WASHINGTON -- The Airlines Reporting Corp. said an unusually
large number of travel agents' sales reports for the period ending
Dec. 14 were late in reaching the processing center, possibly
caught up in the holiday mail.
ARC said slightly more than 1,000 sales reports from agencies
scattered throughout the Midwest and South were received late or
were missing, roughly twice the normal figure. As of last week,
about 60% of those reports had arrived, said Allan Muten, ARC
director of corporate communications. The next reporting period was
normal, he said.
Agents whose Dec. 14 reports were late or not yet received were
either getting their sales summaries for that week much later than
usual or not getting them at all.
Muten said some agents, whose reports were late but came in
relatively soon, might have been assessed the $19 fine for a late
report -- before ARC realized a widespread problem had occurred.
These agents can get the penalty waived by providing ARC with proof
of timely mailing, such as a post office certificate of mailing or
a receipt from an express delivery service.
Once ARC knew it had a problem, it began asking agents to create
duplicate reports, he said.
Muten said ARC is not sure whether delays by post offices or
"our courier truck" was the root of the problem, "but we want to
find out where they were hung up."
"Whether it's our mistake or elsewhere, we want to learn from
it," he said.