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Well with the specials that are out at the moment and the fares plummeting has got me thinking, I realise allot of agents have adapted already and moved away from the normal 7% on a ticket towards a set amount for a ticket, we have at Travel247. I mean looking at fares it really is not feasible to stay in business. Have a look at this example:

A return ticket to Portugal: Cost R4954 – Taxes R2854 – Fare R2100 so if you go on the 7% on the fare route you are looking at earning approx R140 for a booking that probably involves a few phone calls and a couple of emails, all in all wrapped  up in less than an hour. This excludes he back off to process the ticket, invoice, fund tracking etc, now wait what if they paid in cash then you would also have bank fees to pay.

What I am getting at is gone are the days when you could say I earn 7 – 9% of the fare on the ticket, you just cannot stay in business. The way we work it is to have set amounts for tickets that are under R5000 , under R10 000 and those that are over R15 000. This works out fair for all involved, keeps the costings reasonable, fair and transparent.

That been said one can look on the other end of the scale where a business class ticket can cost in excess of R40 000 to London, this ticket takes the same amount of work as a special ticket, why should the service fee be so different? I mean can you realistically compare a fee of R2800 to a fee of R140 when you doing the same thing. Generally speaking that is.

Maybe this a communist way and sure we live in a capitalist society however lets be fair. This makes me think of parallel markets, something like real estate where someone that sells a 2.5 million rand mansion earns 7% for selling a house, surely this is crazy and excessive? I mean over R150 000 for sale. One can see why companies and websites like private property and help to sell are doing so well. They charge a set amount no matter how much the value of the house.

Interesting concept I believe we are seeing a similar popular trend in travel. Will we see similar trends in other markets and services?

So we are just under a year away from the next biggest thing in South Africa’s history next to Nelson Mandela becoming president. The world cup 2010 is coming, and it is coming at a blistering pace. Further to my Business Travellers breakfast last week I decided to do some home work on what is available for next year. As I am sure you are aware if you are in travel or have travelled before you can generally only book aprox 330 days into the future, this means June 2010 is available for booking now! With this in mind I did some delving into the availability side of things with the airlines and learnt some shocking news. Here are a few highlights of my investigation:

• To go to the semi finals in Cape Town from Johannesburg to attend the game on the 06th July I searched for flights departing JHB on 05 July returning on the 07th July. The best fare I could find excluding booking fees was R3713 (Taxes included) this was not even direct to Cape Town this was travelling via Port Elizabeth. The airline in this case was SAA.
• Now lets leave from London to Cape Town on SAA for the same game just a few days earlier, the fare availability came in at a whopping R23 450 including taxes and excluding the booking fee.
• Next lets go to a pool game in Polokwane,  departing JHB on the 12th June and returning to JHB on the 14 June we found flights with availability coming in at R2974 return including taxes and excluding the booking fee. The flying time is aprox 1 hour. This calculates are almost R50 per minute air travelling time.

So with that been said it looks like this is a FIFA event and they have done their homework and tied everything up very neatly. Well done to FIFA in selling SA out I hope it works out for you. Watch this space in the coming months while I do more investigating.

OK so this is the 3rd one I got this week, basically it is an email requesting bookings to be made where payment is via credit card and it is for international bookings, the emails generally come from *free email* providers. Here is a sample:

DO YOU SELL THE AIR TICKET FOR THESE COMPANIES FLIGHT (SOUTHAFRICA AIRLINE-FLY EMIRATES-ROYAL AIR MAROC-AIR
FRANCE-AMERICAN AIRLINE-BRITISH AIRWAYS-KLM)
DO YOU ACCEPT THE PAYMENT BY CREDIT CARD (VISA-MASTER)
PAYMENT FORM BY CREDIT CARD
AUTHORIZATION FORM OF CREDIT CARD
COPY OF CREDIT CARD
ID CARD
I’M STILL WAITING YOUR ANSWER WITH YOUR NAME AND PHONE NUMBER AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.

Yup it is written all in caps and I have left the wording as received. People please be very aware of people who enquire to make payments via credit card like this. I realise that some of these emails can use some great titles lie SIR etc however be very aware and throw caution to the wind. To all the agents out there be aware and rather abstain, a R350 service fee is not worth the bad debit of R10 000. Now we need to watch this space as the scammers will evolve and get cleverer so be awake , aware and in control.

Ok let me start off by saying that we do not have such a legal entity in South Africa. We do however have a new trend in ripping tourist off in this country. Tonight on 702 on the way home I heard stories  (8 confirmed cases) of tourist that had been ripped off by Tourist Police, let me elaborate on that, they were ripped off by people claiming to be tourist police.

