Skift Take
Travel consultants function as representatives of the airlines when they process flight bookings. Why should they be accountable for issuing flight refunds when they are mere go-betweens and never ever see the cash?
Dennis Schaal
As the U.S. Department of Transport attempts to speed refunds for wayward flight reservations by making both airline companies and travel agencies accountable, the American Society of Travel Advisors reacted it would be nearly difficult in many cases for travel representatives since they don’t handle the money.
After all, when travel representatives book flights for clients, the travel agents are intermediaries and representatives of the airline companies, and do not get their hands on the traveler funds. Rather, the traveler cash flow through the airline-owned Airline Reporting Corp. in the U.S. or the Billing and Settlement Strategy outside the U.S. For traditional travel agencies, it is really unusual for them to be the merchants of record, and the keeper of customer cash for flight reservations.
In statement offered Monday to the Department of Transport’s Aviation Customer Security Advisory Committee, Zane Kerby, president and CEO of the travel bureau group, said: “It is exceedingly rare for an agency to manage customer funds in air deals and hence are not in a position to issue a refund.”
The Transportation Department is also attempting to make sure that tourists get refund if they are displeased with proposed alternative transportation choices in the event of flight cancellations or delays.
“We question both the fairness and the practicality of this arrangement, due to the fact that (i) it is exceedingly unusual for a company to deal with customer funds in air deals and therefore are not in a position to issue a refund and (ii) firms have no control over the alternative transportation used to the customer,” Kerby stated.
In July, travel bureau in the U.S. offered more than 640,000 airline tickets per day, Kerby stated, however the majority of these representatives are independent specialists or are utilized in small companies, and the pressure on the businesses would be overwhelming if they were forced to release refunds.
“The prospect of being ‘on the hook’ for refunds regardless of whether the company has access to the funds in question might interrupt the airline circulation system in unknowable and unpleasant methods,” Kerby stated. “It might likewise prove to be such a financial danger that many firms choose to no longer sell air tickets, denying consumers of valuable consultatory services and relative shopping options.”
Lots of travel representatives stopped offering airline company tickets years back because airline companies eliminated commissions to all but the biggest travel agencies.
The Airline Company Reporting Corp., which settles travel agency-airline flight deals, bars travel agencies from holding clients’ funds in airline company ticket reservations, Kerby said.
“Based upon the Department’s earlier discussion, we do not believe the Department’s intent is truly to firmly insist that these overwhelmingly small businesses pay of pocket when the refund due to the customer is delayed or unobtainable from the airline/travel provider, who is really holding the contested funds,” Kerby said.
Pointing to the Department of Transportation’s appearing misconception of how travel representatives offer airline company tickets when the airline companies– and not the travel agencies– are the merchant of record, Henry Harteveldt of Environment Research study said: “This is humiliating for the DOT, however not fatal.”
Harteveldt hopes everything will get sorted out as the rulemaking procedure earnings.
Everything gets more complex, however, when travel bureau– both online and offline– sell flights as parts of tours and plans, he stated, including that the companies may not even understand just how much the flights cost due to the fact that they were unpublished fares bundled into plans.
It appears as though the Transportation Department is looking to make airlines and travel agencies collectively responsible for getting refunds to passengers, but it is the airlines– and not take a trip agents– that apply control over these funds.
“Seems like mass confusion to me,” composed travel attorney Mark Pestronk in a Travel Weekly column about the problem.