Travel Agent Margins?

[Bonefish Blues]

Does anyone know what margins they work on?

I ask because I've been quoted £790 for a flight itinerary when 20 mins on tinterweb says I can do it for £672 - is this typical, do you think?

[Roo]

First job I had when I left scholl was in a travel agents. Average commission paid by tour operators/airlines etc was 12%. That was 25 years ago though.

[v15ben]

Don't want to give away too many trade secrets but we don't have a set percentage for flights per se, it is basically whatever we can get away with while still beating the other prices a customer has seen.

Tour companies pay up to 25% commission, but the average is probably closer to 15-18%.

I would guess that places like Thomas Cook work on much tighter margins though.

[Bonefish Blues]

v15ben said:

Don't want to give away too many trade secrets but we don't have a set percentage for flights per se, it is basically whatever we can get away with while still beating the other prices a customer has seen.

Tour companies pay up to 25% commission, but the average is probably closer to 15-18%.

I would guess that places like Thomas Cook work on much tighter margins though.

Interesting thanks - so haggle hard then!

[Engineer1]

The internet price may be for a different type of ticket than the Travel Agent ticket.

[Fezant Pluckah]

25% Ben? Bloody hell, if I gave 25% commission I'd make a loss on every trip!

I give 10% commission to regular travel agents, 8% to "newbies" and move on to 10% when they've shown their worth.

As for airline tickets, you'll probably find that the big boys like Trailfinders etc would only make maybe £15-20 on a £600 ticket. They rely on selling thousands of tickets to make their money.

[v15ben]

Haha yes the 25% comes from our main global tour operator who we sell in every branch around the world. Our branch probably sells around 10 of their trips per week alone so they have a prtety good revenue stream from us.

Usually with flights you are spot on, we make very little unless we have an extremely cheap deal with an airline or the customer hasn't bothered to look anywhere else!

On the opposite side of the desk I would definitely haggle hard. We sometimes have customers who play us off against other agents until we literally would be making a loss to make the price any cheaper. I'd recommend searching every possible option, getting written quotes for any really cheap prices then going to a high street travel agent with the cheapest quote and making them beat it! Just don't come into my shop

[v15ben]

Engineer1 said:

The internet price may be for a different type of ticket than the Travel Agent ticket.

That is often the case, but if you don't tell the agent the cheapest price you've found then they will try and sting you for whatever they can get away with hence the price being so much more. Sometimes though there is just a really good contract or sale fare that only one website or airline has and in that instance it will be much cheaper than any equivalent price.

[Bonefish Blues]

v15ben said:

Engineer1 said:

The internet price may be for a different type of ticket than the Travel Agent ticket.

That is often the case, but if you don't tell the agent the cheapest price you've found then they will try and sting you for whatever they can get away with hence the price being so much more. Sometimes though there is just a really good contract or sale fare that only one website or airline has and in that instance it will be much cheaper than any equivalent price.

Any recommendations re the best online sites to look at - I'm new to booking my own tickets since the independent travel agents I used to use have closed down.

Itinerary is LHR - MIA - NAS - IGA if that helps?

[Dave_ITR]

Worked for a tour operator for 8 years.

When I left last year, we were giving 8% as standard.

Went up to maybe 12% at most if we were working in conjunction with a specific agent for a particular promotion.