This is really why the travel industry is so screwed up. One word = commission.
Yesterday I shared on my social media accounts a mistake fare. $148 to Europe and then Asia. For whatever reason, this thing just keeps living and living. (Follow us on Facebook and Twitter).
A few months ago we booked a mistake fare, roundtrip to Milan. I remember sharing on the social media and then, it just kept living and living.
Both of these were so odd to me. Major airlines and major online press, and it kept living. Odd right?
Meanwhile, here I am at a mistake fare deal in Thailand. It was $13 a person for this 4 star hotel in Phuket. So we booked 6 nights. But no sooner do I book and it’s dead. Tiny hotel, no press, and it’s quickly dead.
Another thing odd about these mistake fare deals…
With the mistake fare we booked. Someone creates a generic sounding name, “man4business” and immediately makes their first post, a globe trotting mistake fare, and gives directions to book on Alitalia.
And it happens to be that Alitalia is extremely strapped for cash.
I really shouldn’t suggest anything about this particular post without any further evidence, but I will say… lately a lot of people post killer mistake fares and then someone says, “great first post, welcome to flyertalk!”.
Wait a second. How? Why?
Okay, no rumors, just facts. And for the record, I don’t actually think this mistake fare was posted by Alitalia or anything. It’s just not. But I do wonder who these people are who registered just to post a deal on FT.
So check this out.
The Wideroe Insiders
The mistake fare this winter to Europe was odd to say the least (no pun intended (you’ll see)).
Once upon a time, someone (with FT handle “LN-MOW”) posts a mistake fare on flyertalk and explained it was bookable on wideroe.no. Everyone gratefully jumped on this fare and LN-MOW continued to show people where the good options lie.
But if you looked at LN-MOW closer, you would see that he works for Wideroe and is on FT answering people’s questions and asking for advice for Wideroe’s new map feature.
In other words, the guy that posted about the mistake fare bookable on Wideroe, also works at Wideroe.
Odd, right?
Even more odd is that the CEO of Wideroe was giving advice for finding the deal – FT handle Farmer. The CEO is Odd Langvatn, and the FTer “Farmer” spoke on behalf of Wideroe and signed his messages “Odd”.
So what happened?
Nothing that I know of.
And this is the way commission based anything ends up running. Study after study proves that people/employees actually perform cognitive tasks poorer with higher pay/rewards. (People perform physical tasks better with higher pay/rewards).
On an inflight magazine I read a story of bus drivers in a town in Asia that got a bonus if they completed a loop in a certain amount of time… which was near impossible in rush hour. End result? It was incredibly common for the drivers to skip stops, and therefore skip paying customers, in order to get their bonuses.
Commission payment actually ends up hurting a business.
The travel industry is in one way or another, mostly commission based.
You sell tickets you get a percentage of the tickets. Period. Therefore your goal as a company is to sell tickets regardless of whether or not they are profitable for the airline.
Anywho… Is this not screwed up to anyone else? Now whenever I see a first time poster sharing a mistake fare, I’m super suspicious.
“Great first post! Welcome to flyertalk.” I’ve seen it a few times.
![Nick of FM on #40kFarAway [TIF Podcast]](https://travelisfree.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/travel-is-free-podcast-nick-40K-120x86.jpg)
Interesting…. I was always curious as to why these things aren’t patched up right away but this theory makes perfect sense.
I mean, sometimes they don’t notice, or it can take longer to correct. But the industry is odd even then.
I agree there can definitely be problems that arise from commission-based or incentivized pay when it creates a conflict of interest for the employee. Especially, like in your bus driver example, when the goal is quite difficult or even unrealistic to achieve.
It’s human nature to want to have or experience as much as possible while putting in the minimal efforts, and everyone has different moral standards dictating where they draw the line. Kind of like how some people feel bad using mistake fares or one-night BRGs, whereas many frugal travelers take advantage of these finds daily ;-).
Overall, I think that an incentivized system is great in many business models, just so long as there is proper oversight. If the errant bus driver’s managers had a solid system for ensuring route compliance, they would have caught the problem early on and taken appropriate action.
Bottom line, people will be greedy and opportunistic. I’m not saying either of those traits are bad or good, that’s up to each person to decide for themselves. Knowing that though, if you’re going to give your employees a bonus for finishing the race faster, you should make sure they’re not taking the subway halfway there.
I think we agree. 🙂
However, I think studies have proven that commission based payment is always prohibitive to the employees productivity and case studies, like google, which allow more freedom, have higher innovation and productivity.
… and on a side note, I hope that some of the people taking advantage of this great deal to Asia got in on the fall and winter Wakkanai hotel deal the other day – although it will be cold, it is perfect timing for a cheap trip to and extended stay in northern Japan.
That’s funny because I saw the Wakkanai deal… the CP right? And I looked at google images and said, no way. Looked boring. Never doing another boring mistake fare. We wound up in the middle of nowhere Germany (like an “industrial park” outside of hamburg). Boring as sin and we left the first night. It was $5 total so no worries.
I just wanted to say thanks for sharing your mistake fare. I didn’t make use of it, but it made me glad I follow you on Facebook.
Yea, I try to help out casually that way… but I haven’t been active on social media lately. So I decided, I’m going to start being active on social and contributing there.
Are you familiar with Dan Ariely’s research at all? You might enjoy reading some of it.
I LOVE Dan Ariely. Irrationally predictable, or whatever… so awesome He’s kind of accidentally a favorite in the marketing circle. We try to use his good insights for evil… I mean, business.
The Norwegian incident was much easier to figure out. Not sure about this one. Alitalia is in trouble (and this time could be fatal…the old days of the state saving it again may not be around much longer…but then again we are talking about Italy). Could be some outfit looking to buy Alitalia dirt cheap? I don’t know but sure love some conspiracy theories!
Haha. Who doesn’t love conspiracy theories!?
So why did the Wideroe thing not drum up attention. Tons of news media and noone would care that the company themselves shared the deal? Odd that no one cares, that’s what’s odd.
since this is a fuel dump trick, could just be someone who was reading the trick it thread forever and wanted to make a splash.
This is what I thought, also. A “new” FT poster just made a 2nd account and let the cat out of the bag….but who knows.
That’s what people accused him off. Apparently the exact same routes and dates were on a blog earlier (I still don’t know which one). And then this guy posted it. Weird egos or something going on.
I have a theory on the mistake fares that happen during periods of merging airlines and other travel companies. Obviously, with any merger there are people who are destined to lose their jobs to achieve the much touted cost-saving “synergies”. If you looked closely at large, successful companies, you would be surprised how much critical tech knowledge may be tied up in only a few people. And, due to their experience, they may be highly paid thus very attractive to cost-cutting bean counters. With some M&As, the suits try to incorporate the best of both worlds to make a better company overall. With others, the approach is “my way or the highway” and the people in the acquired company are eventually eliminated or treated as outsiders so they will leave. I don’t work in the travel industry, but have been through a few M&As in my career and have seen similar behavior by employees who feel threatened. I don’t think it is entirely coincidental that some of the mistake fares (like the recent AA) were discovered on a Friday after most people had probably left the office.
Funny how many happen on weekends in general! Seriously, remember singapore and the United one?!
I mean, you bring up a good point, which is that these are complicated systems and people are changing hands. So accidents could happen simply because the person who pioneered it is gone. Who knows…
Travel industry is screwed up because of commissions.
Yet you are chasing commissions….