Today, the Australian Federation of Travel Agents (AFTA) expressed its disappointment in Qantas’ decision to reduce front-end commissions paid to travel agents on international tickets from 5 per cent to 1 per cent.
AFTA said it had made strong representations to Qantas on the pressing need to maintain the status quo given travel agents’ primary revenue reliance on international travel and the reality that international travel is unlikely to normalise before mid-2022 at the earliest.
While these representations have resulted in Qantas providing a 1-year lead-in to the reduced commission structure to July 2022, AFTA says Its members are very disappointed and hope that Qantas will work with AFTA to minimise the impact through optimising agent benefits on QDP.
A statement from the AFTA Board said, “AFTA on behalf of our members and the consumers we support is very disappointed.
“It’s true there has been a gradual global transition to reduce BSP payments, but that transition happened in a pre-COVID world. The reality of COVID and the ongoing paralysis of international travel until at least mid-2022 puts Australia’s travel agents and businesses in a very difficult position.
“While we are grateful that Qantas has provided 1 year’s notice of these changes following strong representations from AFTA, the reality is that the ongoing paralysis of international travel to and from Australia has hit travel agents and businesses extremely hard, and this is another unwelcome blow.
“The AFTA Board notes the longstanding relationship Qantas has had with travel agents and businesses, and we ask Qantas to work closely with us to optimise benefits for agents as we move forward, including on QDP.”
Since the milestone announcement went live on Karryon earlier today, our social media channels have been flooded with comments in response with many agents also expressing their disaappointment.
One agent said, “At times like these Qantas need to support agents, not make things harder for us. Unfortunately, other airlines will probably follow suit as well.” while another said, “totally surprised they didn’t do it sooner, to be honest.”
In it’s release to the trade, Qantas said that the commission change would likely accelerate the growing industry trend towards a “fee for service” model for agents that have already taken place in many markets overseas and already exists with many agencies across Australia today.
One of the agents on our ‘Together In Travel’ Facebook closed page said in response, “It’s in line with other countries. We have been lucky for a long time I guess. Your service now becomes paramount and charging a fee for that service is integral.”
Got an opinion to share? Email us at editor@karryon.com.au with your thoughts.