The now big political spat over credit card fees that UAL want the agents to shoulder has everyone weighing in.

As Richard Eastman noted many weeks ago this has significant potential implications. However as I have noted - this is not something for everyone to get their noses bent out of shape on. We do have many other issues that are perhaps more important.

But let's play along with ASTA's Paul Rudin and use his $2 Billion number. If we accept the US represents about 1/3rd of total global traffic then this number would triple worldwide.

Thus we can say that now credit card fees comprise approx 3 times the cost impact to the airlines than GDS fees.

Etc Etc - Lots of big numbers to worry about.

Credit card fees are in the cross hairs of the airlines. Rightly so. As I noted in a recent post - with the near banks withdrawing from the credit card market we are seeing a pretty significant and steep increase in the imposition and collection of fees by the bank based credit card companies. Just like the airlines - CC companies have learned the unbundling trick. Although I am not sure who trained who in this bad set of practices.

There can be no doubt that the cost of using a credit card has risen and is rising for both Merchants and Consumers. In Europe and Asia/Pacific, having credit card fees covered by the consumer rather than a merchant is much more common behavior. Here are some examples from the UK:

Ryanair charges GBP5 per flight whether flights are booked online, via a call centre or at an airport. EasyJet levies a GBP0.95 booking fee, Flybe's charge is GBP2 per one-way journey, but rather confusingly lists a minimum fee of GBP3.50. Aer Lingus charges a GBP4 handling fee and British Airways charges a hefty GBP4.50 per ticket.

Ryanair recently lost a significant court fight that may have long time reverberations. The Superior Court of Justice in Berlin cited a European Union directive, which states that the charge is "inadmissible" unless Ryanair offers a charge-free method of payment too.

They ruled that while FR offers free charges via Visa Electron the low penetration and usage of these cards made it largely irrelevant. This ruling could then reverberate around Europe.

Frankly we have to consider that if the US airline industry was to lose $3+billion this year, passing off more than 50% of that to the consumer is too large a number to avoid. So you can be sure United must be weighing its options - it may now be too late for people to back down.

What do you think?

Cheers
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