by Joseph Kenny | 08/13/09

While it delayed plans for almost two months, United Airlines has decided to make various travel agencies to pay credit card fees for those customers who charge their tickets. It is a cost that the airline has always taken on itself, but it now wishes to reduce the expenditure.

The plan has recently taken affect and it currently targets about 28 agencies of thousands currently working throughout the country and the world. A United representative, Robin Urbanski, said that the measure "was in no way intended to be a market-wide move."

Urbanski also said that more than 100 travel agencies, including some of those that operate on the web, already use their own credit card accounts and, in all likelihood, incur the merchant fees.

Still, there are fears that United may soon broaden this policy to cover all agencies and that other airlines may adopt similar policies. One voice, the American Society of Travel Agents has voiced its fears. Some travel agents suggest that the policy could drive more customers away from them and toward the airline's own web services.

The American Society of Travel Agents has already lobbied Congress and the Obama administration. Additionally, and at least thirteen members of the House of Representatives wrote to the airline and expressed their own concerns regarding how this new fee proposal would affect both agents and consumers.

Most credit card companies will charge different merchants between 2 and 3% of the transaction cost for each swipe of a credit card. United Airlines says it spends hundreds of millions of dollars a year on the fees.