I was comparing prices for a UA fare and my friendly (AMEX) TA said they now charge a AUD $120 booking fee. That was just for a fare with nothing else.

I know that airlines are cutting back on commissions paid to TAs, but is the commission now zero?

This makes ua.bomb look like a very attractive booking option when I am trying to give business to my friendly TA that has gladly accepted my $$$ for the last decade.

I believe so and has been for some time.

It has been zero for some time on domestic itins but UA still pays commssion on some intl tickets, but recently, a lot become zero commission ticket sales.

Yes commission is now officially zero but there are MANY agency incentives, including a "commission" type structure. Most airlines, are generally only interested in large agencies that can push large volumns of business. UA is no exception.

If you are looking for discounting tickets or the use of a travel agency, I would look for a specialized consolidator or a larger agency that does indeed receive airline incentives.

Almost all tickets and airlines are now zero-comission.. hence the fairly hefty fees most travel agents charge for just ticketing alone.

Which is why booking on the airline's website is the only way you will pay $0 fees, since online agencies tack on at least $4-5.

But keep in mind that airline websites aren't always as smart as a human. Especially The Bomb. I know, I know, many folks (especially business travelers who are forced to use an agent) do not see our value, but there are times when we're worth the fee.

I charge different fees for different vendors. And even different fees for different routings on the same vendor since commission structures vary according to routing, class of service and interline ticketing. It's all based on whether the agency receives any type of compensation from the carrier, either upfront or backend. Commissions and incentives are back in a big way for the larger agencies that have the ability to move market share.

Airline websites also don't offer the cheapest fares either

On intl. multi-segment itins, agents are nearly always worth their money.
Thanks to web-engines becoming more imbecile monthly, it is nearly impossible
to book a multi-city itin on a website, let alone a RTW.
And while until 2003, I did book about 16 RTWs online, I haven't managed
to book a single one since.
The engines do not recognize through fares anymore, they violate married
segments so you get a different (very, very different) price in the very last
step long after the confirmation. They do not understand stopover rules.

In the 'good ol days', I could pick a fare - say on travel.com.au - construct an
itin and have the itin checked against the fare. I would get MPM violations,
min/max stay errors, min stops errors until I finally designed valid itin.
Completely impossible these days - if your need is not to travel from ORD
to SFO at 7 am an return at 4 pm, then you're lost with the webtrash of these
days .

Not only have commissions been $0 for issuing tickets in many countries for a few years now, but the turmoil in the GDS industry now has carriers trying to tack on Booking Segment Fees to the agencies for the bookings, meaning a negative commission on the transaction.

The agent I work with for international travel gets about $100 in commission from the consolidators they work with. On top of that they charge a $20 ticketing fee. Last year they booked a complicated international itinerary for me for only $20. I insisted that they at least double that commission and gave them a box of chocolates. They also helped me get a saver F and two saver y awards to SYD this Jan for a $20 commission. ^ ^ ^

As this thread is more about travel agent fees in general, and not specific to United, you'll now find it in Travel Buzz.

letiole and iluv2fly
UA mods

IMHO these folks are worth their weight in gold for the knowledge they bring to the party which usually equals a great savings on airfares, etc. and this fellow is one of the best in the business!