WASHINGTON -- The Travel Agent Arbiter could handle debit memo
cases with little or no increase in staff and no immediate increase
in funding, although it would have to develop a fee schedule for
the cases.
So says the arbiter himself, Bill McGee, who also told Travel
Weekly: "I think it could be practically an overnight transition if
the parties agreed to send [debit memo cases] here."
Amending and strengthening the arbiter program to handle debit
memo cases was one of three recommendations made by the National
Commission to Ensure Consumer Information and Choice in the Travel
Industry, which issued its report Nov. 13.
Technically, those disputes already could come before the
arbiter. But both the agent and the airline have to agree to bring
any airline-agent disputes to the arbiter.
As a result, only one of the arbiter's 6,000 or so cases since
its creation in 1987 has been for an airline-agent dispute, in
1995, McGee said. It was not a debit memo case.
The rest of the cases are ARC-agent disputes.
McGee said he gets two or three calls a week from agents who
want to bring debit memo cases to the arbiter.
But then he tells them they also need the consent of the
airline, and "I never hear from them again."
The arbiter program was established as a separate nonprofit
corporation as part of the 1987 settlement of an ARTA lawsuit
against ARC. Half of its funding comes from airline contributions
and half from agencies' annual ARC fee.
The arbiter program board meets once a year and includes three
representatives for agents -- one each from ASTA, ARTA and AAA --
and three from airlines, which at the moment are Delta, US Airways
and Japan Air Lines.
McGee said he's mentioned the debit memo issue before, possibly
as far back at the first meeting 15 years ago. There has never been
a consensus, but he said the sentiment seemed to have changed at
the last annual meeting a few weeks ago.
"We tentatively made arrangements to get together after the
first of the year" to discuss it again, McGee said.
Under the national commission's recommendation, the
Transportation Department also would get involved. Congress would
direct the DOT to convene airline and agency representatives and
report back within six months on their progress.
The commission said the rules also should preclude airlines from
retaliating against agents who seek or defend arbitration.
The arbiter program has a two-person staff, with McGee as the
only arbiter. But McGee said he thinks the current staff can handle
it and, if not, a part-time arbiter could be hired.
The cost of ARC-agent cases is covered by member fees paid by
agents and airlines. But McGee said he is supposed to create a fee
schedule for cases in which ARC is not involved.
Staff and funding issues could depend on how many debit memo
cases come before the arbiter. It also could depend on whether the
rules are written to allow most of those cases to be handled on
paper, as the national commission suggested, instead of with an
oral hearing.
McGee said most of the arbiter's cases already are handled on
paper.