UA wants agents to pay credit card fees

 
Old May 18, 2010, 6:49 pm
  #61  
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Originally Posted by FlyerDad
All: In booking my flight with Wendy, she said that after April 19, United will charge travel agents 4% for credit card purchases for consolidator tickets (which is way a previous poster was charged 4% for a consolidator ticket on British Airways--they've already implemented). That means we'll either need to pay by check (no fee) or pay 4% more for using credit card. Just wanted to give folks a heads up.
Originally Posted by jasp25
So I heard United sent memos to its consolidators not to accept credit card payments for itineraries that fly to Asia, Latin America, and South Pacific. (Europe exempted) effective April 19, 2010.

So that means if you're purchasing United tickets through a travel agency who gets tickets from consolidators and you're traveling to those destinations, be prepared to pay by check or cash! (or the consolidator gets a $75 debit memo per ticket if using credit cards)

I think this is going to be a terrible mistake on United's part.. how can flyers pay $1,500 plus tickets in cash in economy like this? Any thoughts?

-j
Originally Posted by Dinky SAN
Unfortunately, I can confirm this. Today, I contacted my favorite consolidator and she gave me the ticket price: Z or D fare transpac. But, she ended up by saying that as of yesterday's contract with UA, I have to pay cash or check, no credit card. Paying with CC with result in no discount plus $35 to issue the ticket. (Might as well just go through UA directly). This, on top of being told that D fares will result in both cancellation and change fees.

Wow!!!
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Old May 18, 2010, 6:55 pm
  #62  
 
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These agents accepted my credit card in the past without issue.

I failed to mention that these are for international flights. The quote they've given is at least $250 less than the cheapest found on kayak/UA. And that's with a worse itinerary.

EricH, please let me know any other good sources for international flights if you know of any. Thanks

Originally Posted by FlyinHawaiian
Related discussion:
Thanks FlyinHawaiian, looks like it's real then. Sorry I did a search for credit card and didn't see it.

Last edited by FlyinHawaiian; May 18, 2010 at 7:25 pm Reason: multi-quote
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Old May 18, 2010, 7:27 pm
  #63  
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No worries; the discussion took place in the following thread (which may also be of interest to you):

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...iscussion.html
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Old May 18, 2010, 8:15 pm
  #64  
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Seems like a bad idea on UA's part - they'll actually probably get better revenue, but I can't imagine buying a plane ticket without the protection that a credit card offers...
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Old May 18, 2010, 8:55 pm
  #65  
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It started a few weeks ago:

STA Warns of United's Transfer of Credit Card Responsibility
Published on: April 21, 2010

ASTA issued a member alert saying that while United Airlines has not expanded its credit card transfer initiative to additional retail travel agents, several consolidators have reported that the airline has transferred the merchant of record responsibility from United to consolidators with Net and Percent Off marketing agreements. Uniteds Net agreement allows an agent to act as a consolidator by allowing the agent to mark up the ticket price that is offered to consumers and/or other travel agents. Uniteds Percent Off agreement allows an agent to collect upfront commissions in certain markets.

Affected consolidators who use Uniteds merchant agreement to process credit card payments will be assessed a $75 fee per transaction. This action appears to be designed to bring some nonconforming consolidation contracts into Uniteds pre-existing policy on merchant account usage that has been in place for some time. The result of this unbundling of credit card costs will likely be a shift in costs to consumers. To cover this additional cost burden, affected consolidators will likely have to increase fares, add a credit card surcharge if allowed by the state, or accept agency check only. For more information, visit www.asta.org.
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Old May 18, 2010, 11:16 pm
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Originally Posted by cordelli
It started a few weeks ago:

STA Warns of United's Transfer of Credit Card Responsibility
Published on: April 21, 2010

ASTA issued a member alert saying that while United Airlines has not expanded its credit card transfer initiative to additional retail travel agents, several consolidators have reported that the airline has transferred the merchant of record responsibility from United to consolidators with Net and Percent Off marketing agreements. Uniteds Net agreement allows an agent to act as a consolidator by allowing the agent to mark up the ticket price that is offered to consumers and/or other travel agents. Uniteds Percent Off agreement allows an agent to collect upfront commissions in certain markets.

Affected consolidators who use Uniteds merchant agreement to process credit card payments will be assessed a $75 fee per transaction. This action appears to be designed to bring some nonconforming consolidation contracts into Uniteds pre-existing policy on merchant account usage that has been in place for some time. The result of this unbundling of credit card costs will likely be a shift in costs to consumers. To cover this additional cost burden, affected consolidators will likely have to increase fares, add a credit card surcharge if allowed by the state, or accept agency check only. For more information, visit www.asta.org.
Can you decode this in plain english?
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Old May 19, 2010, 7:03 am
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UA was talking about this when I was there years ago. Only some consols are going to have to eat the merch fee. Basically the smaller ones. Most of the time UA will be still eating the merch fee, however you have to find the consols that have that version of the contract.

There are basically two types of contracts. First is a Net agreement. It is a fixed fare. So for example UA is selling a W fare for $1300 their Net to agents could be $900 which is the lowest it can be sold for. Nets also have better fare rules for example on Z fares, you can change your ticket after departure with no penalty. The % contacts are commission on published. So when you go to UA.com and you see SFO-HKG for example $2100. Depending on the booking class the agent could get up to 10% commission on the frontend or backend.

The second part of the paragraph is saying if the Consol. Doesnt have their own merch acct. Then UA will process it with a $75 charge to the consol per ticket against the contract.

Also,

The Z class I just purchased the other day from a ticket broker, UA still ate the merch fee.

Let me know if any one has further questions.
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