The luxury operator will give an extra 0.5% commission to agents from January 1, 2018.

The increase will come ahead of the Payment Services Directive 2 (PSD2) becoming law on January 13, prohibiting travel firms from charging customers for paying by debit and credit cards.

Abercrombie & Kent is the latest operator to make such a commitment to agents with Kuoni, Sunvil Holidays and Prestige Holidays all pledging an identical commission increase in the summer.

Rachel Healey, UK sales manager told TTG the implementation of PSD2 was “a massive blow to the trade”.

“It does feel like a kick in the teeth for agents so we want to be able to be there to support them,” she said.

Healey explained that Abercrombie & Kent had made the decision following discussions with trade partners around how best to support them when the new legislation comes into force.

“This is about us listening to what agents’ need and the demands of the industry at large,” she added.

“It’s clear that us taking this initiative is going to help [agents] enormously going forward. We know that credit card companies are going to be pursuing consumers to use cards more and ramping up the benefits for people to pay that way.”

Revealing the action at Aito’s overseas conference in Evora, Portugal, Healey said Abercrombie & Kent was committed to supporting agents “across the board” - especially those belonging to the association.

“We are an Aito operator and we are going to support all agents but our priority is always Aito because that’s where a lot of our business comes from,” she said.