Globe Merchant Travel Blog

Air France has come out with a winter sale for 2006-2007 to Paris from it’s US gateway cities with fares as low as $438(plus tax…uh oh!!) and for another $60 you can fly to other European cities which means you can have a free stopover in Paris. Naturally they didn’t include Athens in the list of cities you can visit in Europe, so anyone going to Greece won’t be able to take advantage of this offer… If you’re able to get to a gateway city and if the taxes are reasonable(they add fuel surcharges to taxes, so taxes are more than just taxes(See Airline Ticket Taxes)

For more info on the Air France sale…click here

As I said before Air France consistently has the lowest fares to Europe from the US($200-500 less than competitors). That would be good enough reason to use them..but… They have a stipulation that I must sell a certain amount of land packages(car rental, hotel etc…) in order to sell the discounted tickets. Since I don’t offer those services I would have to sell them through my ticket company, which doesn’t have great rates on land products…. that means that the savings on the air tickets get eaten up by the higher costs for the hotels and land packages.

Some companies will sell the Air France “net fare” tickets without the accompanying land package, but Air France has been known to ask for the confirmation of auto rental, hotel room etc… and if the passenger didn’t produce the receipt from the company that issued the tickets, they were prevented from boarding the flight.

I cannot for the life of me figure out why Air France would care whether my company sold hotel rooms, auto rentals etc… in Greece. It has absolutely no bearing on their income stream…but wait… could it be another roadblock thrown in the way of the ticketing agent so that people will come directly to the airline…. putting futher pressure on the ticketing agent and pushing them closer to the brink of oblivion….I’m afraid so!

Well, we’ll see what the Ryan Air lawsuit brings to Air France(written about in the prior post). Olympic and Air France may pay a big price if it turns out they are recieving illegal subsidies from their respective governments.(Olympic has been proven to be taken the subsidies, Air France is just being accused of it)

For the last 8 months I’ve been looking at the Air France fares to Greece and other parts of Europe from the US and been amazed at how low the fares were. I thought there was something fishy going on because they were consistently $200-500 lower than the other airlines. And then I read this article…Ah.. that explains it!

Ryanair files complaint against Air France

By JANE WARDELL
AP BUSINESS WRITER

LONDON — Irish low-cost airline Ryanair Holdings PLC lodged a complaint with the European Commission on Thursday against Air France, alleging that the French carrier has received around 1 billion euros ($1.3 billion) in illegal state aid over the past few years.

Ryanair accused the French government of maintaining an airport fees system that makes landing and passenger charges for domestic routes up to 50 percent lower than on international routes within the European Union.

The airline said the system gave Air France an unfair price advantage, or the equivalent of around 1 billion euros ($1.3 billion) in state aid, at the expense of competitors.

“Air France has a rampant monopoly in the French market and this dominance has been enhanced by the illegal airport charging system that has been maintained in France, despite rulings by the European Commission in other EU member states,” Ryanair’s Head of Regulatory Affairs Jim Callaghan said.

“These substantially lower charges on domestic French routes, on which Air France has an almost complete monopoly, have allowed them to make super profits on domestic routes and to cross subsidize their international routes, on which they compete with airlines like Ryanair.”

The airline said it wants the European Commission to force the French government to change its charging system and to compel Air France to return the savings it has made from the system.

Low-cost airlines have long-complained about government subsidies to established carriers in Europe.

The European Union last month warned Greece it would face fines if it does not recover 161 million euros ($205.7 million) in illegal aid to Olympic Airways. The EU first ordered Greece to recover the money in 2002 after ruling that the aid granted between 1998 and 2002 infringed on an agreement on state aid to the struggling carrier.

ATHENS (Reuters) – Olympic Airways will be succeeded by a new company that will take over its flights if Greece’s troubled carrier is forced to shut down by its debts, Finance Minister George Alogoskoufis told Reuters on Thursday.
The European Union has ordered Greece to recover hundreds of millions of euros in illegal state aid handed to Olympic over the years, a move that may mean the airline’s end.
Alogoskoufis said in an interview Greece was determined to keep flights going, whether by Olympic or a successor.
“There is a process of creating a new company, which could take over Olympic’s flights in case Olympic is forced to shut down. There is clear investment interest in this specific solution,” he said.
Competitors in the crowded European aviation sector are closely watching Olympic, founded by the late shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis. After decades of mismanagement, repeated efforts to privatise it have failed.
Greek officials said last month Olympic would keep flying until at least October while they prepared their defence at the European Court of Justice.
They said a group of unidentified Greek ship owners, foreign equities funds and Arab investors were interested in the venture to succeed Olympic, whose debts could be over 700 million euros (2.5 million) while its assets are estimated at 150 million euros.
Alogoskoufis did not give more details but said he was confident the scheme, which so far exists only on paper, would materialise.
“In any case, there will be a successor for Olympic,” he said. “Greece needs a second company, also for reasons of internal competition.”
At the moment, only privately held Aegean Airlines serves regular internal flights in Greece, but its network is not as extensive as that of Olympic, which is a lifeline for many small Greek islands.

Have you ever bought a ticket and then gone back a few months later and saw that the price was less than what you paid? That can put a damper on your day! I know it’s happened to a lot of people and most people just shrug their head, bang it against the wall and go on with their life.
Fortunately there is an alternative. A refund or a voucher for the difference. Yes, some airlines will offer to compensate you for the overpayment you made. Now that’s good news! Of course with each bit of good news(especially true when working with the airlines), there is some bad news….
1. Not all airlines will compensate you, so you’ll have to call them directly to find out what their policy is… and
2. You have to have bought the ticket directly from the airline(not from a third party-wholesaler, travel agent etc…). Yes, just one more indication that the airlines are trying to squeeze ticket agents out of the market(“Buy from us and we may give you a refund….but from one of our representative agents and…..so sorry!)…..

For more information on saving on flights visit GreeceFlights and AGreatFare

Hi-
A couple months ago, I had you look up some fares for me from Dallas, Texas to Athens. You came up with the same $1300/ticket that I was getting. We ended up paying $1650 per ticket.
I read somewhere that Delta is one of the only airlines to offer direct flights from the US to Greece. One location to fly from is Atlanta. We got good times and are going to fly from DFW to Atlanta and then Athens. We are going June 28 – July 10. When I was able to pick the seats we wanted… I was shocked to see that there were less than 20 seats available from Atlanta to Athens…. I even was almost done buying tix for one flight and the price when up $200/ticket while I was buying them and I took too long picking the seats.
I checked again for our same flights, just cause… the tickets are now $1750/person and there was only 6 seats left.
I guess people are willing to pay more and I would doubt that Delta would lower their prices under these conditions. It’s too bad.
Just thought you might like the info. I appreciate all the info you provided on your website. You never know what’s going to happen!
E.K.

It has probably never been a better time to purchase travel insurance to protect your travel investment. Flight schedules are changing, there are strikes, slowdowns and unrest in the airline industry. Add to that the increasingly changing weather patterns and stricter cancellation policies in the travel industry, and it’s quite easy(and possible) to lose the thousands of dollars you’ve invested in your holiday.

Travelers Travel Insurance offers protection, but you’ll want to check the policy to be sure that it covers you(There are different policies and the coverage varies from state to state).

There are also certain companies that aren’t covered(the ones that come to mind are the airlines that are on the verge of extinction). Once an airline files for bankruptcy then the travel insurance will no longer cover that airline…..