Third-party fees
Earlier this year, Lufthansa angered the travel agent community by charging a fee of 16 euros ($17) for bookings made outside of its website (basically, for anyone using a Global Distribution System, or GDS, to book).
GDS are the main computers for reservations, and airlines are charged fees for every booking process through a GDS.
Naturally, there is a financial incentive for the airline industry to discourage these types of bookings, though the move has supposedly provided backlash amongst travel bookers.
"It's not a huge amount of money, but it's a little bit more the concept," notes John Snyder, CEO of BCD Travel, a corporate travel management provider.
"Some of the customers in Germany are very unhappy with Lufthansa for making that move and we have customers that have booked away from Lufthansa," he adds.
When the fees were first announced, it was thought other airlines might follow suit. So far, Lufthansa is the only one to have added on the GDS fee.