Preferential rates from airlines
Preferential rates (FTE) positions are fares that the airlines German Lufthansa , Austrian Airlines and Swiss International Airlines were introduced in Germany in 2009.
As a rule, these prices are reduced by 30 euros for a return flight to the so-called normal price. In addition to the airlines themselves, a travel agency can only sell these preferential prices if it has made a corresponding agreement with the airline. Otherwise the normal price automatically applies. In return, the computer reservation systems have lowered the otherwise usual segment incentive for the sale of preferential prices and / or were temporarily charged additional fees for the sale of preferential prices. Due to the high share of these three airlines in the total turnover and the difficult possible cross-subsidization, the majority of the German travel agencies felt compelled to pass these additional costs on to the end customer. One of the aims of the airlines' original intention was to use the computer reservation systems to significantly reduce their own distribution costs, since they now also receive less than before for the distribution of preferential rates. Although this was ultimately successful, the end customer tended to see a price increase.
Behavior of the computer reservation systems
After the German market leader Amadeus initially did not take over the additional fees, while the smaller systems SABER and Travelport partially compensated for these costs for the travel agency, a sometimes considerable shift in the market set in, and travel agencies completely or partially changed what they were using Reservation system. At the same time, several lawsuits were pending against the preferential prices. In the meantime, however, the computer reservation systems behave largely uniformly again.
effort
For all companies involved in the tourism value chain (travel agencies, consolidators, internet booking machines, computer reservation systems), the introduction of the VZP has led to considerable conversion costs that are estimated at several million euros across Germany.