Corporate T/A rip-offs

[Travel Guru]

I have a question, a little OT but interesting.

Recently flew home , booked and paid with QF / JQ direct.

Get back to work, and my VP has emailed saying that our corporate travel agent has written to make sure that the travel i undertook was personal, not corporate (and therefore breaking our contract with them). They somehow tracked my travel.

Apart from the breach of privacy which I'm not very comfortable about and working out how to respong, has anyone had this happen to them? How would a travel agent track travel by other people when they haven't booked it?

Very strange indeed....i've got no idea how they could find that out as it would be a total breach of privacy.

Can I ask which agency its with?

TG

 

[simongr]

I am fortunate that my travel is not funded through our local business so I have a "dispensation" to book my travel directly with whoever I want as FCM seem unable to book international hotels and they refused to book my DONE4's with domestic sectors at the end (as they only ticket with QF). I have saved heaps by not booking through them and got the flights I wanted.

 

[DTM1]

Having seen a lot of corporate tenders I would suggest that unless you have visibility of every element of the deal - rebates, discounts, nets, commission shares - then it might be a bit unfair to compare 'apples' with 'oranges'. Surely the procurement process that selected the agent in the first place would have taken all fees and benefits into account?
More and more agents are using 'innovative' models to apply price where cost exists - the old remuneration system never allowed for this......

You would think so.

However, believe it or not, the people who negotiated the original deal knew nothing about this and were as surprised as I was (who hired those people ???)

 

[Travel Guru]

I am fortunate that my travel is not funded through our local business so I have a "dispensation" to book my travel directly with whoever I want as FCM seem unable to book international hotels and they refused to book my DONE4's with domestic sectors at the end (as they only ticket with QF). I have saved heaps by not booking through them and got the flights I wanted.

I think with FCM Simon, its not a matter of can't, it's a matter of won't.

TG

 

[straitman]

Yes but are you talking about a quotation fee or a service charge there straitman?

A service charge is common throughout retail, corporate and other areas of travel to cover what the airline once would have paid and prevents the agent from doing the work for nothing.

TG

Travel Guru,

I understood what I meant :!:

I was talking about a booking fee only and agreeing with NM on how our company operates its policy. Approval levels for travel are quite high in our company so it would be very unusual to look at something that was not followed through.

 

[GDSman]

I have a question, a little OT but interesting.

Recently flew home , booked and paid with QF / JQ direct.

Get back to work, and my VP has emailed saying that our corporate travel agent has written to make sure that the travel i undertook was personal, not corporate (and therefore breaking our contract with them). They somehow tracked my travel.

Apart from the breach of privacy which I'm not very comfortable about and working out how to respong, has anyone had this happen to them? How would a travel agent track travel by other people when they haven't booked it?

Have never heard of such a thing Very concerning breach of privacy. The only ways I can possibly imagine it happening would be: the airline informing the agent - based on your profile FF number and company email address or similar; or, the agent also being an issuer of credit carda and somehow cross-referencing your spend - surely a conspiracy theory; or, the agent getting access to MIDT that had not been fully sanitised to comply with privacy requirements. Of these I think the last two are almost impossible and the first extremely unlikely....any chance that your company, the agent and airline have some sort of data sharing agreement??

Mystery to me.....

 

[oz_mark]

I work for a govt. department and we pay a flat fee of 23.90 through Carlson Wagonlit for a domestic, not sure about int'l.

I have never seen a charge for booking on any of my corporate travel through CW, but this could be refelective of our arrangement with CW.

 

[oz_mark]

Have never heard of such a thing Very concerning breach of privacy. The only ways I can possibly imagine it happening would be: the airline informing the agent - based on your profile FF number and company email address or similar; or, the agent also being an issuer of credit carda and somehow cross-referencing your spend - surely a conspiracy theory; or, the agent getting access to MIDT that had not been fully sanitised to comply with privacy requirements. Of these I think the last two are almost impossible and the first extremely unlikely....any chance that your company, the agent and airline have some sort of data sharing agreement??

Mystery to me.....

I have the same thoughts, privacy aside, how would it actually occur?

 

[pauly7]

Have never heard of such a thing Very concerning breach of privacy. The only ways I can possibly imagine it happening would be: the airline informing the agent - based on your profile FF number and company email address or similar; or, the agent also being an issuer of credit carda and somehow cross-referencing your spend - surely a conspiracy theory; or, the agent getting access to MIDT that had not been fully sanitised to comply with privacy requirements. Of these I think the last two are almost impossible and the first extremely unlikely....any chance that your company, the agent and airline have some sort of data sharing agreement??

Mystery to me.....

I don't feel comfortable about revealing the agency Travel Guru, but I feel even more uncomfortable now hearing everyones thoughts (knowing that everyone here is experts on travel etc) and no one knows how they did it - that concerns me.

I paid with a personal credit card directly with Qantas and Jetstar and used personal email. The only thing I can think of is that somehow they are using my FF to track me? If anybody rings QF and asks if a certain person is on a flight they get told to go jump so why should a TA have open ongoing access to a persons travel they have nothing to do with.... I have certainly not signed anything directly allowing this.... and the mystery deepens because it happened to a colleague (who flew Emirates) so its not airline specific - and he didn't have a FF# on the booking....

