Business travel agents have demanded answers from IATA on a raft of issues, including bond levels, the reissuing of tickets, time wasted on agency debit memos and airlines operating without e-tickets.
IATA representatives spoke at the first joint leisure and business travel Advantage conference following the association’s creation of one central service centre in Madrid in June this year. The centre handles 32,300 customers, of which 24,000 are travel agents.
Juan Antonio Rodriguez, who heads up its call centre, said: “We want to give the best service to our customers but it is very difficult to do. It’s a huge change of culture and clearly we are not where we want to be but this is our vision. We want to help airlines be more efficient.”
Advantage Travel Centres’ director of business travel Norman Gage questioned whether any change was likely on bonding levels required to acquire an IATA licence.
He said: “Bonding is becoming a big issue. With the banking crisis, the money flow in the system is drying up. Has IATA changed its mind on the amount of bonding people need to acquire to hold a licence?”
But Rodriguez said bonds were unlikely to fall. “I do not think bonds are going to go down. We are talking about risk management; there is more risk than there was before,” he said.
IATA manager of passenger services in the UK Elena Ciuperceanu added that bonding requirements had increased because of the economic climate. “The rules in place are stricter than they used to be because of the risks in the industry. We already know that banks are not that keen now to put up bonds because of the risks they perceive. We are looking at the process.”
Gage also raised concerns among Advantage members on revalidating and reissuing tickets. “The problems that members have reissuing tickets is because there is no set standard for airlines,” he said.
Ciuperceanu admitted: “Exchanging and re-issuing tickets is becoming more difficult and with alliances it’s more complicated. IATA continues to issue a ticket handbook.”
She stressed the process should get easier in future but said travel management companies needed to work more closely with airlines to simplify the process.
Meanwhile, she said problems with ADMs should also be directed to the airlines. Capable Travel managing director George Herrera said: “The airline gets it wrong 90% of the time. They charge us an administration fee. Why can’t we charge the airline an administration fee when it’s wrong?”
Herrera added that e-ticketing was a problem for South American airlines. “A lot of South American airlines do not have e-tickets. It’s a massive headache for us,” he said.
Ciuperceanu said: “We do not establish the business models of airlines but my personal view is that airlines will find their own business model that suits them best.”