Travel agents buying 2011 Rugby World Cup tickets to on-sell to rugby fans as part of travel packages were encouraged to consider having some customers subsidise others when paying hidden administration fees.
As reported by the Otago Daily Times yesterday, a confidential 2009 "invitation to tender" document offered to travel agents by Rugby Travel and Hospitality (NZ) Ltd attached an administration fee of $900 to $1200 plus GST to each ticket to the World Cup final sold as part of a travel package.
Fees for other matches ranged down to $23 plus GST per ticket.
The document explained to travel agents how the fees could be averaged over games and between fans or "end users".
It gave as an example a package of 11 tickets including one ticket to the final (administration fee $900), two semifinals ($450 each) and to other popular matches ($150 each).
The total fee in the example was $2910 and the average $264.55.
The document then showed how the tickets could be re-packaged for sale to five different end users.
"The [official travel agent] will decide how to allocate the total fee of $2910 between the five end users."
When shown the tender document, ODT sales and marketing executive Paul Dwyer, who has attended all World Cup tournaments in the past 20 years, agreed some fans could end up subsidising others.
"You'll never really find out because when you buy through those travel agents it's an all-inclusive price.
"As a purchaser you haven't got a clue what you are paying for.
"But that's the way these things have always been done, whether it's right or wrong."
House of Travel was one of the 20 travel agents internationally that signed up to the deal offered by Rugby Travel and Hospitality (NZ) Ltd.
Retail director Brent Thomas considered that while cross-subsidisation was possible in theory, it was unlikely to occur in practice.
"The suggestion to take the admin fee for a final and spread it across, potentially, pool matches to even it out in my opinion would be difficult because you would be pricing the pool matches significantly greater than what the public would be prepared to pay for them."
He considered the two main advantages of obtaining tickets through travel packages was "surety" of getting a seat and being able to ensure larger groups sat together at matches.
Mr Thomas would not discuss the level of administration fees.
Mr Dwyer said he could not see anything "basically untoward" in the tender document.
"From the bits and pieces I've seen from the Rugby World Cup over the years, to me it seems pretty standard.
"Everybody knows this stuff; that if you buy through these guys you're paying through the nose," he said.
"That's just the way it is.
"I've been to a lot of world cups and there's no way I would be buying tickets through a travel agent."
Mr Dwyer said he preferred to get his own tickets online and arrange his own travel and accommodation.
"If you are buying [tickets] through a travel agent it's costing you a fortune.
"But you can see why, because these travel agents are getting shafted by the Rugby World Cup."
The 31-page tender document also locked travel agents into other arrangements including a ratio of tickets that could be bought.
For example, a selection of 11 tickets including one ticket to the final at Eden Park, would need to include one ticket to a semifinal and two tickets to a quarterfinal, opening game or major pool match.
As well, if a travel agent ordered a "Category A" ticket to the final and Rugby Travel and Hospitality (NZ) Ltd provided an "A" ticket, then the agent would be required to pay a $100 plus GST surcharge over and above the $900 to $1200 plus GST administration fee and the face value of the ticket.
However, Rugby Travel and Hospitality (NZ) Ltd reserved the right to meet an order for an "A" ticket with a ticket from any other category and in that case the surcharge would not apply.
Travel agents could only sell rugby tickets as part of packages that included some form of travel or accommodation but, aside from breakfast, no other "match day hospitality" could be offered as part of packages.
Alongside the 120,000 travel packages Rugby Travel and Hospitality (NZ) Ltd refers to in its publicity, there are another 80,000 hospitality packages, the tendering details of which the ODT has not seen.
Mr Dwyer believed "the drama" over travel package tickets had yet to come.
"What happens when all these tickets come back unsold because [they] were too expensive?
"That's the question.
"When do they go on sale and what are you going to sell those for?
"That happens for any test match, of course.
"All of a sudden, 3000 tickets will appear two days before the game because a travel agent hasn't sold the package."
The New Zealand Herald reported last week some tickets unwanted by rugby boards, sponsors and travel agents had been "released" for public sale.
