Are you saying hat travel agents get zero (0) for booking a CO ticket? That would be news to me, but I'm not a travel agent, so what do I know?

I am referring to real travel agents when I say yes in answer to your question, not to the desk drones that you road warriors think are travel agents, thus leading to the corporate community bashing "travel agents" needlessly. Commissions on air tickets were pulled in 2000, IIRC, and are slowly making a very limited, very quiet and date-restricted comeback, and generally only on high-bucket front cabin fares booked with non-USA-based carriers. Again, this answer does not account for provisions of any corporate contract out there.

I was thinking of AMEX and their ilk. I haven't used any travel agent for many years, so perhaps the "regular" ones get no cut at all. I do recall that airlines drastically reduced the % a few years back; did it go to zero?

Save for some very isolated pockets, yes...hence the rise of the service charge.

Which is really piddle$hit compared to getting additional bookings.

It's interesting how this sort of minutae that Larry focused on is being unraveled here all around the time of his "departure." I completely understand the desire to save $5 a booking, and any beancounter can pull up an Excel and multiple $5 by the number of tickets sold. But if it was pushing away lucrative corporate customers, especially when their New York-area hub has other contenders, they were essentially biting off their nose to spite their face.

So the real question is, did it really cause them to lose enough business? After all, the policy was on the books for some 5-6 years, and without this UA linkup, they likely would not have revisited it.

OK I believe I have a NAZI Lounge agent stalking me.

I get this agent - usually a female, but now and again a male - who is at every lounge I try to enter when traveling on a *A first class reward ticket.

I get pushback ALL the time - do not know why.

Please clarify for me (If you know these answers - i realize we are waiting for more info about the Oct CO entrance to *A and need more details).

I book a economy class ticket on CO for travel only in the USA.
I have a PC membership.

Can I enter a *A lounge in the USA?
Can I enter a RCC lounge in USA?
Can I enter a US Air lounge in the USA?




Related question....

My wife was returning from a FRA to Washington D.C. to PWM on Luft and then onto United.
She was first class (not Bus class) from FRA to Washington, D.C. then economy washington to PWM.

NOTE: the Washington - PWM had NO seats so it was I guess called a vol. downgrade if I am correct.
She could use the fabulous LH lounge in FRA but once in the USA they would NOT let her enter either the LH lounge OR the UA lounge because she was done with the first class leg and now in "Economy" (not by choice) on this last leg in the regional jet.

Were they correct in denying access?

I thought as long as she had first class international tix, basically she could get into most any LH/UA/*A lounge during the same day of travel.


Please help.

No. Note: this is based off your PC credentials only, not any status you may have.


Presently in ORD only. It's expected that all UA RCCs will be accessible in the future.


This has not been mentioned, and I personally don't expect it to happen.


The access rules are fairly clear: http://www.staralliance.com/en/trave...ss-policy.html

Since she was not flying onwards in int'l Biz or First, she would not have access. Only if she were *G and used those credentials would she be able to use the "same day" rule. If she would have whipped out a *G card, she would've been admitted.

Also, a rule of thumb, if LH denied her access, they were probably correct. LH may be rigid, but they are always fair, are well trained, and play by the rules. If they denied her, it was most likely correct based on the credentials provided. If UA, US, or CO denied her, I would be more likely to question it. I have never run into a LH lounge attendant who was not well versed in every nuance of the *A lounge admittance policy.

I think they also paid some sort of commission. It was 10% years ago, but more recently is a certain amount per ticket. I've not kept up with the minutia, but I thought it was more than the $5/ticket being cited here.

I think everyone is different. My corporate TA with AAA has said multiple times that they get no cut for selling continental or any other airline. They do charge a $40 fee per ticket booked as the agency fee but that includes a lot more services for us than just booking....

Zero. Nothing. The percentage commissions died in 2000 as I said, and it is currently nothing on a per-ticket basis. There are milestones for total revenue sold, and those rewards (at least on CO) can be claimed in cash or in non-rev tickets/upgrade certs. The cash back is almost always less than the value represented in being able to go someplace non-rev for a work trip or in the value of potentially upgrading yourself or a client. Before everyone makes fun of those space-available certs, they do work. They might not work for biz travel, but they work great for leisure.

"Everyone" as I'm reading it in its usage there is, IMO, on a per-contract basis. I would assume that the perks get sweeter as your volume goes up, like any other sales-based program. I am referring strictly to the non-corporate travel side of the industry which, for some, is exceedingly hard to divorce from the people that the collective you profess to hate for their stupidity with reagrd to your work travel.

Besides as already noted (TA's to receive a small "booking fee") the GDS's are a very EXPENSIVE method of distribution, co.com is co's lowest cost method of distribution and I completely understand their desire to push traffic to it (very similar to Hilton's policy for earning points is designed to push traffic to their inhouse distribution channels)

nope..airlines have been tough on TA's...hotels have been much more gentle to them

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry9630/4.7.1.40 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/105)

CO PC members also have access to RCCs in SNA and PHX. That access actually pre-dates the ORD access by a bit.

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry9630/4.7.1.40 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/105)

The "fee" that TAs receive these days is from the customer, not the airline. So while the GDS distribution costs the airline a bit the TA commission no longer does.



I also think that the 50% thing is vastly overstated on FT in terms of impact on the traveling public. Most folks barely care at all about the miles and the status. CO changed it because of UA and that's fine and some folks here will benefit, but I firmly believe that they were not losing business in a significant enough capacity with the policy in place for it to have been bad for them.

Given CO's status miles earning liberalization and the double status miles promotion, it's clear that CO management thinks that CO was losing or would lose business if not doing what CO has just done.

Based on what CO has announced this week, it's apparent that CO thinks that even marginally turning off customers -- or leaving customers turned off -- as before the status miles liberalization has cost or would cost CO business that CO can ill afford to lose this year or next year.