One thing I’ve noticed while assisting travelers with booking reservations through ETS/GDS is that sometimes the prices on certain city pair legs are higher than what the public would see on other sites such as Orbitz or Travelocity. We get this complaint quite often. The fact that city pair fares can save up to 50% to 70% on unrestricted coach fares is a big deal. Unfortunately I don’t think a lot of travelers quite understand this. In times like these when travel budgets are being slashed all over the Federal Government, many travelers are becoming even more conscientious of their travel expenses. They are encouraged to minimize their travel expenses as much as possible. This has caused many travelers to become upset when they see a plane ticket they found on Orbitz being $100 less expensive than what their TMC is offering.
I’ve personally had to explain to the traveler that policy states they should use the city pair fare offered by the TMC and not reserve their flight through Orbitz, which leads into a conversation on how they’re saving the Government money. Most travelers don’t realize that that one flight may indeed be more expensive than what they saw online, however the vast majority of airfares are quite discounted, and in the end will save money. They also forget about the benefits such as tickets being fully refundable, and that there are no penalties or fees for rebooking, re-ticketing or cancellation. Travelers need to become more educated of the benefits of using city pair fares and that reserving flights outside of the TMC is against policy.
By: Kelvin Dawson