With the state of our current our economy and the everyday struggles that travel agents and agencies face with less people traveling, swine flu concerns, more a la carte fees by the airlines, we have yet again been asked to face another never-before seen attempt to cut our profits and worse yet, risk our livelihoods.
On July 20th, an unidentified number of agencies have been told that they will no longer be able to sell United Airlines tickets using credit cards via the GDS, as we have with every carrier from the time GDS have been introduced to us. United Airlines will now be passing the costs on to us, the travel agents. There are two ways around this new challenge. First, travel agents would need to establish merchant accounts with credit card issuers and settle in cash with United via ARC. The annual price tag for that would be approximately $171 million dollars in fees passed on to travel agents. The second option that we have been given is to book United Airline tickets on their website, which eliminates the opportunity of truly servicing our clients, which is why they choose to book with a trusted travel adviser in the first place.
You do have a voice!
We, the travel agent community as a whole, must speak up and let our thoughts be heard. ASTA is doing everything they can to help us from going to the Department of Justice as well as members of Congress for help. They are asking for our involvement as well. Below I have copied a sample email that ASTA has prepared for us so that you may forward this on to your Representative or Senator. Please make your letter as personable and as specific to your situation as possible. The more they see you/us as “people” and how these changes affect us, the better response it will receive.
You can find the contact information for your representative here and your senator here.
Dear Representative/Senator ______:
As the owner/manager of a travel agency in _________, _____, I am seeking your urgent assistance.
We have been in business for ___ years, employing __ full-time agents and contributing to tourism sales and the local economy. When we sell an airline ticket with payment by credit card (accounting for over 90% of sales), the merchant account for that credit transaction is owned by the airline. Among the many advantages that this system, in place since the advent of credit cards, is that consumers have the peace of mind in knowing they receive the full protections of the Fair Credit Billing Act in case of performance disputes, including airline bankruptcies.
United Airlines has just announced that, as of July 20, some travel agencies will be denied access to United merchant accounts and must get their own accounts and pay United in cash. If other airlines follow suit, which they often do, this policy will impose enormous costs and risks on our business and will defeat the protections that consumers get under federal law. If an airline service dispute arises, and they come up all the time, our agency will be the target for charge-backs even though the airline has the money. This is an impossible situation, unfair to us, unreasonable as a business practice and severely harmful to consumers.
We ask that you use your influence to persuade United to rescind this policy immediately before catastrophic consequences ensue. If your office needs further information, please contact Paul Ruden, ASTA’s senior vice president of legal and industry affairs at pruden@asta.org or call him at 703.739.6854.
Thank you very much for considering our views. We look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
(Your name and agency name)
