Corp Travel Agencies See Coronavirus Silver Lining With Fewer of These Nagging Clawbacks From Airlines


Skift Take

Corporate travel agencies should celebrate small wins whenever they can, and the easing of these administrative burdens is good news.

Love is in the air in these unusual times. Corporate travel agencies are welcoming news of greater leniency towards the enforcement of so-called agency debit memos. These memos are issued by airlines for a variety of reasons, and tend to penalize agencies for failing to comply with air ticket rules, correcting a booking error or updating client details.

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Airlines Reporting Corporation, which provides ticket transaction settlement services between airlines and travel agencies in the U.S., began stepping back on enforcement as the flood of debit memos, prompted by Covid-19 cancellations, began to overwhelm agencies. "We will not take action on any debit memos that involve a flight canceled by an airline or government entity as a result of Covid-19, or are related to a passenger compensation dispute resulting from Covid-19," it said on its website at the end of last month