Here you will find the answers to the most frequently asked questions about Lufthansa Group agent.com. Firstly, please select a subject area:

Transcription

1 Here you will find the answers to the most frequently asked questions about Lufthansa Group agent.com. Firstly, please select a subject area: The purpose of Lufthansa Group agent.com... 3 Why is Lufthansa Group introducing an online booking platform for travel agencies?... 3 Do other airlines also offer such a tool?... 3 The target audience for Lufthansa Group agent.com... 3 Who is Lufthansa Group agent.com aimed at?... 3 Requirements for the use of Lufthansa Group agent.com... 3 Are there technical requirements?... 3 Are there organizational requirements?... 3 Are there commercial requirements?... 3 Lufthansa Group agent.com terms and conditions of use... 3 What legal basis is there for use?... 3 Do Lufthansa s General Conditions of Carriage (Passenger and Baggage) apply?... 4 How much does use/participation cost?... 4 How long is the user agreement valid for?... 4 What information does the travel agency need in order to register?... 4 What exclusion criteria are there?... 4 Who has a user log-in the travel agency or the employee?... 4 Can the user log-in/password be changed?... 4 The registration process... 5 How does registration work?... 5 How much does registration cost?... 5 What do I need for registration?... 5 How long does the registration process take?... 5 What happens if the travel agency forgets its password?... 5 How does Lufthansa ensure that the user genuinely is a travel agency?... 5 How does Lufthansa prevent unauthorised access to the platform?... 5 Support... 6 Who supports travel agencies with technical questions and questions about registration?. 6 Who supports travel agencies with rebookings?... 6 Who supports travel agencies with cancellations/refunds?... 6 What is the telephone number for the Lufthansa Group agent.com Service Centre?... 6 Who notifies the customer/the travel agency about schedule changes?... 6 Booking functionality... 7 Which prices are offered via Lufthansa Group agent.com?... 7 How will a travel agency find the cheapest Lufthansa fare?... 7 How does the booking process work?... 7

2 Is there a user fee?... 7 Which special services (SSR) can be booked?... 7 Can the travel agency access the fare conditions?... 8 How is payment made?... 8 Which means of payment are acceptable?... 8 What types of tickets are offered?... 8 How does the travel agency get the customer s ticket?... 8 Is customer data requested?... 8 Does Lufthansa save the travel agency s customer data?... 8 Can APIS data be collected during booking on Lufthansa Group agent.com?... 8 Are confirmation s provided?... 9 Who issues the ticket?... 9 Can the travel agency render and invoice its own services?... 9 Who bears the credit card transaction fee?... 9 Who bears the debt collection risk?... 9 Does the travel agency have access to bookings/passenger Name Records (PNRs)?... 9 Is there the technical option of adding a freely selectable travel agency ticketing fee to the net flight price as per the Amadeus Service Fee Manager (TAF Manager)?... 9 Benefits for the travel agency... 9 How does Lufthansa Group agent.com differ from lufthansa.com?... 9 What benefits does the service hotline offer?...10 What does direct fulfilment via Lufthansa mean?...10 What are the advantages of booking via Lufthansa Group agent.com?...10

