WASHINGTON -- Simon Weiser, owner of a small travel agency in
Brooklyn, N.Y., believes that "the airlines are so powerful that
they can turn you off for no reason."
Complaining that "nobody is policing" the situation, Weiser
advocates legislation that would require an airline to go to
arbitration before it could pull its plate from an agency or make
an agency pay a contested debit memo.
As it stands now, he said, small agencies are helpless when
being "abused" by the airlines. Weiser said he belongs to a local
association in Brooklyn called Agents Get Together, and "everybody
has the same concerns."
His agency, Weiser Travel, has been ARC-accredited since 1993
and does about $2 million in annual ARC sales, he said. As may be
suspected, Weiser's call for arbitration stems from some personal
run-ins with airlines.
For example, United and code-share partner Lufthansa pulled
their plates from his agency about 14 months ago due to a dispute
over a New York-Zurich, Switzerland, ticket.
When the ticket was issued about two years ago, the printer was
down that day, so the agency hand-wrote the ticket, he said.
Weiser admitted the ticket had "a few errors" because he plated
on United even though it was a Lufthansa flight. "I thought that
was OK because they code share," he said.
Later, the client altered the name, destination and price on the
flight coupons, he said. "I was shocked. I didn't even know that
was possible," he said.
United accused his agency of fraud, he said. "They didn't even
send a debit memo. They just pulled their plate," he said, adding
that Lufthansa followed suit.
Weiser said he sent United many letters explaining his side and
submitted an affidavit from the client, who admitted altering the
coupons and stated that the agency was not involved.
He said he hired an attorney and spent a lot of money trying to
resolve the situation, to no avail. "Nobody talks to you," he
said.
In another incident, Weiser said he is obliged to pay $800 in
debit memos to Delta by the end of the month in order to keep his
Delta plate, even though he thinks the reason for the debit memos
is invalid.
The problem started after he issued eight New York-Fort
Lauderdale, Fla., tickets on Delta last November. The printer was
down again, so the tickets were handwritten, he said.
About two months later he got debit memos from Delta for $4,633
(the difference between his fare and the Y fare) on the grounds
that the fare he used didn't allow the routing on the tickets.
Weiser said he checked with Worldspan and found the fare rule
did allow the routing when his tickets were issued, although the
rule changed a week later.
He said he told Delta the fares were valid at the time, but "all
they did was reduce [the debit memo for] each ticket to $100,"
leaving a total of $800 to be paid.
Weiser's proposal for mandatory arbitration goes beyond
legislation (H.R. 2200) supported by ASTA that would require
airlines to provide 90 days notice before pulling a plate and give
the agency 60 days to correct the alleged deficiency.
The travel agent arbiter, William McGee, is empowered to hear
disputes between individual ARC agents and airlines, and Weiser
favored that forum.
But the airline must agree in writing to accept McGee's
jurisdiction and treat his decision as binding. To date, no U.S.
airline has done so.