WASHINGTON -- The
Sabre Travel Network said that it communicated directly with its
agency users that effective Nov. 1 it would charge a small monthly
service fee to use ARCs service fee programs as part of a
corporate-wide cost reduction program.
Sabres statement
follows one from ARC, distancing itself from the fee.
In April, Sabre
Travel Network introduced a new tool that provides travel agents an
alternative application for the processing of travel agent service
fees charged to credit cards, Sabre said in a statement. The costs
to agents for using this tool are on par with the fee charged by
ARC when the fee charged is $20 and less than the ARC charges for
all other amounts.
In the Aug. 12
communication, Sabre told its agency customers, effective Nov. 1,
they could choose to continue this process through ARC or use the
Sabre Card Services tool. If they choose to use the ARC product we
will charge a small monthly service fee that varies, depending on
the agency size and volume. By Nov. 1, Sabre Travel Network will
offer access to all major credit and T&E cards, including
UATP.
Sabre said the new
fee resulted from a corporate-wide cost reduction program initiated
to identify where any function that only produced expense would
either be charged for or discontinued. Processing Sabre Connected
agencies settlement procedures through ARC was identified as one of
these functions.
ARC, meanwhile, said
it has nothing to do with Sabres decision.
Sabre has elected to
impose a fee on access to the ARC product that we have provided to
travel professionals over the past decade, said Kathi Argiropoulos,
ARCs vice president of travel agency services. With this action by
Sabre, the costs to travel agents using ARCs product have been
significantly increased --by Sabre.
To contact
the reporter who wrote this article, send e-mail to Michael
Milligan at [email protected].