3 The purpose of Lufthansa Group agent.com Why is Lufthansa Group introducing an online booking platform for travel agencies? Lufthansa Group agent.com is part of the Lufthansa portal strategy and broadens the sales base of the Lufthansa Group airlines worldwide. With Lufthansa Group agent.com, travel agencies will have access to net prices and the option of issuing tickets to their customers. Do other airlines also offer such a tool? Neither of the Lufthansa Group carriers did invent travel agency portals. In the last few years several airlines have put an online portal for travel agencies into operation. The target audience for Lufthansa Group agent.com Who is Lufthansa Group agent.com aimed at? The portal is aimed at IATA travel agencies just as much as at non-iata travel agencies. With its simple navigation, the very clear presentation of flight offers, prices, fare conditions and the services available with each fare, it offers an ideal solution for successful travel agency sales, even for the inexperienced user. Requirements for the use of Lufthansa Group agent.com Are there technical requirements? Internet access is all you need to use Lufthansa Group agent.com. Are there organizational requirements? The use of Lufthansa Group agent.com is protected by a log-in. Only travel agencies which are registered with Lufthansa and which have set up a user profile can use the platform. Are there commercial requirements? Basically all travel agencies will be able to use the platform. Before using the platform for the first time, users will have to confirm that they broker bookings on the customer s behalf on a commercial basis. The Lufthansa Group carriers reserves the right to verify an agency s entitlement to use the platform at any time. In so doing Lufthansa can also demand that the user submits evidence of their commercial activity. Lufthansa Group agent.com terms and conditions of use What legal basis is there for use? Before a travel agency uses the platform for the first time, the agency and Lufthansa enter a contract online (the terms and conditions of use) which constitutes the legal basis for the platform s use and governs the relationship between Lufthansa and the travel agency.

4 Do Lufthansa s General Conditions of Carriage (Passenger and Baggage) apply? The General Conditions of Carriage (Passenger and Baggage) govern the contractual relationship between the relevant Lufthansa Group airline and its customer and also apply to a booking made via Lufthansa Group Agent.com. With every online booking, the travel agency confirms that it has made the relevant General Conditions of Carriage available to the customer. How much does use/participation cost? There are no charges for use of the platform; there will of course be the usual Internet service charges from the travel agency s Internet service provider. How long is the user agreement valid for? The user agreement has unlimited validity and can be cancelled unilaterally by the customer or by Lufthansa. If Lufthansa cancels, it will give two weeks notice. Cancellation of the user agreement will result in user access being denied. What information does the travel agency need in order to register? The travel agency must be registered with Lufthansa before it first uses the platform. After registering successfully, the agency will be assigned and sent a travel agency ID. Already registered travel agencies will already have a travel agency ID. With its Lufthansa travel agency ID, the travel agency can create its user log-in online. What exclusion criteria are there? The following are not entitled to use the platform: private individuals, companies that do not operate a travel agency and travel agencies that have been excluded by Lufthansa from using the platform. Who has a user log-in the travel agency or the employee? The user log-in, which consists of the travel agency ID and a password, applies to the entire travel agency and can be made available to all the agency s employees. Can the user log-in/password be changed? For reasons of security, it is recommended that passwords should be changed regularly, especially with staff turnover in the travel agency. The system will issue regular prompts to the user to change the password.

5 The registration process How does registration work? There is a two-stage registration process. A travel agency must firstly be known to Lufthansa and registered in its internal systems before it can create a user profile online. Travel agencies which are not yet registered can register via an form on the homepage of Lufthansa Group agent.com. Following a successful registration, Lufthansa sets up the travel agency in its internal database and allocates it a travel agency ID. Travel agencies which have a travel agency ID create a user profile before using Lufthansa Group agent.com for the first time. This user profile will be activated by Lufthansa within two working days. How much does registration cost? Registration is free of charge. What do I need for registration? To register you will require your agency s address details, contact details, information on your previous booking log-in (reservation system and office ID) and the name of a contact within the travel agency (manager, chief executive). How long does the registration process take? As a rule, the travel agency ID will be sent to the travel agency by within five days. What happens if the travel agency forgets its password? The portal offers a feature by means of which the travel agency can have a new password generated and sent to the saved address. How does Lufthansa ensure that the user genuinely is a travel agency? During registration the individual authorised to represent the company declares that the company is a travel agency or a company with the commercial business aim of selling travel to end customers. Lufthansa reserves the right to demand evidence that the company is carrying out such activity in the form of an excerpt from the Companies Register or similar. How does Lufthansa prevent unauthorised access to the platform? Lufthansa verifies the utilisation request of each travel agency before activating its user login.

