ decisions to prohibit end-on-end ticketing in order to fully control the booking process unnecessarily keeps travel agents more relevant than they need to be. The scenario described by the OP is a place where a good travel agent remains relevant. This will be even more so for me now that AS, after 25 years as the only US carrier in my home airport, has cut service to winter only, so I have no choice but to combine carriers, almost always on different tickets because AA is now so restrictive on ticketing interline itineraries, if I want to fly any oneworld carrier.

And as others have mentioned, corporate travel agencies managing travel to ensure policy compliance are definitely not going anywhere.

Aliquot

For non full fare generally avillable tickets AS is the only legacy left that allows end-on-end ticketing in any meaningful way.

In the last few years AS has gotten my business 2 or 3 times a year because of that (connecting to AC, WS, BR and DE). Frustringly UA won't even allow end-on-end ticketing with AC so their agreement only works on itineraries with code shares or a through fare.

Eastbay1K

That ship sailed 20-ish years ago. The survivors are (for the most part) those that are corporate or those that are lean and provide a high level of fee-based service for clients. The run of the mill passenger going to a TA for issuance of simple discounted airline tickets doesn't exist anymore. First, airlines capped commissions, then in most cases, eliminated them. (There remain commissions, sometimes quite substantial, on premium travel.)

But back to the issue at hand - we'll have to wait and see how this affects the relationship with AA, and that primarily rests with what availability AA "gives" AS in the seat/fare bucket department, or what code sharing exists so that AS is the ticketing/marketing carrier.

For the TA, it adds unwieldy steps to adequately serve his clients. It will make it much like TAs used to do to sell WN seats. Big difference being is that WN doesn't have complicated, multi-carrier, international itineraries.

chrisl137

My corporate TAs are great in IRROPS- they’ve saved me many times over the past 25 years. We do have various policies that they ensure compliance with, but we’re very schedule driven and they make it easy to get exceptions when I need them. But their ability to fix things with a short phone call is really where they excel, and really keeps my travel stress low.

Eastbay1K

Ever have an airline agent send something over to a queue for review and ticketing? You aren't going anywhere until you have flight coupons issued to attach to your reserved flights. The TA will have ticket numbers for you before you hang up (or send them to you promptly). The airline, unless you've got a top notch qualified agent - it will be "whenever."

1kprem

Hi. I’m curious if the “offer” from NDC was tariff based or not. Plus, NDC was supposed to facilitate interline bookings. But each carrier decides how they want to use it based on what we heard in the discussion groups we had with IATA.

you can find the IATA video from 2015 on a google search. “IATA NDC interline”.

Seems like AA has no interest in using this feature.

UAPremierExec

I haven't completed a PNR yet but might to see how its built. I know I'm not seeing any domestic commissions anymore, just international - which really sucks. AA commissions are one reason I'd never charge most of my travelers a service fee (although 3 to 5% doesn't add up to a LOT, it does cover my employee payroll taxes and payroll costs each month).

sullim4

That premium/luxury category is the sweet spot for TAs to stay relevant, imo. Especially now as business travel is still nowhere near where it used to be, and as you say, commissions can be very high. There will be some folks booking Virtuoso-type hotels using a TA like Classic Travel or via AMEX FHR, but the truly wealthy will just hand the job of organizing and booking their travel over to their TA. The days of ordinary people using a traditional TA to book a plane ticket, aside from booking complicated itineraries as alluded to in this thread, are long gone.

I also think group travel is another niche where TAs can make a go of it, especially internationally. The number of older American couples that I see on organized tour groups for destinations like Italy and the Holy Land amazes me. Those TAs also tend to make money off of things like insurance offerings, extra profit off of single occupancy rooms... lots of opportunity for revenue there.

1kprem

TA’s also come in handy when trying to book international interline routing fares to destinations the airlines do not service.

Airlines still create and publish these types of fares but it really takes an agent to book them. These are a bit more complex than what the airlines own online sites are designed to handle. It’s easier to get an experienced TA to do this type of fare as airline agents are usually programmed only to respond in one area, namely where their carrier flies, not where they don’t fly (even if you point out a fare that their carrier publishes)

ashill

Or even domestic, such as the example in the OP, getting from airports only served by AS in Alaska or the Pacific Northwest to US destinations with no codeshare service or which necessitate long layovers that break a fare.

1kprem

Exactly!