CCRA Travel Solutions has long been known for its hotel booking portal, which offers access to more than 180,000 properties worldwide. Now the company is heading into uncharted territory with a new air booking tool that will allow travel agents to earn commission when making flight reservations for their clients on CCRA's web-based booking tool. The news came last week at the Home Based Agent Forum in Las Vegas.
Last year CCRA launched CCRA Air Select for ARC-appointed agencies working through the GDS. The product offered commissionable air on 13 different international airlines and up to 30 other international carriers. In July, CCRA plans to introduce its new web-based air booking product for travel agents who are not necessarily ARC-appointed and don't book through a GDS.
Called CCRA Air Select Central, the new product will offer agents the opportunity to book travel on 13 international airlines, including Aer Lingus, Airberlin, Jet Airways, Qatar, LOT, Turkish, Etihad, Air New Zealand, Asiana and Thai Airlines. Commissions will range from as low as 4 percent to as high as 25 percent for first- and business-class seats. Agents also can add a service fee.
Steve Pello, vice president-Air Partner Solutions for CCRA, says the company will do all negotiations with airlines to deliver commissions on par with some of the big online and brick-and-mortar agencies. CCRA also will offer full reconciliation and reporting. Within 24 hours of issuing a ticket agents will be able to see the exact ticketing information and how much money they have earned.
CCRA will pay commissions every two weeks based on tickets booked by electronic transfer or check, but it will have a minimum requirement that an agent accrue at least $100 in commissions before payment. CCRA also will feature exclusive incentives and promotions for the 13 carriers it sells, as well as provide airline news and updates to agents. Pello says the company also will plan quarterly fam trips on airlines that are part of the program.
Under CCRA's new air booking program, agents receive 80 percent of the commissions earned. There is a $5 per ticket fee that can be passed through to the customer. There is also a $10 fee per void, refund or cancellation, and a $20 fee per ticket exchange. Pello points out that most airlines charge $25 to $50 for refunds or cancellations.
In order to use CCRA's program, agents must provide a signed agreement with their travel agents, a copy of their Seller of Travel certificate, a copy of the voided check, documentation of their agency name, their ARC or TRUE number.
A number of agency consortia and networks have introduced their own air booking programs. Virtuoso and Ensemble, for example, both offer programs paying commission on certain international airlines. Travel Leaders Group companies, including Vacation.com, Travel Leaders Franchise Group, Results, Nexion, Tzell and others, also have commissionable air programs with certain preferred international and domestic carriers. But CCRA is the first to offer an air program to the agency population at large.
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