Search

Discusses various travel-related issues as of October 23, 2000. Details on the 2000 American Society of Travel Agents World Travel Congress; Travel packages offered by several hotels; How air travel disconnects travelers from geography.

Reports on the American Society of Travel Agents' (ASTA) call for operators to accept credit cards for booking payments in order for agents to get their commissions on time. Cruise companies' failure to improve commission payments on credit card bookings; Development of a strategy to address the issue by ASTA's Industry Affairs Committee; National Tour Association members' acceptance of Visa credit cards.

Profiles Richard Copland, the incoming president of the American Society of Travel Agents in October 2000. Information on his consumer awareness efforts; Planned expansion of the society's marketing campaign; Information on his political activities regarding passenger rights; Views on leadership. INSET: Agent involvement.

The article reports that ARC-accredited agencies could see the annual per-location fee of ARC increase by as much as 172 percent starting in January 2008. The fee increased proposed by ARC is part of its first major fee restructuring in seven years. The fee increase was criticized by ASTA and is evaluating legal options to block the plan.

Reports that the Airline Reporting Corporation's board of directors will meet on June 4, 2003 to decide upon the rules that will void the sales transactions only up to 24 hours after the date of sales. Other policies to be decided in the meeting; Reaction of American Society of Travel Agents on the issue.

Reports on the awards given to travel agencies for best business practices. Award for the best travel agency in business practices given by American Society of Travel Agents and Hyatt Hotels Corp.; Company that won awards for its innovative use of technology; Names of the other three companies that received awards.

Reports on the decision of several U.S. travel agencies to join the American Society of Travel Agents in November 2002. List of travel agencies that joined the society; Efforts of the organization in recruiting new members; Complaints of former members of the society.

Reports that the Jackson Airport in Mississippi shelved plans for a Web portal that would have provided direct links to booking sites for carriers serving the area. Details on the meeting of Dirk Vanderleest, the airport's executive director with Vickie Greenlee, Southeast chapter president of American Society of Travel Agents; Goal of the site.

Deals with the visit of Richard Copland, president of American Society of Travel Agents, to Cuba in April 2002. Comments on the country's resorts and hotels; Information of the organization's plan to offer a Cuba destination specialist program; Details of the plan to lift trade and travel restrictions in Cuba. INSET: Who's permitted to visit?.

Reports on the request of the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) to ban the enforcement of productivity clauses in agency computerized reservation system contracts. Reason for banning the productivity clauses; Penalty for failing to meet productivity quotas; Response of several travel agency executives to the request of ASTA.

Reports on the reaction of major travel agency associations in the U.S to the decision of Delta Air Lines to eliminate base commission rates. Views of American Society of Travel Agents President Richard Copland on the decision; Opinion of Association of Retail Travel Agents President John Hawks on the way the airline repaid agents; Significance of the timing of the implementation.

Reports that members of the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) approved a change to the society's structure by voting to create a membership category for individual agents in the United States on October 26, 2001. Number of voters in favor of the change; Membership categories to be established by the referendum; Appointment of a membership implementation task force by the ASTA.

Reports the demonstrations staged by travel agents in the U.S. during the American Society of Travel Agents' National Day of Awareness on August 30, 2001. Theme of the demonstration; Ways in which travel agents from Puerto Rico to Hawaii are participating in the demonstration; Contribution of travel agents to ticket sales in the travel industry of the U.S.

Reports on the plan of travel agencies to shut down their operation for a number of hours on August 30, 2001 in relation to their protest action. Details of the protest action plan of the American Society of Travel Agents in various airports in the United States; Result of a poll conducted by the journal 'Travel Weekly.'

Reports that the American Society of Travel Agents' (ASTA) board of directors have approved a proposal that would create a membership category for individual travel agents. Provisions of the membership proposal; Implications for ASTA; Effect on the National Association of Commissioned Travel Agents; Scope of ASTA's promotion plans for the proposal.

Reports on the decision of former American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) president Phil Davidoff to join ASTA and Association of Retail Travel Agents (ARTA) in the arbitration case challenging Airline Reporting Corporation's surcharges for agencies. Reason behind Davidoff's decision; Criticism made by Davidoff against ARC; Significance of the cooperative spirit between ASTA and ARTA.

