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Sales leaders at American and Delta say that their partnerships with travel agencies will be key when travel ramps up again.
“We’ve invested a lot of energy into these partnerships,” said Jim Carter, American’s Eastern Division vice president for global sales. “It’s these kinds of times when you get to test these partnerships. It’s natural now that we lean on them. The conversations we are having with them are more critical, to make sure we’re listening to where their clients are thinking about traveling.”
Bob Somers, Delta’s senior vice president of global sales, offered a similar message.
“Having good visibility on what customers want from us, where they are going to travel, when they are ready to travel, those are questions that are being looked at now,” he said.
Airline ticket sales within the agency channel have begun a very modest tick back up, though they remain at depths that would have been unimaginable just a few months ago.
Airline ticket sales within the agency channel were down 88.6% in terms of transactions and 93.5% by volume for the week that ended May 10, according to ARC. Though such figures would have been unimaginable just a few months ago, they represented a slight improvement over April and the start of May.
The recovery is likely to be slow. A Harris survey of 2,039 adults conducted May 1 to 3 found that 48% of Americans said they wouldn’t be comfortable flying until the Covid-19 pandemic is over. But as a critical mass of people do return to the skies, airlines will have the unprecedented task of rebuilding schedules that have been reduced by as much as 90%.
Peter Vlitas, senior vice president of airlines for Travel Leaders, said that airlines understand that as they set about rebuilding schedules, travel agencies can provide key insights. Vlitas also said he believes travel advisors will see their share of airline ticket sales increase during the restart period, largely because flyers will have more doubts and need more assistance than they do during normal times.
“The airlines are realizing that we’re going to have a bigger role, and they want to have a conversation with us about when we think the customers are going to want to travel and where we think they want to travel,” Vlitas said.
Both Carter and Somers said that leisure travel agents weren’t the only partners they were leaning on. American, said Carter, is looking to the corporate agency community as well as to partners in corporate verticals such as technology, entertainment and pharmaceuticals to get insights on where demand is returning.
Airlines are also mining internal data sources, including bookings and flight searches. Still, Somers said leisure agents will play a crucial role as travel recovers. The Delta sales team, he said, follows a mantra with partners of, “listen, act, listen.”
“It’s especially critical when you have times of rapid change,” he said.
Source: travelweekly.com
If I drank coffee, I’d be spending the morning cleaning up the coffee I just spit all over the house after reading in Travel Weekly about all the ‘energy’ American Airlines and Delta Air Lines (and every other airline) have invested into travel agents and how we’re going to help them recover.
If by energy they meant not paying agents any commission, and taking advantage of us as a free workforce to act as their customer service representatives, then yes, they’ve invested a lot of energy in us… In a relationship that only serves them.
I mean, I put a TON of people on Southwest Airlines flights over the years, you think I could get maybe a free business select upgrade or maybe free internet from time to time?!
We sell you all because we have to, but let’s not pretend there is any ‘partnership’ there…. A partnership works 2 ways.
Smh.
They can start by giving travel advisors commission on all sales. Period. otherwise I feel no loyalty or compassion toward them.
They want to lean on the very people they refuse to pay? I don’t think so. If you want to have a “relationship” each side needs to contribute something. What are they willing to contribute? There’s a reason I won’t sell flights unless they’re part of a package.
“We’ve invested a lot of energy into these partnerships,” What partnership? Delta tossed us out in March 2002 eliminating commissions, being followed by the other airlines.
Does this mean that they are willing to pay us a commission? It seems like Delta is eating their words! Let’s see how this fares out before travel agents support airlines..
Airlines do not pay commissions to most travel agents. Now they “need” them? For years they have shunned them. And for years they have shunted their customers into ever tightening seats, more crowded than ever. They are and have been their own WORST ENEMY for a decade.
“We’ve invested a lot of energy into these partnerships…It’s natural now that we lean on them.”
After a decade of record-setting profits, much of it due to the fact that these airlines do not pay commissions to travel agents, perhaps they should try investing less energy and paying some -any- money to their “partners.” This has been a one-way street to airline managements for more than two decades, and now they are going to “lean” on us? Sounds more like a threat and an insult rather than an offer to their so-called partners. As Jerry Maguire said, “Show me the money!” Until then, these sales leaders come off as quite disingenuous as long as they expect something for nothing from travel agents.