Corporate travel managers want to put Lufthansa and its new surcharges on trial at its upcoming German Business Travelers Association (Verband Deutsches Reisemanagement e.V. VDR) Spring Conference set for April 3 in Cologne. Travel managers are steamed about the airline’s Preferred Fares Program (PFP), a €4.90 per segment surcharge which is no longer absorbed by Amadeus. Travel managers see it as a “permanent indirect price increase” as the airline offloads distribution costs to its “very best customers.” “This shows a callous disregard for consumer welfare,” said BTC, which issued a 29-page document with quotes from travel managers on the impact of the fee.

What seems odd about this complaint is the fact that travel managers are up in arms about passing costs along to the consumer when that is what airlines have been doing for the last year with new fees. Airlines call it offering passengers a choice to pay for what they value whether it is the ability to check a bag or an on-board soda. What is seems most upset about is the fact that the airline did not ask permission first. Even so, putting Lufthansa on trial seems a clever gimmick.

“At the Witness Table will be one empty chair – the Lufthansa Chair – as the airline refuses to sit next to Amadeus and airline competitors and answer tough, but legitimate questions and concerns from its best customers and from journalists,” said Business Travel Coaliation Chair Kevin Mitchell in his missive, which charges the airline with trying to intimidate organizers of the event. “Lufthansa is obviously under pressure and is running the clock down in the hope that travel-manager opposition will eventually fade and the airline’s economically lethal managed-travel model will take hold. The problem for Lufthansa is that 15 months after announcing PFP, these [objections] have not faded, nor have travel managers abdicated their responsibilities to their companies’ shareholders. They are insulted, angry and emboldened to protect their corporations’ interests.

“Without any prior consultation whatsoever, Lufthansa announced PFP, which seeks to overturn and replace the transparent and efficient managed travel model German travel managers have worked so hard to develop over years with their travel industry partners,” BTC continued, saying the fee represents a backdoor price-increase. “The most egregious and insulting slap-in-the-face is the arrogant message to travel managers that, we Lufthansa, are going to change the managed travel model and we are not going to consult you; we really do not care what you think.”

Calling the PFP “the worst-received program in the history of commercial aviation, BTC called the airline an “über-bully, especially in view of its recent airline acquisitions. “This is not lost on regulators and legislators in Brussels and Washington and is causing closer analyses of Lufthansa’s strategic ambitions,” said BTC.

The organization also said the fee undermines and weakens the global distribution system network by driving passengers to its own web site where the lack of comparison shopping and purchasing volume will increase prices. “What’s more, Lufthansa will create substantial disruption, added cost, complexity and uncertainty for all participants in the distribution chain, including the corporate travel manager,” it said. “Should Lufthansa succeed, other airlines would no doubt follow.

“The European travel distribution system model should not be allowed to be dictated to the industry by one marketplace participant at the expense of all others,” Mitchell continued. “We have seen this movie before in the U.S. and UK marketplaces.”

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