Air tickets: Online brokers make a killing

January 11, 2015

Jeddah, Jan 11: Auctioneering has traditionally been the realm of cars and antiques, but lately a new fad has emerged, involving electronic airline tickets.

One of the ploys used by airline carriers to lure brokers into dealing with overpriced tickets is to offer guarantees such as full refunds with commission if the travel date is not confirmed. Commissions can range between SR75 and SR200 per person for a one-way ticket, with an increased reward for a round trip. The commission can double depending on the number of passengers, since the decrease in the number of available seats raises the ticket price.

Abu Majed, a former airline employee who has been working in this field for four years, says he can find bookings for people under difficult circumstances and makes juicy profits with commissions.

According to Majed, competition for bookings among the brokers begins by making offers to customers for low-priced tickets, thus attracting the highest number of passengers. Brokers advertise the tickets on Internet sites, which are filled with phone numbers of people claiming they can provide confirmed bookings. Once the deal is sealed, the tickets can be sent to customers by e-mail.

A former employee at a booking center of an airline explained that in the past, tourist companies used to purchase a number of confirmed bookings from various airline companies, but now they arrange and purchase bookings online, with the possibility to update them any time they want.

Meanwhile, industry expert Khaled Al-Tuwayyan said that airline companies must receive their licenses from the Ministry of Labor so as to operate their online businesses. In order to guarantee customer rights, Al-Tuwayyan stressed they must also arrange their online trade according to the established regulations.

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Level of human costs of Israeli aggression on Lebanon ‘alarming’, warns UN

News Network

November 12,2024

The UN humanitarian coordinator for Lebanon has warned that the “picture of life in Lebanon remains grim,” highlighting an "alarming" level of human suffering and significant humanitarian consequences due to the ongoing Israeli carnage.

Imran Riza, the UN Deputy Special Coordinator and Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Lebanon (UNSCOL), provided a stark overview of the Arab country's dire circumstances in a statement released on Monday.

“The current picture of life in Lebanon remains grim. Yesterday, airstrikes reportedly killed 23 people, including seven children, in the village of Aalmat in Mount Lebanon,” Riza said on X.

An airstrike in the city of Tyre on the same day resulted in the tragic deaths of five siblings from a single family, all of whom had special needs, according to his statement.

He added that in the last week, Israeli airstrikes have killed at least 241 individuals and left 642 others injured in Lebanon, as reported by the Ministry of Health.

“In the past month, more than 185,000 people have fled their homes in their search for safety within the country, bringing the total to over 870,000 people internally displaced,” Riza said

The UN official highlighted that numerous individuals, including the elderly and those with health issues, are staying behind while witnessing the ruins of their ancestral homes.

He urged for the swift safeguarding of civilian people and infrastructure, emphasizing the necessity to uphold international humanitarian law and end the ongoing violence.

Lebanon’s National News Agency reported that Israeli forces bombed a house in the town of Maydoun in Bekaa on Monday night, killing three people and destroying the house.

Earlier, Israel bombed the northern town of Ain Yaaqoub, killing at least 14 people.

The killings came as Israeli military continued to pound Lebanon, bombing shops selling electrical appliances in the southern city of Tyre and carrying out air raids on the towns of Shamshtar in eastern Baalbek and Roumine in southern Nabatieh.

Lebanon’s Ministry of Health said Israeli attacks killed at least 54 people across the country on Monday.

Israel’s merciless attacks continue despite calls from the UN Security Council for an immediate ceasefire and directives from the International Court of Justice urging measures to prevent genocide and alleviate the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza and Lebanon.

In Lebanon, at least 3,243 people have been killed and 14,134 others wounded in Israeli attacks since the war on Gaza began on October 7, 2023.

The Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah opened a support front for Palestinians in Gaza only a day after the Israeli regime unleashed its genocidal war on the besieged territory.

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