I HAVE yet another example of why British Airways is losing the support of agents and seeing its profits fall. We have a corporate client, of several years happily booking 200 seats a year on the same route at £215 plus tax (consolidated fare).
This price is generally around that of any BA World Offer fare, of which my client is generally unable to take advantage anyway, as we often have to hold off seats for weeks on end. Length of stay is generally inside three months, with 5% of bookings up to six months’ duration, for which we mainly use another airline as BA’s fare rises to around £450 plus tax. The client was happy with both our price and, particularly, our service.
BA somehow managed to get hold of the client and came up with a special deal for them to book direct and cut out both ourselves and the consolidator. It has given the client a fare of £136 plus tax, on a yearly ticket and with inbound changes free of charge. This is £50 cheaper than the lowest BA World Offer fare.
Quite what BA gained by doing this I do not know. Not only has it dug its own grave even deeper with us, but it has also done itself out of at least £10,000 of extra profit (unnecessarily) from the consolidator. The client now feels we have been ripping him off for years and all in all it is a most unsatisfactory and unprofessional situation. An explanation would be welcome.
Peter Cookson, Spear Travels (Jetclub Ltd), York
Travel Weekly would welcome a response from BA.