ASTA on Monday shared its support of a letter that nine members of Congress sent to the Department of Transportation, urging the DOT to review its airline ticket refund policy.
The Society has lobbied against the policy, which requires the merchant of record for airline tickets to refund customers if flights are canceled, regardless of whether they have the funds. While agencies are not often not the merchant of record for air sales, they are when they buy blocks of seats at wholesale prices and resell them with a markup.
Nine Republican members of the House of Representatives signed a letter to DOT secretary Sean Duffy urging a review of the policy. They are Beth Van Duyne (Texas), Mike Bost (Illinois), Scott DeJarlais (Tennessee), French Hill (Arkansas), Kimberlyn King-Hinds (Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands), Rich McCormick (Georgia), Maria Elvira Salazar (Florida), Pete Stauber (Minnesota) and Daniel Webster (Florida).
In the letter, the lawmakers wrote that since the rule went into effect last October, "travel agencies have been accountable for financial compliance in a situation they have no control over."
Constituents have reported the rule is "a substantial hardship for their small businesses," they added. "Travel advisors and agencies often operate on slim margins and the rule requires them to front capital they often do not have."
ASTA president and CEO Zane Kerby said, "Requiring small business travel advisors to extend credit from their own pockets to pay airline refunds is a gross misplacement of responsibility that must be rectified, and I applaud these members of Congress for recognizing this inequity and taking our plight to new leadership at the DOT.
"Fixing this misguided rule remains ASTA's top policy priority, and the support of Congress will go a long way toward that goal."