A Major airline in Europe has started imposing a "surcharge" for using credit cards to pay for airline tickets in six markets, dubbed as a trial.
While it is quite understandable that airlines want to reduce costs, this could potentially be a game changer.
Companies and individual travelers have become accustomed to paying for travel by credit card and receiving points, rebates and benefits.
Travel Management Companies are also happy not to extend billing and wait for payments. It is the airlines that are the actual merchants in the vast majority of the cases, and it is the airlines that pay the merchant discount fees to the credit card companies. With major airlines doing billions a year in sales, it is easy to calculate what a 1% to 2% saving would do to the bottom line. But this will likely run into a firestorm of opposition and most likely incur the wrath (and the strong lobby) of the banks and credit card companies that benefit from the merchant fees.
www.premieretravel.com
No comments:
Post a Comment