WASHINGTON -- The International Airlines Travel Agent Network
(Iatan) said it opened its endorsement, registration and
identification card programs to ARC-accredited corporate travel
departments on Jan. 1, a move that triggered a "condemnation" from
ASTA.
Iatan president Michael Maino said, "It's taken us two years [to
make the decision], and we honestly believe we've done it right,
with more stringent procedures and higher fees [than for travel
agents]."
ASTA, nevertheless, issued a blistering press release accusing
Iatan of issuing cards to "customers."
In an interview, Maino said corporate travel departments are
former in-house travel departments that used to be "rent-a-plate
locations licensed by BTI Americas, Rosenbluth or some other big
corporate agency."
"The people were on the agency payroll and they had Iatan cards.
Then ARC came along and set up an accredited corporate travel
department category" nearly two years ago, he said.
There are now 35 corporate travel departments, including eight
satellite ticket printer sites, and another 30 in the accreditation
pipeline, Maino added.
Under ARC rules, corporate travel departments are forbidden to
sell to the public; they can only "sell" internally.
"Iatan didn't have a corporate travel department category," said
Maino, "so the employees became disenfranchised. We've gotten calls
from corporate travel departments and the travel agents working
with them [to open up Iatan's programs]. We've been under quite a
bit of pressure and we've been reluctant to move [too
quickly]."
But these are legitimate travel people, Maino maintains. Nothing
has changed except the company name on the paycheck. "Are you
telling me they aren't travel agents? Whom are we kidding?" he
said.
But ASTA president Joe Galloway maintained that "Iatan has
devalued the single card that differentiated bona fide travel
professionals from travel customers."
"Now that the customers of the airlines are given rights to
travel agent credentials, the Iatan card no longer represents the
universal ID of true travel sellers," said Galloway.
"If the airlines wish to give discounts to their customers, why
don't they just do it? In our view, this move is bad for agents and
bad for suppliers," he said, adding that suppliers will find it
difficult "to prevent corporate employees from taking advantage of
fam opportunities."
Maino said he "strenuously disagreed" with Galloway's
characterization of corporate travel department employees as
"customers."
"The customer is the person for whom these hard-working,
dedicated travel agents are making reservations for, issuing
tickets for and providing the wide variety of other travel-related
services," Maino said.
He said most of the people have been doing the same job they are
doing today for years and all the while had held Iatan cards until
they were changed to corporate travel departments and became
disenfranchised.
"We need to remind everyone from time to time that the Iatan ID
Card program is not an entitlement program," he said. "It is simply
a program to identify all of the legitimate sellers of travel. The
suppliers then each decide, individually, whom they wish to provide
discounts to."