BRITISH Airways is to employ trade experts from the US to teach agents how to charge service fees.
The carrier is planning to hold a series of seminars with the retailers in the first two weeks of April.
BA general manager field sales Ian Heywood said he planned to get as many agents as possible to the day-long seminars.
“We really want to give agents who are feeling slightly nervous about charging fees the ability to implement them,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Guild of Business Travel Agents chairman Don Lunn is demanding BA delays its plan to axe commission to give members more time to adapt to changes.
The airline is set to scrap commission on January 1 next year but Lunn wants the plan to be postponed until at least April 2001.
Lunn said the GBTA and BA have a long way to go before both parties agree on a workable solution but said the airline should pay a reasonable level of remuneration and the new scheme should be easy to understand.
BA head of UK and Ireland sales Tiffany Hall said she has not been approached by Lunn or the GBTA about the new demands.