Resistance to New Lufthansa Price Model Crumbling

Attempts by German travel agents to present a unified front against Lufthansa's new pricing system are falling apart. Germany's largest airline planned to eliminate travel agent's commissions as of September of this year, prompting travel agents to threaten an industry-wide boycott and a lawsuit. Agents would no longer be able to retain part of the ticket price as a commission and would, instead, have to start charging their customers service fees. Now it appears Germany's largest travel agencies are breaking ranks, including TUI, which signaled on Thursday that it would sign the new contracts with Lufthansa by Saturday. According to a company spokesman, TUI does not plan to participate in the boycott planned for Monday through Friday of next week. All the same, Germany's smaller travel agencies are still planning to proceed with the protest.