Owner of Sure Dynamic Travel
That pivotal moment travel advisors evolved from transactional order takers into trusted travel advisors.
For those new to the industry, did you know that there was a time when travel advisors didn’t charge travellers air ticket commission fees?
Those who know, know.
Yes, it’s hard to imagine now, but for decades airlines funded the distribution of their own tickets through commission paid directly to travel agencies. Clients walked in, received expert advice, booked complex itineraries, and walked out believing the service had cost them nothing. Behind the scenes, the airlines picked up the tab.
It was a simple model that worked for decades… until it didn’t.
On 1 May 2005, everything changed in South Africa when SAA officially eliminated its standard 7% baseline commission. By that time, airlines around the world had already begun moving to eliminate payouts. In fact, by March that year, eight of the ten largest US airlines had reduced base travel agent remuneration to nil.
During this pivotal moment, Southern African travel agencies were forced to rethink, almost overnight, how to operate in a zero-airline-commission environment.
Now you’ve got to ask for what you’re worth
“I’ve still got PTSD,” remarks Angela McLoskey, owner of Sure Dynamic Travel and industry stalwart.
She says this in jest, but behind the humour lies a hard reality: at the time, there was no quick fix. The revenue earned from airline sales made up the major source of income, but travel agencies couldn’t simply shift the full commission onto travellers. They had to create and learn an entirely new and viable service fee model without a playbook.
“Under the old system, issuing a high-value international ticket could generate thousands of rands in airline commission,” she adds. “We were earning enough, and it was more than enough… the business model was so simple. If you issued a R90,000 airline ticket, you might have earned around R8,000 in commission. But then, you couldn’t suddenly ask a client for R8,000 just to issue a ticket.”
For agencies, the loss of airline commission just wasn’t about recouping revenue. It was about convincing an entire travel community that their expertise had always carried value, while being bold enough to fully recognise their worth and put a price on it.
“It was emotional… for years we carried a collective mental block. We were scared to charge travellers service fees. There wasn’t a clear policy change advisors could simply implement. It was a mindset we had to rebuild from scratch because it wasn’t just a financial adjustment; it was largely psychological.”
She recalls agency owners questioning whether clients would accept service fees at all. Consultants worried their jobs were under threat. The entire profession was trying to answer the same question: how do you charge for something people had always received for free?
“It was a complete thumb suck,” says Angela. “You never knew if you were charging too much or too little… I think we did a lot of transactions for nothing because we weren’t militant enough about it.”
Everything, everywhere all at once
The emotional shift of recouping income and charging your value was only part of the challenge. Operationally, agencies were navigating unfamiliar systems while simultaneously introducing service fees for the first time. Others were still adapting to global distribution systems (GDS) and electronic ticketing, alongside the exponential growth of online travel agents (OTAs).
For added context: Agoda was officially founded in 2005. Between 2004 and 2006, Travelstart shifted its operations towards South Africa, officially launching the brand locally in Cape Town in 2006. That same year, Skyscanner launched its “Search Everywhere” feature.
Angela recalls just how unforgiving the learning curves were. At the time, her agency implemented Travel Agency Service Fee (TASF) entries within the GDS to collect client fees, believing everything had been configured correctly.
It hadn’t.
“We weren’t finalising the actual pricing lines in Amadeus properly. We thought we were charging the fees, but we weren’t actually collecting the revenue.”
The mistake went unnoticed until a new accountant discovered that the service fees had never been recovered. The agency was forced to contact every affected client months later to recover the outstanding amounts.
“My accountant at that stage was immigrating. He had just not told me that the money had not come in, and I hadn’t monitored it. We had to go back to every client and say, sorry, we told you that the fee was R10,000, but we only charged you R9,500. Please, can we have that R500 now?”
If you were there, you’ll remember stories much like Angela’s playing out across the industry. Her story might even be yours. Advisors weren’t just introducing service fees; they were building entirely new business models while trying to keep themselves afloat.
The turning point: ASATA steps in
For Angela, one individual stands out during this time: Vanya Lessing.
“Vanya was fantastic,” she says. “She was my hero. She was fighting the cause… there’s no doubt about it.”
So, who is Vanya Lessing? For context, Lessing was the former CEO of ASATA. She was someone at coalface who understood all sides of the argument, advocating for agencies without losing sight of what airlines and anxious travellers needed too.
“I think a lot of people actually didn’t know what the hell they were doing, which is why we remember people like Lessing and ASATA. Certainly from our agency’s point of view. I don’t know what we would have done without their guidance… you really felt like they were on your side,” says Angela.
As individual agencies grappled with new pricing structures and anxious clients, at the time, ASATA worked to bring the industry together by convening meetings, developing practical service fee frameworks and sharing support on implementation.
Interestingly, some of that groundwork had been laid years earlier. In 2003, ASATA commissioned research known as Project Firefly, which evaluated the relationship between what was charged for a specific service and travellers’ willingness to pay for it. Beyond this and advocating for fair outcomes, the Association helped members build the confidence they needed to operate under a new and unfamiliar service fee model.
Ultimately, the message was clear: there was no going back to the old ways. Travel advisors could no longer be seen simply as people who issued airline tickets. They had to learn to redefine themselves as professionals whose knowledge, planning, problem-solving, and advocacy carried real value.
Over twenty years later, the lesson remains as relevant as ever.
“Today’s travel advisors do far more than book flights. They solve problems, manage risk, advocate for travellers, navigate supplier failures and provide reassurance when things go wrong,” Angela adds.
She believes that value should never be underestimated. “When someone gets stranded in Hamburg because a supplier hasn’t paid the hotel, who are they going to phone? They’re paying for an advocate.”
And so here we are over 20 years later, celebrating a 70th anniversary milestone.
The events of 2005 fundamentally changed how our profession viewed itself. The end of airline commission wasn’t the end of travel agencies. It was the moment the industry recognised that what clients were really paying for had never been the ticket.
It was the expertise behind it.