the high charges these days cannot be blamed on travel agents.

a very high proportion of air tickets are now sold direct via the web (especially BA).

I agree that the high rates of ticket nowadays cannot be blamed on travel agents. We purchase all tickets online while on the phone with the client. We are able to tell them the price right then, print up the information, and book the flight. No booking is done without the client knowing the exact time we are doing it.

I don’t think the ex-employee was suggesting it still happens now, but what was happening 15 years ago.

But charging for name changes does seem to stop the ticket touts. Take a look here to see what is happening in the concert industry.

“who use [.. ] software to buy tickets they can resell to the public at higher prices. Such actions have blocked consumers from getting those tickets at the “face” price shown on the ticket.”

I don’t think anyone would want that happening in the travel industry.

The whole airline ticket markey has always been a nightmare. However, the days of the “bucket shop” are long gone so at least that whole area of undercutting my apparently unlicensed brokers has been cleared up.

Am I missing something? How could you ‘tout’ a plane ticket? Tickets are non-transferable as part of standard terms and conditions. Would you buy a ticket for a John Smith and hope to tout it to a Jon Smith via a name change? What about showing ID? Address and credit card details not matching up. I don’t get it.

Actually quick check, maybe u can, kinda. BA’s T&Cs. Pretty sure non-transfer is standard. Anyone know better?

http://www.britishairways.com/travel/genconcarr1/public/en_gb#3f

3f) Your right to transfer your booking to another passenger where the Package Travel, Package Holidays and Package Tour Regulations apply.

We or our authorised agents will, if you ask, issue a new ticket to somebody else to replace your ticket if:

* your ticket has been issued as part of a package to which The Package Travel, Package Holidays and Package Tours Regulations 1992 SI 1992/3288 as amended (the Regulations) apply
* you want to transfer your booking under regulation 10 of the Regulations
* you prove to us or our authorised agents that you have satisfied the requirements of regulation 10 and are entitled to transfer the booking
* you give us or our authorised agents reasonable notice of your intention to transfer the booking before your date of departure
* you give us or our authorised agents the full name, address and contact number of the person to whom you want the new ticket to be issued
* you deliver your ticket to us or our authorised agents and
* you pay us or our authorised agents a reasonable administration fee for issuing the new ticket.

Brian,

That was my point, the current charges for name changes ensure that you can’t tout a plane ticket. If these charges were scraped, as a lot of people want, then it would be much easier to do. You would not need to find another John Smith, you could sell it to Joe Bloggs instead.

Ah, thx Paul i misunderstood.

Well back on point then surely some provision could be made to stop people block-booking and on selling while still allowing a name change? No credit card allowed to be used to purchase more then 4\6\8 tickets for a flight. Make ticket touting an offence. (would need to be an EU law)
Brian

I believe this discussion is between persons not knowing what they are talking about. To put things in the right perspective take my knowledge and use it for your benefit.
Since 2003 most airlines decided to stop paying commissions to travel agents for the ticket issuance and reservation facilities they supplied to their clients. Instead they pushed/obliged travel agents to charge a service fee for the services rentered.This was done by simply cancelling the agency agreement they had for years with agents and replacing it with a distribution agreement. All this actions were ilegal but due to their strong position they managed to bend agencies resistance and not only succeedeed but they started charging service fees as well which is TOTALLY ILEGAL making huge profits. If any lawyer reads this comment, his response will prove me right. Summing up is not the agencies who created the chaos but the greed of the aircarriers.

Darren,

With respect to your security question, I guess that the security requirements of the likes of the US and Spain to pass on full details of the passengers on flight before take off, really does make the selling on of tickets a real no goer.

It would take for even longer to check-in if all that information those countries require had to be collected then because the ticket had been sold on.

Paul,

It’s not going to take any longer to check in if the ticket is sold on.

The information is only passed to the US and Spain before the flight takes off, so the ticket will already have the name of the person traveling, and that is the information sent to the US and Spain.

I mistakenly entered a ‘C’ instead of ‘B’ for my wifes initial on the website, yes my mistake.

Opodo charged me £65 admin fee to make the change. 1 letter. It is greed and nothing else.

AAAh the good old days of the travel industry when name changes were permitted and even full refunds given when canceling - the days before airport taxes came in…those were the days and yes alot of agents did get greedy and the airlines cottoned on to this practice with dollar signs in their eyes and changed the system - it is so tight nowadays you cant even hold a seat in a system longer than 24hrs before the airline want tickets issued at non refundable non changeable fares….