The American Society of Travel Advisors (ASTA) is praising a group of House Representatives who recently reached out to the Department of Transportation (DOT) Secretary Sean Duffy, pushing for updated legislation that would get travel advisors off the hook for airline refunds in situations where they aren't in possession of those funds.
The letter from nine House Representatives, led by Congresswoman Beth Van Duyne (R-TX), was sent last week and points out that "travel advisors and agencies often operate on slim margins and the rule requires them to front capital they often do not have without first receiving the funds from the airlines.
Lawmakers called the burden on advisors "unsustainable."
"Requiring small business travel advisors to extend credit from their own pockets to pay airline refunds is a gross misplacement of responsibility that must be rectified, and I applaud these Members of Congress for recognizing this inequity and taking our plight to new leadership at the DOT," ASTA President and CEO Zane Kerby said in a statement. "Fixing this misguided rule remains ASTA’s top policy priority, and the support of Congress will go a long way toward that goal."
"ASTA will not allow small travel agencies to serve as banks for the big airlines," Kerby added.
"This is about fairness and ensuring that the parties responsible for service failures—the airlines—are also responsible for the refunds," he said. "Our members are being saddled with financial obligations they neither caused nor can afford, and we are grateful to our champions in Congress for stepping in."
According to ASTA and Kerby, "the department’s assumption that the market will resolve these issues is detached from the reality our members face every day."
"If policymakers are serious about supporting small businesses, they must act swiftly to revise this rule," he said. "Until then, ASTA will continue to advocate relentlessly for a regulatory fix."
ASTA has long been working toward a fix in this area, descending on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC with its members and allies as recently as last fall to push for reform.
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