CATHAY Pacific and Cathay
Dragon have ceased
the sale of SOTO (Sold
Outside, Ticketed Outside)
bookings to travel agents
in South Africa, Namibia,
Botswana, Lesotho, eSwatini,
Lesotho, Mozambique,
Mauritius, Kenya, Tanzania
and Zambia.
Agents received a notification
earlier this month of the
cessation, effective August 1,
with the airline attributing the
move to “prevailing market
circumstances” and to “align
with developing trends”.
SOTO bookings are defined
by Cathay Pacific as travel
itineraries that do not feature
South Africa. The airline
explains that if an itinerary
has a departure outside of
South Africa, but includes
Johannesburg or Cape Town as
a destination, bookings will still
be permitted.
“I can only see this as a
move to restrict Cathay Pacific’s
business in Africa and to push
the agents away,” says Rene
Toner, independent travel
consultant. “I have clients I can
no longer service. I certainly will
not be visiting Cathay’s website
to book internal tickets;
that defeats the objective of
booking on Amadeus and is
way too time consuming.”
She adds that Cathay Pacific
only distributed a notification
about ceasing SOTO ticketing
on September 12, but
the statement says the ruling
came into effect on August 1.
“SOTO tickets are quite
commonly booked, particularly
when corporates want to make
travel arrangements for clients
in other parts of the world,”
says md of Sure Viva Travel,
David Pegg.
“The cessation of SOTO
bookings will mean that agents
will now have to book on the
Internet in order to assist
clients with these itineraries.
This isn’t great as we lose a
lot of control over the booking
if made outside of the GDS,”
explains Pegg, who feels
that the ticketing restriction
may lead to Cathay Pacific
losing market share to other
airlines who still offer the
option to trade.
Travel director of Marmalade
Toast Bespoke Travel, David
van den Heever-Liebenberg,
agrees saying that the forced
channelling of bookings away
from the GDS will result in a
lack of high touch-control that
will hinder an agent’s service
delivery to its clients.
Van den Heever-Liebenberg
has a number of clients in Asia
and Australia and has been
using Cathay Pacific for their
bookings regularly. The move
is causing him to reconsider
booking the airline.
He says that while Cathay
is claiming that the move
is intended to “align with
developing trends” he isn’t
aware of any other carriers who
have implemented this in the
SA market.
“In fact I find this to be
contrary to developing trends.
In this cut-throat world, why
would any principal supplier
restrict sales of any nature?”
says van den HeeverLiebenberg.
When TNW contacted
the airline to ask for the
motivation behind the change,
a spokesperson from Cathay
Pacific said: “Our partnership
with travel agents allows us to
work closely and seamlessly
with them. We would like
to inform the trade that the
agents can still book SOTO
tickets in South Africa whereby
the destination is either Cape
Town or Johannesburg.”
