It appears that the European Commission may be withdrawing (or already has) IATA's immunity to prosecution for operating as a cartel.

What does this mean?

IATA has already agreed to remove sales indicator codes from travel agents global distribution systems. These codes such as (SITI, SOTO, SOTI) set rules for fare construction and vary from country to country.

Hence, RTW's will be able to be ticketed anywhere at the local published fare since there will be no difference if you are an agent in Egypt, Bangkok or the USA.

It will be interesting to see if all RTW's are all going to be common rated. Hope not!

READ: Fares will be going up!

The European Commission obviously only has jurisdiction with the EU, so with a bit of luck this'll be limited to EU member countries only. On the downside, this means bidding a fond farewell to the ex-WAW fares, although the ex-ZAG may survive. On the positive side, it'll make booking the I-class BA fares ex-LIS a lot easier, although that bottleneck seems to have been removed by BA earlier this year anyway (possibly by the imminent EC action).

Although the SITI-like codes may go, I doubt airlines will completely abandon regional pricing simply because they have to offer equal access within the EU. The EC can enforce the equal treatment of sales out of WAW for all EU customers (and not just for those in Poland), but my understanding is that it's still legal for the airline to differentiate between EU and non-EU sales. Essentially the EU becomes the "country."

I don't really see why this is such a big deal - you still have to go to where the ticket originates in order to start the journey. I anticipate the airlines policing valid usage of the first coupon even more strongly.

But that's about all - it doesn't stop airlines have a different price for journeys starting in Warsaw or Lisbon if that's what they want, all it means is that you can have the ticket more easily in your hand in your home country before making the trip to Warsaw/Lisbon to start the ticketed journey. This has never bothered me particularly - I have started a number of ONEs when only in transit at the originating airport having arranged pick-up on departure from the airline or TA (BA or AA in CAI multiple times, CX in CDG, Amex in TPE) and it has never been a problem.

There might be some small financial gain in that you can play the exchange rates and take whichever of your credit card or the ticketing system gives you the best one - that could be worth 2 or 3% I guess.

I believe this action is only designed to allow customers to buy ex-WAW, ex-LIS, ex-VIE, etc. outside the originating country at the originating country price and for purely economic reasons the airlines will still offer regional pricing. As said above a number of restrictions have already been removed. It is possible to use opodo.co.uk to purchase tickets originating outside the UK at originating country price and still be charged in GBP. This does have a benefit in that there is no FOREX credit card charges.

At times I think FT'ers overestimate the number of people who go to the lengths that some often us do to track down a bargain. As a percentage of total sales in any given country I doubt we account for more than 1 percent of volume.

Well I used to have the highest spend on BA tickets from one country in Europe at one time. I guess that the country in question had relatively low RTW D and A fares then!

The real trouble is that the outstations never really get to sell these funny tickets in any numbers so the staff do not like them. A full J fare and they are happy. The ex-LIS files are easy enough for the staff to use but the computer gets the stopovers wrong all the time for me as I ex-FAO, come in on an evening flight to LGW and then do off LHR the next morning.

You still cannot buy ex-CAI and ex-TIP fares without the Higher Intermediate Fare rule being invoked for sales outside country, at least this week.

Any more word on this? BA still want me to pay the ex-UK price for my ex-WAW DONE4. I am in no desperate rush to ticket as my trip doesn't start until June '05.

You expect the European Commision to make a final decision on something in less than 10 years?????

My folks have just managed to pay for an ex-GIB DONE4 through the UK callcentre no problem. They called up the GIB office to get the itinerary setup, got the PNR, waited 4 days for the price, then called the normal telesales number and paid. The tickets are now in the post. Very easy. Gaza, I'm surprised you're having such problems with Warsaw.

Very interesting. The first time I tried through the UK they priced it up in Zlochty but then made it up to the UK price. BA Poland have since priced it up in Zlochty but won't allow me to pay for it in the UK in GBP.

What did the cost of your parents tickets work out at with Tax?

They came to �3444.10, which sounds about right for �3099 + tax. Haven't actually got the tickets yet, I'll let you know when they actually arrive, hopefully by friday.

Hi,

I am surprised (though happy) that you have managed to get a fare outside of UK in UK. I also tried to get an ex WAW fare priced in the UK but was told it had to be priced at the UK price.

I also tried getting my TA to organise the ex WAW price in the UK but she only got as far as the booking stage and was told that I would have to pay the full UK price.

I hope the rules have changed as it was much more difficult to get it through a BA external local office.

Is there a possibility though that the GIB fares may be an exception due to its links to the UK?

In any case lets us know Dave_C if you manage to get the ticket in hand as it will set a precedent many of us will follow-up on.

Cheers

J

Small update, i've noticed that in checkmytrip.com, in the Misc Info section the "Corner Bay, Alaska" "creditnn" annotation has now appeared. I think this is something to do with the credit card payment having been processed, as it always comes up on my other BA bookings. Looking more promising.

Not having used checkmytrip with paper tickets before, will it display the paper ticket numbers in there (as it does with etickets), as these aren't there yet?

yes, it should do.

Hmm, ok, I'll give BA a poke tomorrow and see what's happening.