Commission axe delay – and it’s all your fault

Commission axe delay – and it’s all your fault

British Airways delays plan to chop payments

Airline blames agents for failing to get their act together in time

Report by LOUISE LONGMAN and DIANE SMITH

BRITISH Airways has been forced to delay its plans to axe commission, as exclusively revealed in Travel Weekly on July 17.

And the airline has laid the blame solely with travel agents for not getting their act together in time.

The airline’s controversial commission cuts, due to come into effect on January 1 next year, have now been put back until April 1.

BAhead of UK and Ireland sales Tiffany Hall said the delay was due to agents needing more time to prepare.

“Galileo and the payment handling centres have given us their commitment that the work will be done, but agents need more time,” she said. “This is a big change in the way agents do business and work with their corporate customers.”

She added those agents that have made sure they will be able to operate the new remuneration scheme in time for the January 1 deadline will have to wait for other agents tocatch up.

“We can’t introduce it until all agents are ready,” said Hall.

BA general manager field sales Ian Heywood added: “Travel agents have never worked out how much time it takes to work with each client.

“They must now assess which clients are always ringing up and changing bookings and how demanding each client is.

“They then need to work out how much they are going to charge each client.

“We want to help but people must also get a grip of their own businesses. We have let people know about our plans for the past 15 months, you can’t argue that is not enough time,” he added.

The comments caused outrage among business travel agents, with Advantage Travel Centres business travel director Norman Gage describing BA’s comments as “sickening”.

“I’m gobsmacked,” he said. “I think it’s a bit sick that BA is blaming its delay on other people.

“It can only be the major multiples BAis referring to in its comments because they haven’t even approached the independent business travel agents. We’ve only been told, not consulted.”

BTIUKmanaging director Mike Platt said: “Only some of the factors involved in the postponement are to do with agents being ready, most are to do with the infrastructure.”

The delay means BAwill continue to pay 7% commission until April 1. It has scheduled in more service fee seminars and workshops to ensure agents meet the deadline.

The next seminars will take place at Manchester Airport on October 9 and Heathrow on October 11 and 12.

On hold: Travel Weekly exclusively revealed back in July, left, that BA wasplanning to delay the axing of commission until April next year