A CHANGE in the way
Lufthansa Group airlines
distribute their fares is
likely to level the playing field
by giving all agents globally
access to the same availability
and airfares. This is good
news, particularly for smaller
agencies that have been
unable to bypass point-of-sale
fares.
Big consortiums and
agencies with overseas offices
or partners have been able to
bypass point-of-sale pricing,
accessing lower fares available
in other markets by purchasing
tickets for their SA clients
through overseas offices.
At the end of last year, the
Lufthansa Group airlines
converted their general
steering logic to Point of
Commencement (PoC)
worldwide.
“This PoC logic applies
to all sales channels and
better reflects the expected
airfare, because now the
decisive factor for availability
and airfare is the place of
departure,” explains Dr André
Schulz, gm Lufthansa Group
Southern Africa.
“The former Point-of-Sale
logic circumvented this
philosophy, as the decisive
factor in the past was the
point of sale or the country
office ID used by the travel
agency.”
He says the implementation
of this new PoC steering logic
“alleviates the disadvantages
some South African travel
agents faced in the past”.
Ricky Reynolds of Reynolds
Travel says the development
will level the playing field
as agents who have been
bypassing point-of-sale pricing
by leveraging overseas offices
will no longer benefit from
lower pricing. “Because fares
will be priced equally across
markets, our competitors will
not be able to sell cheaper
fares by accessing lower fares
in other markets.”
This development is a good
thing, says Dinesh Naidoo,
group operations director
of SWG. He explains that,
specifically, the availability of
all fare classes in the different
markets will get rid of unfair
competition, as all agencies
will have access to the same
classes.
Furthermore, Dinesh says
Lufthansa has been leading
trends in the airline space. For
example, he says, it was the
first airline to introduce GDS
surcharges, although other
airlines have followed suit. He
says it’s not unlikely that other
airlines will similarly follow suit
in this instance.
