WASHINGTON -- Consumers would be able to voice their complaints
about travel companies and learn about their rights as travelers by
joining a new Internet-based advocacy association that ARTA intends
to officially spin off in June.
ARTA filed papers with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service to
establish the Consumer Travel Rights Center (CTRC) as a nonprofit
corporation that will lobby Capitol Hill and file legal actions on
behalf of consumers.
ARTA president John Hawks, speaking during a telephone press
conference from the association's headquarters in Lexington, Ky.,
said CTRC, which was announced last September but has been stymied
by technical problems, will operate independently from ARTA, taking
a proactive stance on certain travel related consumer issues.
Hawks will serve as CTRC's interim executive director.
"While ARTA is not technically connected because it is a
separate association, it does give us a real focus to go beyond
what ARTA can do speaking from the consumer end of things," he
said.
The CTRC Web site will be found at www.mytravelrights.com. Consumers can file complaints
there against suppliers and attractions. The site also will detail
consumer travel rights on a variety of issues.
For instance, "Consumers can go to this site, sign on and find
out what [the rules are] if you have been a victim of a crime on a
cruise ship," Hawks said. "There will be advisories that consumers
can print out. Frequent business travelers can print out the
[rules] on bumping, [for example, so that] when a consumer is
standing on line at the airport and the airport clerk says, 'We
bumped you,' the consumer can whip out [the advisory] and say,
'Here's what the DOT says you have to do for me.' "
Furthermore, Hawks said, the CTRC could serve as a springboard
for class-action litigation against suppliers on behalf of
consumers.
Indeed, foreshadowing the CTRC's potential, ARTA e-mailed
several travel agent and consumer message boards asking for
assistance in contacting lawmakers in Congress to support its
recent petition filed with the Federal Trade Commission. The
petition requested an investigation into plan by several major
airlines to launch a Web site geared to market airline tickets.
Hawks said ARTA was "overwhelmed" by the response, a possible
indication that the CTRC will strike a cord with consumers and
agents when it is launched next month.
To drum up a critical mass of 5,000 members, Hawks said ARTA has
sent information packets on CTRC to some 40 major consortiums,
franchisers and on-line travel agencies.
The deadline to join is June 1. Annual membership costs $12 for
consumers and $1 for travel agency groups, such as consortiums,
which can extend the benefit to all of their agency affiliates.
Hawks said the agencies, in turn, can grant or sell the
membership in the CTRC to their clients for $12, remit $1 to CTRC
and retain the remaining $11 as a commission.
A five- to eight-member board of directors and a 20- to
30-member advisory committee will be established for the CTRC on
June 1, Hawks said.
ARTA chairman Nancy Linares will hold a post on the CTRC's board
of directors.
CRTC will be run by Hawks Management Service, which also
operates ARTA. It will be represented in Washington by ARTA's
lobbyist, Toby Roth, and the legal counsel will be ARTA's attorney
Alexander Anolik.