ASTA has responded to yesterday's DOT ruling on IATA's Resolution 787, issuing the following statement:
The American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) issues this statement regarding conditional approval by the Department of Transportation (DOT) of the International Air Transport Association's (IATA) Resolution 787, which creates the framework for a new data transmission standard known as the New Distribution Capability (NDC):
The Department of Transportation's approval, with safeguards agreed to by ASTA in collaboration with IATA and other industry stakeholders, of a resolution creating the framework for IATA's New Distribution Capability reflects the Department's commitment to protect the interests and privacy of the traveling public, a priority that ASTA and its member agencies share. ASTA, Open Allies, IATA and other stakeholders have been working on behalf of our respective members in this long process, and the DOT's action is a testament to the success of this collaboration. We look forward to working just as closely with IATA and others in the future as this standard, and others that may emerge, evolve over the next months and years.
As the DOT said, this action includes "several safeguards specifically designed to protect privacy, ensure competition and consumer choice, and make clear the voluntary nature of the standard and its availability to all airline industry participants." The DOT has made it clear that anyone shopping for air travel will not be required to disclose personal information, and that airlines and travel agents are obligated to follow their own published privacy policies.
In the coming days, ASTA will be circulating to its members a sample privacy policy, and will communicate the need to have a privacy policy in place and to strictly follow those policies when it comes to collecting, storing and sharing of client information.
With regard to the ongoing development of NDC, ASTA will continue to monitor the situation and let our members know if any action is required. Additionally, we will continue to work in a collaborative fashion with IATA and other stakeholders to protect the interests of our members and the travel agency industry as a whole.
In addition, ASTA issued a separate response to a DOT ruling on consumer protection:
The American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) is encouraged by the U.S. Department of Transportation's (DOT) latest proposed rules that recognize the importance of customers being informed of major ancillary services and fees associated at the time of purchase. This 118-page proposal, however, contains a wide range of issues that still require extensive industry input.
"ASTA appreciates that DOT is proposing to adopt one of its major goals-a requirement that airlines provide agents with real-time usable information about core ancillary services and related fees," said ASTA Senior Vice President of Legal and Industry Affairs Paul Ruden. "And, while not specifically proposed at this stage, DOT has left the door open to the possibility of requiring that travel agents be allowed to actually sell the services so consumers can buy a ticket and ancillary services in a single interaction with the agent."
There are other proposals contained in the rulemaking that appear to unnecessarily intrude on agency operations without likely material benefit to consumers. ASTA will seek member input on those issues and comment in depth to DOT about them.
The DOT proposal would:
• Require the airlines to disclose fee information for basic ancillary services, which DOT defined as first checked bag, second checked bag, carry-on item and advance seat assignment, to all ticket agents to which a carrier provides its fare information.
• Require airlines and ticket agents to disclose fees for basic, additional services associated with airline tickets at all points of sale.
• Require "large travel agents" - those with annual revenue of $100 million or more - to adopt minimum customer service standards, such as responding promptly to customer complaints and providing an option to hold a reservation at the quoted fare without payment, or to cancel without penalty, for 24 hours if the reservation is made one week or more prior to a flight's departure.
• Tighten the code-share disclosure for online itinerary displays so that any code-share arrangement is provide on the initial itinerary display.
• Prohibit the biasing of flight displays without disclosing the bias.
• Codify its broader definition of "ticket agent" to include online aggregators, such as Kayak and Google that offer flight and fare searches without issuing tickets.
ASTA will be holding Webinars in the near future to obtain input from its members on these issues before submitting comments to the DOT.
SOURCE: ASTA press release
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