Getting complicated, maybe they have a track on my name in the global reservation systems or something? I have no idea, but I think I will be politely asking....

 

[Travel Guru]

No problem re agency name, I appreciate your privacy Pauly.

There's no possible way for an agent to access another agents booking in a GDS...each agent only has access to their agencies bookings, so for instance in my agency, we can only see the booking we make, in Flight Centre's case, you can gain access to any booking made at any FC worldwide.

As an agent you can take over QF bookings to tkt, but you need the PNR to do so, and it can't ne done with surname.

I'm completely at a loss as to how an agent would gain your booking information, but whatever the means, its completely inethical.

I think irrespective of your companies agreement with this agent, it's a serious breach of privacy, and i'd encourage you to make a complaint against the agent to AFTA because invasion of your privacy to this degree just isn't on.

TG

 

[Travel Guru]

I have never seen a charge for booking on any of my corporate travel through CW, but this could be refelective of our arrangement with CW.

I'd think you'd find they do, they probably just add it to the quote without providing a fare and service charge breakdown....to the best of my knowledge, there aren't any corporate agencies who are free of service charges simply because they just couldn't afford to survive if they did.

TG

 

[drron]

Yes CW does incorporate a fee.

 

[Reggie]

Have you ever given them your PIN# and FF number to book and award flight or upgrade. If so they can access your FFer account and see where you have traveled, or are booked to travel. I suggest changing your PIN.

DOesn't exaplin your colleague who didn't use a FFer # on his booking though.

 

[oz_mark]

I'd think you'd find they do, they probably just add it to the quote without providing a fare and service charge breakdown....to the best of my knowledge, there aren't any corporate agencies who are free of service charges simply because they just couldn't afford to survive if they did.

I will take a look at a receipt on Monday, but I will just have to assume that is is buried in the fare and taxes somewhere.

 

[Evan]

I would simply ask them how they gained that infomation ? and if they refuse to detail then hint that you will speak to a legal professional, if that does not work then maybe you have a friend who is a legal professional why may like to write a nice letter asking the question.

I would be very concerned if my company travel agent know my personal travel plans.

For the most part my company travel agents seem to be useless, no matter what country they are based i can nearly always find better fare, better times etc. For example i was offered an Air France fare on friday that was way out of the way routeing that cost more than the direct BA/QF or MH routing and more expensive than SQ/LH combo as well i think. All i could think of was that the TA was on some comission for for AirFrance and not on the others. And yes they also earn a booking fee regardless.

Over the years i have used a lot of the different corp T/A's and they are all pretty much the same. They are painful at the begining, then you "train" them the way you want things done and its an ok relationship and no problems.

E

 

[JohnK]

I have a question, a little OT but interesting.

Recently flew home , booked and paid with QF / JQ direct.

Get back to work, and my VP has emailed saying that our corporate travel agent has written to make sure that the travel i undertook was personal, not corporate (and therefore breaking our contract with them). They somehow tracked my travel.

Apart from the breach of privacy which I'm not very comfortable about and working out how to respong, has anyone had this happen to them? How would a travel agent track travel by other people when they haven't booked it?

Could it be as simple as your corporate travel agent calling you at work while you were away and the person taking the phone call mentions that pauly7 is away in SIN or AKL or PER or wherever. The corporate travel agent then check their bookings and find that you did not book travel with them so they raise the issue with your vice president concerned that you may have booked corporate travel with another travel agent.

 

[oz_mark]

Could it be as simple as your corporate travel agent calling you at work while you were away and the person taking the phone call mentions that pauly7 is away in SIN or AKL or PER or wherever. The corporate travel agent then check their bookings and find that you did not book travel with them so they raise the issue with your vice president concerned that you may have booked corporate travel with another travel agent.

While possible it still seems strange. People taking my calls whgen I am away tend to just say I am on holidays. It would also suggest a paranoid TA.

 

[pauly7]

Could it be as simple as your corporate travel agent calling you at work while you were away and the person taking the phone call mentions that pauly7 is away in SIN or AKL or PER or wherever. The corporate travel agent then check their bookings and find that you did not book travel with them so they raise the issue with your vice president concerned that you may have booked corporate travel with another travel agent.

I did think of that John as my out of office was on obviously, but in the letter they referred to airlines, dates and flight numbers (same with my colleague). No one else in the office knew these details .

 

[pauly7]

While possible it still seems strange. People taking my calls whgen I am away tend to just say I am on holidays. It would also suggest a paranoid TA.

You are very correct about the paranoia. They are paranoid because we recently moved our entire global business to them and they are hopeless, have been stuffing everything up from visas to ticketing and people hate them so much they have been defying the global contract and going back to using our old TA. Which obviously gives them the motive to monitor our travel but still not clear on the means!

 

[oz_mark]

You are very correct about the paranoia. They are paranoid because we recently moved our entire global business to them and they are hopeless, have been stuffing everything up from visas to ticketing and people hate them so much they have been defying the global contract and going back to using our old TA. Which obviously gives them the motive to monitor our travel but still not clear on the means!

I did wonder about just how much information they had, but if they have your whole itinerary, then that does suggest they are getting it out of the system somehow. I would certainly be asking how they got that information as a starting point, or get your company to ask how they knew.