Corporate Travel Agent/CX Point of Sale Issue
Dec 26, 2019, 11:42 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Sep 2016
Posts: 2
Corporate Travel Agent/CX Point of Sale Issue
Hi,
I am trying to book HKG-LHR on CX239 on 2019.01.11 in business class. As I am booking this for business travel, I have to use our corporate travel agent. The (US based) corporate travel agent I am working with claims that they only see J space at a cost of $9158 one way. When I look at expert flyer, I see no availability with a US Point of Sale, however with a Hong Kong point of sale I see much more availability.
This aligns with what I see on Google Flights and Cathay's website which shows I class as available for 38706HKD = ~4970USD. (I have screenshots of all of this but I cannot post them due to not having five posts.)
My questions are:
1). Does the I availability actually exist? The travel agent is telling me it doesn't.
2). If it does, should the travel agent be able to book it?
Thanks
I am trying to book HKG-LHR on CX239 on 2019.01.11 in business class. As I am booking this for business travel, I have to use our corporate travel agent. The (US based) corporate travel agent I am working with claims that they only see J space at a cost of $9158 one way. When I look at expert flyer, I see no availability with a US Point of Sale, however with a Hong Kong point of sale I see much more availability.
This aligns with what I see on Google Flights and Cathay's website which shows I class as available for 38706HKD = ~4970USD. (I have screenshots of all of this but I cannot post them due to not having five posts.)
My questions are:
1). Does the I availability actually exist? The travel agent is telling me it doesn't.
2). If it does, should the travel agent be able to book it?
Thanks
Dec 26, 2019, 12:32 pm
#2
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: London
Posts: 726
Assume you mean Jan 11th 2020?
If so, I agree EF has no availability with US based POS, however there is with UK and HKG POS.
/Rant about Corporate Travel Agents
Ironically, we had a similar issue with our UK based Corporate Travel agency earlier this year - lower fare buckets regularly not available to them, despite being available online and EF, forcing us into higher fares, and sometimes much higher fares available where EF POS said there was no availability. Didn't make sense.
I think they were genuinely surprised to get such a query about this discrepancy, eventually(3 weeks later!) they claimed they could open up availability with the airline given 1) our corporate deal, and 2) their larger relationship with the airline concerned.
Sounded a bit sus, particularly when the rest of the world could freely book the exact same flights we want for a lot cheaper than what we were being offered. Our in house Corporate Travel Director got involved. Perhaps there was a quota on the number of corporate fares a particular airline offers on certain flights? We checked this out with the airline account manager and it wasn't the case. Oh, and no issues with lower fare classes regularly sold out in our time frames either.
Anyway, after that incident never again has our Corporate Travel agent played the "no availability in lower fares classes despite what you can see elsewhere, however we have a much higher fare we can offer".
Coincidence? Who knows. I'd like to think there was a simple explanation.
If so, I agree EF has no availability with US based POS, however there is with UK and HKG POS.
/Rant about Corporate Travel Agents
Ironically, we had a similar issue with our UK based Corporate Travel agency earlier this year - lower fare buckets regularly not available to them, despite being available online and EF, forcing us into higher fares, and sometimes much higher fares available where EF POS said there was no availability. Didn't make sense.
I think they were genuinely surprised to get such a query about this discrepancy, eventually(3 weeks later!) they claimed they could open up availability with the airline given 1) our corporate deal, and 2) their larger relationship with the airline concerned.
Sounded a bit sus, particularly when the rest of the world could freely book the exact same flights we want for a lot cheaper than what we were being offered. Our in house Corporate Travel Director got involved. Perhaps there was a quota on the number of corporate fares a particular airline offers on certain flights? We checked this out with the airline account manager and it wasn't the case. Oh, and no issues with lower fare classes regularly sold out in our time frames either.
Anyway, after that incident never again has our Corporate Travel agent played the "no availability in lower fares classes despite what you can see elsewhere, however we have a much higher fare we can offer".
Coincidence? Who knows. I'd like to think there was a simple explanation.
Dec 27, 2019, 10:30 pm
#4
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Join Date: Sep 2009
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Posts: 100,404
A major international travel agency should be able to issue plane tickets with a POS anywhere where they have an office or conduct business. AmEx used to advertise doing this creatively to save money on international tickets, often selling two OWs rather than a RT if doing so resulted in lower costs.