Mark Pestronk
Q: Why does Iatan exist? It seems to offer no benefit to agencies or airlines. Our ARC appointment provides the industry recognition that we need, and our ARC number is the same as our IATA number. I understand that our employees and independent contractors want the Iatan card, but ARC could just take over the card-issuance business.
A: You ask a good question. I wonder the same thing myself every time I have to wade through an Iatan application's paperwork in connection with an agency acquisition, and I see that the questions mostly duplicate the ARC process.
According to Iatan's website, an Iatan appointment is "the key to achieving global recognition. Iatan has been servicing all facets of the U.S. travel and tourism industry for over 20 years. Its globally recognized accreditation program offers U.S. travel professionals worldwide recognition of their business, which no other accreditation program can."
I don't really understand that statement. If an agency has an ARC appointment, it gets the same code number that it would get with an Iatan appointment. As far as I can tell, almost all the world's airlines recognize an ARC appointment by virtue of that code number, as they participate in ARC's ticketing and settlement plan. As far as I know, no further recognition is needed.
When another kind of foreign supplier such as a locally owned hotel asks for an agency's "IATA number," the agency can provide its ARC number. Since ARC gets its numbers from IATA in the first place, an ARC number is essentially an IATA number.
Both ARC and Iatan have junior appointments for agents who don't issue airline tickets, but again, the programs appear duplicative, and an ARC appointee gets an IATA or IATA-like number just as a ticketing agency does.
One irony about Iatan is that, although it is affiliated with IATA, which appoints agencies in the rest of the world, an Iatan appointment means nothing to IATA. If you have an Iatan appointment and want to open a branch in the U.K., you must apply to IATA in order to ticket there, but already having an Iatan appointment does not help you get it.
Once you have an Iatan appointment, your employees and independent contractors can get a card if you certify that they "devote a minimum of 20 hours per week to the business of selling travel [and] earn a minimum of USD 5,000 in salary and/or commissions in the prior 12 months." The card is purportedly good for agent discounts on airlines, hotels and other suppliers.
So, Iatan appears to exist mainly to provide the benefit of an Iatan card, making Iatan a card mill. Since almost all Iatan agencies are also ARC-appointed, I see no reason why ARC could not take over the card-issuance business practically overnight, putting Iatan out of business.
I realize that my opinions are provocative, and perhaps I don't see the other benefits of an Iatan appointment. According to Iatan's website, there are four or five travel agents on Iatan's advisory board, and I invite them to explain any errors that I have made about Iatan's usefulness, following which I will run a follow-up column on the subject.