The con happens when tourist vehicles are spotted and lured off the road by flashing blue lights. Once stopped they are flash a tourist police badge and their belongings search and *lifted* from them. The whole set up is really believable, so be aware!

Now for foreign tourists this is not too far from the truth. I myself have been privy to the might and assistance of real tourist police during my summers in Athens. In other countries around the globe there is such a legal entity. Not in South Africa, tourists that are coming to SA or that are already here: “Please be aware that in South Africa we currently do NOT have a Tourist police force. I appeal to all stake holders in the travel industry to be aware of this, it is real, it is happening, do not bury your head in the sand, warn your drivers and guides. Do your bit to stop crime and spread the word that we do not have Tourist police in South Africa.

This morning I had the privilege to attend the Business Traveller Breakfast at the Michelangelo Hotel at Nelson Mandela Square  in Sandton. First off hats off to the hotel it is the first time I have been through there and it is beautiful. It is pristine and a pleasure to be in. Going on with the breakfast, it was hosted by the brilliant Michale Jackson, I have heard him speak on a few occasions and again he out did himself this time with his wit and charm. Now down to the serious business on what the breakfast was about. The breakfast focused on the 2010 World cup. I have heard some stats a while ago from a talk by Gary Bailie at the eTravel open forum in 2008, so I had some idea about the enormity of the event. This however was elaborated on by the speakers this morning. Here are some points I picked up as highlights of this mornings break fast I would like to share with you:

Graham Wood: Over 80% of our inventory for Southern Sun between 11 June and 11 July 2010  is contracted to FIFA.

Fouad Caunhye: A large portion of our flights have been allocated to use by FIFA.

Adam Brown: We are expecting 450 000 international visitors for the FIFA world cup excluding SA and Africa

Tebogo Mekgoe: Durban airport is about 75% bigger than the current airport at this stage which means it is better than what we currently have even if it is not finished in time.

(These points are what I understood, they are not a direct transcript of what was said)

Wow with this happening next year we are surely in for a huge event! There are over 3 million tickets available for the event next year. Over 220 000 tickets have already been snapped up by foreign fans even before the final draw on 04 December 2010. That been said it was noted that *team tickets* that will be put into circulation have already been over subscribed. Another key point I would like to touch on that was brought up, next year will be different it will be African and it will be unique, one reason is that when the world cup was in Germany people could attend the world cup for a 1 night stay. People coming to WC 2010 will be coming for up to 10 days at a time and some for the whole event. This is great!

For the business traveller here is the crux, as it was said this morning do not plan weekend conference or a week long conference in another city for 150 delegates during the WC month next year. There is very little space at the inn and you can be sure that when there is demand and less supply prices will go up. That been said nothing is stopping you from having local conference in your local city as these conference venues will generally be available.

Emirates has capacity to bring in over 65 000 travellers to SA in the WC month, that will leave over 200 000 travellers to other airlines. When it comes to supply and demand and pricing that is a whole new blog on its own so watch this space.

Ok so you are all ready for the big step to buy your ticket. Now you have heard everyone tell you that you should get a one year open return ticket. What does this mean? This effectively means that you can use the return portion of the ticket for up to a year from date of departure. Now remember a few things, you need to book your return when you know the date you would like to return. You cannot just show up at the airport and fly when you like as there may not be availability for you. Book far in advance as possible as it is possible there is limited availability on the dates you would like to return.

Now that this has been said you must be very aware that a lot of airlines have moved away from open return tickets and often do not allow them. OK so what does this mean? This means that a date must be booked in the system and reflected on the ticket that you hold a confirmed return date. Now what ever you do not do a no show on this ticket! If you are going to make changes or not use the ticket for the date that it is booked , then change your date well in advance. Be aware that there is a difference and a lot of airlines do not allow open dated tickets. If you see a return date on your ticket then you are booked to come home and you DO NOT Have an open return ticket so change the date before the date printed on the ticket if you are going to make changes.

The next question that can be raised is why have airlines moved away from this? Well for one an open segment “disappears” in the system, so when you make changes to the ticket a new booking is created with a new vendor locator’s and the history of the booking cannot be tracked.

Guys be awre and do not do a no show!

Well well with airlines squeezing everything they can out of consumer it is very refreshing to see that the Greeks are taking a different approach. They are in fact giving the consumers the ability to take more baggage with them on holiday. This is great news here are the new limits:

• Economy class has increased from 20kg to 30kg
• Business class has increased from 30kg to 40kg

Kudos to Olympic, this is great and I am very sure this will be very welcomed by your patrons! Now the question is which airline is next?