Q:Is our travel agency liable to our
corporate client for failing to apply unused, nonrefundable tickets
to new tickets before the unused ones expired?
What if we expressly promised the corporate client to apply
them and then just neglected to do so?
A: If your agency made the promise noted in the
second question above, you would be liable for breach of contract,
as long as:
The corporation turned the paper tickets in to you or requested
that its e-tickets be applied.The corporation relied on your promise.The traveler took another trip on the same airline prior to the
ticket's expiration date.You could not get the airline to extend the expiration
date.Conversely, you would not be liable if any of the four
conditions mentioned above were not present. It would probably be
very rare to find all four to be present in any given case.
In the absence of an express or implied contract noted above,
the corporation could try to claim that travel agencies have a
professional duty to apply unused tickets to future tickets and
that failure to perform such a duty would constitute professional
negligence or malpractice.
The corporation would claim that this duty is analogous to
agencies' other duties established by court precedent, such as the
duty to make reservations with care and the duty to warn about
dangerous destinations or a supplier's financial problems.
However, if the corporation made such a legal claim, it would
probably not prevail, as there are no relevant precedents, and it
would be hard for the corporation to get expert witnesses needed to
testify that all agencies have such a duty in the absence of the
contractual conditions set forth above.
Of course, you want to avoid these kinds of claims in the first
place. One way to do so is to insert, in a written contract with
the client, that you assume no responsibility for unused tickets
except to refund any refundable ones.
Another way is to promise only to hold the unused tickets, and
then to apply them as directed by the client on a ticket-by-ticket
basis.
Finally, you could try to develop a truly foolproof method of
tracking and using the tickets as a value-added service. Existing
systems will produce reports of unused tickets, but as far as I
know, there is no automated system for applying them to future
purchases.
Mark Pestronk is a Fairfax, Va.-based attorney specializing
in travel law. He answers your questions in the Crossroads Legal Issues forum. To contact Mark directly,
e-mail him at [email protected].