A worldwide decision by American Airlines to limit travel agencies’ access to their tickets cheaper generated by Argentina the complaint to the tourist agencies gathered in the FACVE chamber, where they ask the airline to do so postpone this decision until the end of the year. From American Airlines they communicated that it will be effective starting from this Saturday and confirmed it there will be no return in that decision.
The conflict concerns the possibility that until the end of March the tourist agencies had to be able to sell all tickets available for American Airlines flights, by far the most frequent foreign airline between Argentina and the United States: depending on the season, They range from 28 to 35 flights a week.
American reported, globally, that as of April the 40% of its lowest fares will be unavailable for agencies operating in so-called independent global distribution systems (gds extension). To access this type of rate, agencies must access the direct channel NDC of American.
The Argentine Forum of Travel Consultants and Travel Companies (FAVOR) issued a unusual statement against that decision, Friday afternoon. They expressed their “concern and vigilance” over the changes being generated at American Airlines’ local headquarters “with the reduction of almost all of its commercial team who have provided support to travel agencies in Argentina until a few days ago”. And they asked to postpone the decision to change the ticket purchasing systems from the agencies to the end of the year.
These sudden changes will have the final customer as its main victimto both the corporate traveler and the tourist by virtue of the fact that travel agents will not be able to professionally manage the booking, follow-up and after-sales service activities without the current tool provided by the GDS,” said Carlos Nuñez , executive director of FACVE.
FACVE brings together both virtual and Take off and Almundolike the more traditional like Tije Travel, Byblos, Columbia or Delphiamong nearly fifty members.
The response from American Airlines came a couple of hours later and closed the question.
“We recently announced changes to our sales team structure, which It will allow us to provide you with a better service. in an evolving market, while supporting our customers’ preferences and how they want to book their travel,” the US airline said.
Not only does American have a significant number of frequencies between the United States and Argentina, it is also the only foreign airline to do so operates its own ramp service at Ezeiza Airport (Other airlines have to contract the services of the state company interchargewith the exception of Aerolíneas Argentinas, which is also present own ramp service).
The American also mounted a significant garage in Ezeiza, for the repair and maintenance of the planes waiting between their arrival in the morning and their departure at night. In total, at the local branch of American about 500 people work.
Source: Clarin