6 Support Who supports travel agencies with technical questions and questions about registration? A Service Centre has been established to provide technical support and support for the registration process. You can reach this call centre on the telephone number that Lufthansa Group agent.com has set up for your country. Who supports travel agencies with rebookings? To rebook tickets that have been booked via Lufthansa Group agent.com, travel agencies can contact the Lufthansa Group agent.com Service Centre. The Service Centre is contactable on the telephone number that has been published for your country. The travel agency will be given details of its contact person in the Service Centre in the travel confirmation that it is sent for every booking. Who supports travel agencies with cancellations/refunds? Cancellations and refunds of tickets which have been sold through Lufthansa Group agent.com will be accepted through the Service Centre; refunds will be made by the Fulfilment Centre. What is the telephone number for the Lufthansa Group agent.com Service Centre? You will find the phone number that Lufthansa Group agent.com has published for your country under Help and Contact on Lufthansa Group agent.com Who notifies the customer/the travel agency about schedule changes? All queue messages, including schedule changes, come into the Lufthansa Group agent.com Service Centre and are processed there. The travel agency will be advised by of flight time changes with a time difference of less than one hour. If an address for the customer was provided at the time of booking, the customer will also be informed by at the same time. Flight time changes with a time difference of one hour or more will be communicated in a phone call to the contact person named in the booking. The booking travel agency is not obliged to inform the customer about flight time changes. It can send the back to Lufthansa at any time or tell the Service Centre by phone that Lufthansa should inform the customer directly. However Lufthansa works on the assumption that, as a general rule, travel agencies like to inform the passenger themselves as part of their customer service.

7 Booking functionality Which prices are offered via Lufthansa Group agent.com? The same prices are offered on Lufthansa Group agent.com as are available via lufthansa.com. Lufthansa contract rates can be displayed by using the customer s access code. How will a travel agency find the cheapest Lufthansa Group fare? The booking functionality on Lufthansa Group agent.com will always search for the cheapest available fare for the selected flights at the time of the request. However, the travel agency also has the option of making a targeted search for a flexible fare or to push proactive upselling by quoting the benefits (increased flexibility, cheaper rebooking option and cancellation) of the higher fares. How does the booking process work? The booking process is very largely based on the simple booking process on lufthansa.com. The travel agency firstly ascertains the customer s requirements (route, travel class, travel dates, price range) and enters these in a booking mask. Depending on the customer s flexibility and price expectations, several offer processes are available: html_list Price-based search: here, on a matrix of seven days for the outbound flight and seven days for the return flight, the travel agency can identify at first glance which prices are available on which days. Once the travel dates are selected, the available flights will be displayed. Timetable-based search: for customers who are interested in travelling on specific dates and at specific times, a timetable-based search is offered. In this case the travel agency firstly selects the required flights from the available flights shown and the system then automatically calculates the cheapest price for the selected flights. As an alternative, the price for a flexible ticket can also be calculated here. The timetable-based search is also offered for journeys which go beyond the scope of a round trip (i.e. open-jaw flights, air travel with several intermediate destinations) To use contract rates, the travel agency needs to enter the customer s access code. Is there a user fee? The use of Lufthansa Group agent.com is free of charge. However, at its own discretion, the travel agency can levy an individual service fee for advice and booking. This service fee is not passed on to the customer by Lufthansa Group agent.com even though the travel agency can quote this in the booking confirmation. The travel agency is responsible for collecting service fees itself. Which special services (SSR) can be booked? When a ticket is purchased on Lufthansa Group agent.com the following requests can be accepted, provided that they are offered on the respective flights: Requests for special meals Generic seat requests (window / aisle) Specific seat requests (seat map)

