WASHINGTON -- Manual accountable ticket stock, except for tour
orders, will be more expensive for travel agents to order from ARC
after Feb. 1.
Under ARC's new ticket requisition fee formula, each box of
four-flight manual tickets, miscellaneous charges orders and
prepaid ticket advices will count as one shipping unit.
Today, they do not count as any shipping units and are "free" to
order as long as the agent also orders automated stock.
Because boxes of manual stock will count as shipping units after
Feb. 1, the number of shipping units will escalate faster than they
do today and could raise the cost of an order, depending on how the
weight affects the price bracket.
Tour orders were exempted from the formula because they are used
to write sales on Universal Studios, Julian Tours and ARC's other
participating suppliers that are not airlines or railroads.
ARC did not want to risk jeopardizing its campaign to recruit
such diversified suppliers by making it more expensive for agents
to get the document used to sell them.
The new fee formula will maintain the minimum $16 fee for an
order of five or fewer shipping units but will raise the cost of
any order that weighs more than five shipping units. The price will
be $28 for six to 18 units, $38 for 19 to 32 units and $55 for 33
to 115 units. Orders of more than 115 units will cost $50 plus
actual shipping costs.
Today's prices are $16 for 12 or fewer units, $28 for 13 to 32
units and $50 for 33 to 130 units. Orders of more than 130 units
are $16 plus actual shipping costs. Nonaccountable administrative
forms do not and will not count as shipping units as long as the
agent orders other items.
However, if an agent orders only nonaccountable forms and
nothing else, the order still will incur the minimum $16 fee to get
a package out the door. ASTA has said it wants ARC to eliminate all
fees, including ticket requisition fees.
Paul Ruden, ASTA staff senior vice president for industry
affairs and travel technology, argued that airlines set commissions
and own the ticket stock, so they should shoulder the costs of
distributing tickets.
On the other hand, ARTA has said that although it would like to
eliminate ARC's annual fee, the increase in ticket requisition fees
could be justified. ARTA president John Hawks said, "ARC made more
of a case for the increase, pointing out that with more tickets
going to an electronic format, it is losing its economies of scale
with [shipments of] actual stock."