The $24 ticket transaction fee charged by MIT's three approved travel agencies increased on April 1, due to an industry-wide cost shift.
Most major airlines recently eliminated the payment of base commissions to travel agencies; MIT has negotiated the following new fees with its approved agencies:
Navigant International Boston-- $50 for all airline tickets (domestic or international); $50 for railroad tickets (Amtrak/Acela)
OT&T Travel Management--$45 for all airline tickets (domestic or international); $24 for railroad tickets (Amtrak/Acela)
The Travel Collaborative--$43 for all airline tickets (domestic or international); $43 for railroad tickets (Amtrak/Acela).
As in the past, MIT will not pay processing fees of nonpartner travel agencies, even if they are lower. It is extremely important to move market share to one of the approved agencies so that MIT can continue to work with the airlines on future discount negotiations. The MIT/MASCO discounts offered by these three agencies help offset the imposed fee. For details on the discounts, see the travel web site at http://web.mit.edu/cao/www/travel.htm.
The travel office continues to look for ways to reduce or eliminate processing fees. In particular, it is working to eliminate processing fees on US Air shuttle tickets. For more information, contact Ellen Sico at x3-3547.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on April 3, 2002.
