The slow end of Expedia et al? Lufthansa introduces €16 GDS fee

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• Brian says:

  3 Jun3 June 11:16

  I think the key question here is how many consumers use a GDS to find a price and then book on the airlines website with clicking on a link versus those who just go straight to the airlines website.

  I struggle to see how Lufthansa would know whether a customer has checked the price in this way first (maybe they have some good online research). I for one will always use a comparison site, will then go directly to the airline (usually AA or BA) to make the actual booking.

  So have Lufthansa wrongly assumed that customers directly coming to their website haven’t used a GDS minutes before?

  • Aeronaut says:

    3 Jun3 June 16:05

    Expedia et al are not GDSs. Consumers don’t have direct access to GDSs.

• Nick says:

  3 Jun3 June 12:14

  Is EUR16 enough to change people’s behaviour though? I can see that it’s a noteable increase on cheap domestic tickets, but is it really going to stop people using Lufthansa for other flights? My main criteria when booking a flight is convenience along with cost – I generally book the most convenient flight as long as I don’t think the price is unreasonable. For example, LH to Berlin from LHR at say 8pm on a Friday night is ideal for me, so if that flight was say £100 I’d book it. I’d also book it at £110. I might go for an earlier/later flight if that earler/later flight was say £40, but that is the case whether or not the ideal flight was £100 or £110. I can’t see anybody changing their flights from LH for long-haul, for example. A few quid is hardly going to stop you booking the most appropriate flights.

  • tony says:

    3 Jun3 June 20:18

    Eur16 might seem like nothing but if you’re a party of 5, or sending dozens of people to FRA every week, this could bite.

    I wonder if it’s a bargaining chip by lh group to cut fees. After all they’ve gone to great pains to highlight the number of airlines involved. And sent this direct to some consumers….

  • Calchas says:

    3 Jun3 June 21:52

    Absolutely yes. People sort by price and pick the cheapest.

    • Nick says:

      4 Jun4 June 10:03

      I’m not really sure that’s true though. I take Tony’s point as regards groups – I only ever book for me and the wife, but I can see how it would be a more material cost to a bigger family.

      But as regards people just booking the cheapest flight: if someone wants a flight at 10am and it costs £116, surely they are not going to book a 7am or 1pm flight because it is £16 cheaper?

• @alastairtravel says:

  3 Jun3 June 14:16

  Working at a TMC this is a big call from Lufthansa.

  It will be interesting to see how the display of these fares is negotiated with the GDS. Will it be included at the fare quote stage, or tucked in at the end? With the recent changing laws about displaying the final fare I’d be inclined to the former, which will make them uncompetitive (especially on short-haul)

  GDS bookings also tend to be corporate bookings (and generally with a much higher yield to the airline) so it’s a fair argument that you get a better quality of booking through this channel, one which Lufthansa are conveniently ignoring)

  Overall this is going to lead to fragmentation of the booking process at a time when technology is moving it towards a smoother booking experience for travellers and consumers.

  I’m not sure whether the position is sustainable without other airlines adopting similar positions en masse. How many other companies do you know that charge extra to distribute their products through their largest and most lucrative channel?

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