A friend of mine works at a local newspaper. They sent me this "letter to the editor" that didn't make it into the edition. This was too interesting not to share. Read up guys.


What is Bahamasair thinking?


For the summer months and the rest of the year, here is an UPdate on the situation between Bahamasair, Travel Agents and the Bahamian people.

Apart from the normal hike in prices for the peak season, Bahamasair has slipped in a $3.00 increase on all of the Family Island fares, EACH WAY. Yes, that is a $6.00 more round-trip and even more, (up to almost $20 more at Freeport), for excursion tickets. Although, they’re using the same excuse, i.e. rising fuel costs, for this rate increase, unlike the last time, this increase was not publicized in the media. Also not publicized, is the recently implemented service fee for refunds; $15.00 per ticket taken for cashing in family-island tickets.

So far, Bahamasair has truly been busy this season, as they are now trying to raise more funds for the airline, but not by servicing more passengers with more destinations or flights per schedule, but by whittling away at travel agent commissions, again. This time, the travel companies, which do their best to promote the national flag carrier, despite Bahamasair’s lack of improvement, are getting the shaft as ‘travel partner’ Bahamasair will not support the sales agents that promote the airline on a daily basis.

The hope is that the price increases and the seizing of hard-earned money from the travel agent’s pockets will improve the service(s) provided by the airline. However, the fact that they are overstaffed and many overpaid already, probably will not help to advance their level of service or attitudes therein.

In fact, it was reported in a newspaper recently that although they reduced operating costs by $2 million dollars, they still lost over $3 million in revenue, meaning that they are still in the hole for that year regardless of their operational efforts. Although, cutting the compensation of the travel agents will save the company money at first, they will still lose overall, just as they have in the aforementioned. The travel agents’ first priority is to save the general public time and money, as well as to assist the airlines in accommodating passenger’s needs. As of late though, Bahamasair has been making it increasingly difficult for agents to recommend them for traveling purposes, as many Bahamians only bother with them for the jet service and lack of box embargo(s).

Mr. Major, Mr. Roberts, and other Bahamasair bigwigs, shortchanging your travel partners, the travel agents, would be a serious mistake, especially at this time when the summer months are so crucial to us all. Currently, they are even sliding through the back door and starting to sell cars and hotels, cutting even further into travel agency territory. I pray that this letter jumpstarts the voices of the members and directors of the Bahamian Travel Agency Association, in this and other matters concerning the livelihood of the travel agent and travel industry of the Bahamas. So, please reconsider this course of action as, IT TAKES MONEY TO MAKE MONEY!

*It will also be important to note that all agencies in the Bahamas and probably the Caribbean will be implementing a “NO CASHBACK” policy on all international tickets after the date/day of purchase. So, if there is a change to make the day after the ticket is purchased, passengers will now, as of July 01, have to pay, FULL PENALTY amounts plus exchange fees. What does this mean? CHECK your tickets before you leave the agency. If you send people for the tickets, make sure they know the information to check, i.e. name spelling, dates and times and of course, the price paid for the purchases.


Look for more in the coming months.*

Edit - What do you all think about this? Should Bahamasair cut the trvl. agent's commissions? Is there something they can do before they resort to this? What do you think?

I think it would be a very bad move on Bahamasair's part to cut the travel agents who work so very hard in pushing the National Flag Carrier. The results I feel will be the agents ceasing in their efforts to do so and Bahamasair's further loss of income.

The bigwigs at Bahamasair need to realize that the only thing that might save the airlines further down fall will be customer service improvement. Cutting the agents will not save the airline, increasing the cost of tickets will not save the airline.

They must realize that satisfying the customers will keep them coming back and the more they come the more income will be made.

They need to revamp their whole attitude towards customer service or soon bananaair will be no air. Satisfied customers are no longer the order of the day, RAVING FANS is. Your customers have to be so pleased with the service being offered that all they want to talk about is how wonderful the flight was, how pleasant the stewards and stewardess, how well pleased they were at their reception when checking in, oh and lets not forget, no more of being bumped off a flight.

Yes this will take some time, but the end result will be much better than a failed airline.

When I first read the notice, the first thing I thought was that Bahamasair runs poorly now with the few clients they have at the sales offices and ticket counters. Trying to monopolize now will only make things worse, as you previously stated. People support the travel agents to avoid having to deal with Bahamasair's 'customer service' in the first place, because at times, the flights are bad enough, much less having a purchase a ticket from them and having to jump through hoops to do so.

We'll have to see how the travel agents respond to this.