8 Other special requests, such as for the wheelchair service, guide service or excess baggage, can be dealt with by calling the Lufthansa Group agent.com Service Centre. Can the travel agency access the fare conditions? Yes, during the booking process the fare conditions are displayed in the form of the Original Fare Notes from Amadeus (ATPCO). For each booking the travel agency must confirm that it has been instructed by the customer, who has noted the fare conditions and General Conditions of Carriage, to make the booking. How is payment made? Payment of the airline ticket is handled directly between Lufthansa and the travel agency s customer. To this end the travel agency enters the customer s payment details into the booking mask. Lufthansa then issues the ticket, debiting the specified means of payment. The travel agency can also authorise payment at its own expense. Which means of payment are acceptable? Credit card payments (without an amount limit and advance booking deadline) are accepted as are other payment options dependent on the offer type and market. For electronic bank transfers, a maximum amount of 1,500 euros per booking with advance notice of eight days applies. Lufthansa reserves the right to restrict means of payment according to the offer and the market. What types of tickets are offered? The standard ticket type on Lufthansa Group agent.com is the etix. How does the travel agency get the customer s ticket? The Passenger Receipt for an etix can be accessed after the ticket has been issued online via Lufthansa Group agent.com or issued at check-in at the airport. Is customer data requested? The passenger s name is required for the ticket to be issued. For all other purposes the travel agency has the option of deciding whether it wants to provide its own details as the contact or whether Lufthansa should contact the customer directly if it has any questions or requires further information. Does Lufthansa save the travel agency s customer data? Lufthansa only saves passenger data for the purpose of issuing tickets and implementing the flight. Can APIS data be collected during booking on Lufthansa Group agent.com? Yes, for flights to the USA the customer s destination address can be recorded in the context of the Advanced Passenger Information System (APIS) procedure. This can be done when the ticket is purchased as well as at a later date if necessary.

9 Are confirmation s provided? An is sent to the travel agency as confirmation for each booking. If the travel agency would like a parallel to go directly to the customer, the customer s address can be entered during the booking process. In this case both the travel agency and the customer would receive a confirmation . Who issues the ticket? The tickets are issued in the Lufthansa Fulfilment Centre. The travel agency cannot issue tickets itself. Can the travel agency render and invoice its own services? Independently of the flight, the travel agency can render its own services and invoice them (service fee). The travel agency bears any costs associated with this (credit card transaction fee and debt collection risk). Who bears the credit card transaction fee? The retailer s credit card transaction fee for the ticket price is borne by Lufthansa. If the travel agency accepts payment of its own service fee by credit card, then the travel agency bears the credit card transaction fee for this service fee payment. Who bears the debt collection risk? In the event of irregularities in the payment process, Lufthansa pursues collection of the debt directly with the customer, provided that the customer s details have been entered as the contact details. If the travel agency has given itself as the point of contact, Lufthansa will request the customer s details from the travel agency. Does the travel agency have access to bookings/passenger Name Records (PNRs)? The travel agency can display the booking on Lufthansa Group agent.com via the Record Locator and the name of the passenger. A direct PNR access via Amadeus or another reservation system is not possible. Is there the technical option of adding a freely selectable travel agency ticketing fee to the net flight price as per the Amadeus Service Fee Manager (TAF Manager)? No. The travel agency chooses its own receipt above the individual amount of the Ticket Service Charge and carries the debt collection risk for this, if necessary. Benefits for the travel agency How does Lufthansa Group agent.com differ from lufthansa.com? Lufthansa Group agent.com offers the entire range of Lufthansa flights at net prices and is designed for travel agencies and travel brokers. Lufthansa.com is purely an end-customer portal.

10 What benefits does the service hotline offer? The service hotline offers the travel agency support with technical queries on the booking process; the service centre also undertakes the down-stream processes in the event of a change of booking, a cancellation or a refund. What does direct fulfilment via Lufthansa mean? Once booking is concluded the PNR is given to the Lufthansa Group agent.com Fulfilment Centre. From there the etix is issued automatically depending on fare conditions and selection in the booking process (option booking) either immediately or by arrangement through the travel agency. What are the advantages of booking via Lufthansa Group agent.com? Convenient price transparency: the booking process is based on a simple, self-explanatory booking logic and the option of displaying the cheapest prices within a given time period. Travel agency employees do not need any knowledge of computer reservation system transactions and for every price shown they will find a clear display of the fare conditions and the inclusive service benefits (e.g. mileage credit).