Travel Advisor Group Tells Transportation Department Agents Can’t Issue Flight Refunds
Photo Credit: Kate Irwin
Skift Take
Travel advisors serve as agents of the airlines when they process flight bookings. Why should they be responsible for issuing flight refunds when they are mere go-betweens and never see the money?
As the U.S. Department of Transportation tries to speed refunds for wayward flight bookings by making both airlines and travel agencies responsible, the American Society of Travel Advisors responded it would be almost impossible in most cases for travel agents because they don't handle the money.
After all, when travel agents book flights for customers, the travel agents are middlemen and agents of the airlines, and don't get their hands on the passenger funds. Instead, the passenger monies flow through the airline-owned Airline Reporting Corp. in the U.S. or the Billing and Settlement Plan outside the U.S. For traditional travel agencies, it is very rare for them to be the merchants of record, and the keeper of client monies for flight bookings.
In testimony provided Monday to the D