Deals with surcharges imposed on travel agencies in the United States. Complaint of the American Society of Travel Agents on fee structure imposed by the Aeronautical Research Council (ARC); Terms under the fee plan approved by the ARC board in June 2001; Response of ARC to the complaint.

Reports that the Independent Arbitration Panel that will review American Society of Travel Agent's (ASTA) appeal of Airlines Reporting Corporation's fees for manually reporting agents refused to suspend the fees during the appeal process. Surcharge given to travel agents if they did not sign up for the electronic reporting system; Reaction of William Maloney, staff executive vice president of ASTA, to the panel's decision.

Provides information on an advertising campaign of the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) to increase consumer awareness. Partnership agreement with Carnival Corp.; Slogan of ASTA; Advertising media that were utilized.

States that the American Society of Travel Agents and the Rosenbluth International company filed an appeal with an arbitration panel over the decision of Airlines Reporting Corp. (ARC) to impose surcharges. Argument of both groups on the surcharges; Remarks from David Collins, president of ARC; Terms of the ARC rules.

Reports on the postponement by the Air Transport Association in implementing a rule that would restrict travel agents from printing tickets for certain electronic-ticket transactions. Reasons for the postponement; Concern raised by the American Society of Travel Agents; Implementation date of the rule; Opinion on the postponement.

Unveils the plan of the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) to launch a major marketing campaign to spur more supplier participation in Travelsellers.com, its Internet-based subsidiary. Schedule for the direct mail campaign; Number of employers that would be encouraged to accept the numbers that are being supplied by the International Airlines Travel Agent Network; Information on the outreach program approved by the board of ASTA for its member branch locations.

Presents the comments from Richard Copland, president of American Society of Travel Agent (ASTA), regarding the white paper which criticized travel agents groups for seeking to limit the expansion of on-line travel services. Details on the contents of the white paper; Information on the contention of ASTA against Orbitz; Reason for public's preference for booking through agents.

Deals with the reaction of travel agents to the reduction of changing fees for nonrefundable plane tickets by Continental Airlines. Details on the changes; Statement issued by Kathy Sudeikis, vice president of the American Society of Travel Agents; Implications.

Reports that the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) launched Travelsellers.com, an Internet-based, for-profit subsidiary that will provide identifying numbers to non-Airline Reporting Corp. agents. Acceptance of Continental Airlines; Criticism of ASTA on the reservation service provider of Airline Reporting Corp.

Focuses on a bill proposed by the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) in which travel agents would gain antitrust immunity to collectively bargain with airlines and other suppliers in the United States. Accusations of Richard Copland of ASTA against the move of large travel companies in using the antitrust laws for themselves; Effects of the plan of American Airlines to acquire Trans World Airlines to travel agents; Views of several ASTA officers on the existing labor laws.

Deals with the decision of Southwest Airlines to cut travel agency commissions and implement a two-tiered structure that pays less for paper ticketing. Stance of the American Society of Travel Agents; Impact of the move to the firm's competitiveness; Views on the matter.

Reports that ARTA has asked the International Airlines Travel Agent Network (Iatan) for a set of identification (ID) numbers that it could assign to agents for their proposed nonprofit corporation. Reaction of the American Society of Travel Agents to the similarity of the ARTA ID program with their Travelsellers.com; Content of a letter sent by ARTA to the Iatan regarding antitrust issues.

Reports on the agreement of Continental Airlines with American Society of Travel Agents to delay the implementation of the Reservation Service Provider registration service. Reasons for the delay; Background of the service; Alternative to the service.

Reports that the American Society of Travel Agents pledged to launch a major fight to pressure ARC into dropping fees for agencies that do not report weekly sales electronically. Potential benefit from electronic reporting; Why agents do not want to go onto ARC; Series of surcharges that would be levied on agencies that opt to report their weekly sales using the traditional paper method.

Focuses on the support received by the International Association of Travel Agents (IATA) for its plan to administer dot-travel, a top level domain (TLD) on the Internet. Terms of the deal signed by the Universal Federation of Travel Agents' Associations (Uftaa) with IATA; Why the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) criticized the plan of IATA.

