desistudentinus

I negotiate technology deals for a living. But of late I have diversified into travel negotiations. With hotels and car services in India. Because the savings are big enough to pay for 2-3 more client staff going on the trips. I nickel and dime and make sure hotel rates include breakfast, wifi, airport transfers; car service include plenty of hours and mileage. And I hate it. Because I know no matter what I do, an average Indian off the street would get another 40 to 50% off. Even the local airlines with their official tariffs charge fares bought in foreign currency a premium. Can you imagine the lawsuits in the US if our hotels and airlines charged more based on national origin? But it continues unabated in India.

But past couple of months its been interesting to look how non- IATA travel agents have been growing and volume of travel e-commerce transactions is consituted by them. With advent of low cost airlines and their decision not to be part of any GDS (code of conduct for all low cost airlines ask them to do so) its become easier for agents to just register with them directly by depositing small cash amount of 25,000 INR and get discounts directly. As india does not have large number of airlines and travel agents based on their location and depending/selling one airline more than others. Its interesting to see how GDS has been bypassed completely.

Join a good Travel Agency in your area and learn how it works. You need to know fare calculations, Reservation systems like Galileo and Abacus, how to issue tickets, fare rules and type of fares and classes, How Airlines work, how to make itineraries and very important, how to give services to clients. After a good experience you can start your own Travel Agency.

Fair enough dont refund money collected under your own head but would like to know what is the procedure to get tax back on congestion fuel etc which was not used especially in the case where passenger did cancel his/her air tickets lets say 72 hours before the flight. As far as my sources claim the tax never reach government coffers. 

The differences between domestic and international airfares are largely due to the differences in how they are, or are not, regulated. Unlike deregulated domestic USA airfares, international airfares are regulated both by international treaties and by an international airline price-fixing cartel, the International Air Transportation Association (IATA). It's worth noting that *every* USA-based airline operating scheduled international passenger flights has *voluntarily* joined IATA. USA airlines' invocations of "open markets", "free trade", and "open skies" can be dismissed as completely hypocritical and self-serving drivel until such time as they exercise their right to withdraw from IATA, as any of them could at any time. USA airlines are allowed to participate in IATA "traffic conferences" only because of a special exemption granted them from USA anti-trust laws which normally forbid such industry-wide collusion on prices.

The system the airlines have developed for preserving the cartel while actually selling discounted tickets at less than official fares relies on the intermediary of the travel agency, and the loophole that neither IATA nor international airfare treaties restricts how much commission an airline can pay an agent for selling a ticket. So the airline can pay a large commission to a travel agent, then turn its back and avert its eyes while the travel agent rebates some portion of the commission to the traveler.

All sales of international tickets on scheduled airlines at less than official fares are made through travel agencies, not directly by the airlines, and ultimately depend on rebating of commissions by travel agents to customers. This is how travel agencies can and do, quite legally, offer lower prices for international tickets than the airlines themselves.

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One common problem that we see involves those present in the U.S. in a lawful, nonimmigrant status who wish to earn extra money. Such individuals are often attracted toward home-based businesses, sometimes involving multi-level marketing. Because there is no direct employer-employee relationship, it is generally believed, incorrectly, that this does not engage them in any form of unauthorized employment.

Ask someone else.

Your problems are not my problems.

But if you want to be treated like an adult -- and, even more important, receive an adult's salary -- you need to act like an adult and solve your problems on your own instead of bringing them to me.