AAA announced that travelers will pay more, waste time and lose access to travel experts under new fees announced yesterday by Northwest Airlines.
"These new fees are worse than a fare increase," said Steve Frank, president and CEO, AAA Minneapolis. "Not only will they result in higher fares, but they penalize travelers and travel agents for using customer- friendly booking methods."
"Travelers will have to pay more to benefit from the fare comparison abilities of travel agents and travel Web sites. Travel agents are penalized by being pushed to Northwest's inferior online booking site, instead of computer reservation systems used by nearly all major airlines," said Jeff Ogden, president and COO, AAA Minnesota/Iowa.
The airline says the new fees will take effect in two parts. Beginning August 27, 2004, customers will be charged $5 for calling Northwest to book a ticket and $10 for purchasing one in-person at one of Northwest's airport locations. On September 1, 2004, the airline will begin charging travel agents $7.50 to book a round-trip ticket (or $3.75 one-way) through the global distribution systems used by major airlines, hotels and rental car companies.
"Northwest has suggested that customers use the airline's Web site to avoid fees," Frank said. "This eliminates easy comparison shopping through travel agents and online agency web sites while limiting travelers to just one airline -- certainly not a customer friendly way to engender loyalty among travelers. Similarly, Northwest has suggested that travel agents use its Web site to book their clients, creating redundant work and unnecessary delay by forcing travel agents to use the airline's unwieldy site."
"AAA understands that Northwest needs to improve its bottom line in a hyper-competitive airline industry, but this move clearly does not endear the airline to travelers and travel agents who have other options," Ogden added. "In addition, Northwest's rationale does not hold valid for those markets where they are unaffected by smaller, low-fare carriers."