Discusses the proposed fee structure of the Airlines Reporting Corp. for sales reporting of travel agencies in the United States. Lower costs for the electronic reporting system; Surcharges for the manual reporting system; Reason for the proposed fee structure; Opposition of the American Society of Travel Agents to the proposal.

Discusses the reaction of several travel agent groups on the plan of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) to operate the proposed dot-travel domain on the Internet. Comment from the American Society of Travel Agents on the right of IATA to be the judge and jury for the travel industry; Plan of the Association of Retail Travel Agents to file comments with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers against the plan of IATA.

Reports on the expulsion of A Foreign Affair, a mail-order bride company, from the trade show of the American Society of Travel Agents. Reasons for the expulsion; Services offered by the company; Package tours offered by the company.

Focuses on the pledge of Richard Copland, president of the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA), to reinvigorate the membership of the society. Decline in ASTA membership; Problems encountered on travel agent distribution system; Pending bills proposed by ASTA for airline passengers.

Deals with the statement given by Joe Galloway, president of the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA), during the general session of ASTA's World Travel Congress in Las Vegas, Nevada. Emphasis on the need for travel agents in the United States to increase the use of technology; Findings of the ASTA 2000 survey which Galloway cited in his speech; Reasons for the praises given by Galloway to ASTA.

Reports on the Association of Retail Travel Agents' (ARTA) criticism of the decision by the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) to move with a controversial agent identification program for non-ARC-accredited retailers. How ARTA president John Hawks viewed the ARTA program; Use of the proceeds from the program; Comments from Joe Galloway, president of ASTA.

Describes the reactions of the travel industry on the United States Transportation Department's inspector general's preliminary report about customer service plans of airlines. Provisions under the bill proposed by the American Society of Travel Agents and the Coalition for Travel Industry Parity; Difficulties facing airlines' customer services; Statement from the Air Transport Association about the preliminary report.

States that the American Retail Travel Agents (ARTA) supports the American Society of Travel Agents plan to launch an identification program to determine the legitimacy of an agent. Apprehensions ARTA about the for-profit setup of the program; Details on the program; Its limitations.

Reports on the criticism of the American Society of Travel Agents and the Association of Retail Travel Agents on a report published by Bear Stearns & Co. about the effects of the Internet on the job of travel agents. Concerns regarding the lack of data to support the claims; Alleged misstatement about a number of agencies; Comments from Robert LaFleur, a Bear Stearns associate director.

Reports on the objection of the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) to the request of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) to grant antitrust protection for its special code plan in the United States (US). Comments filed by ASTA with the US Transportation Department; Information on the client code plan of IATA; Reason of ASTA for refusing the plan.

Focuses on a joint venture between Amtrak and American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) in a promotion that gives consumers a discount on long-distance and select short-distance leisure train travel. How consumers can avail the promotion; Purpose of the promotion; Comments from Barbara Richardson, Amtrak's executive vice president.

Focuses on American Society of Travel Agents' (ASTA) acquisition of the assets of the National Association of Commissioned Travel Agents (Nacta). Statement issued by ASTA president Joe Galloway; Differences in membership requirement between ASTA and Nacta; Difference in dues structure.

Focuses on the optimism of travel agencies in the United States for the year 2000. Comments by a spokeswoman from the American Society of Travel Agents; Status of sales of cruises and tours according to Richard Prager, owner of Prager Travel in Miami, Florida.

Reports that the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) has amended its Travel Agent Manual to specify that individual travel agents have the right to make public statements about their booking practices. Remarks from Paul Ruden, staff senior vice president for industry affairs at ASTA, regarding the revision of the manual; Several developments planned by ASTA.

Reports on the financial services reform bill which allows affiliates of national banks in the United States to own nonfinancial businesses such as travel agencies. Details on the reform bill; Purposes of the reform bill; Opposition of the American Society of Travel Agents on the reform bill.

Reports on the call of the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) for the United States Justice Department to investigate a joint Web site venture forged by four airlines. Efforts of the ASTA to seek disclosure of all aspects of airline alliances; Antitrust concerns of the ASTA on the joint venture; Implications of the proposed Web site deal on passenger rights legislation.

Reports on the recommendations made by American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) president Joe Galloway to travel agents attending the 1999 ASTA annual conference in Strasbourg, France. Need to increase sales and marketing in the distribution of travel; Importance of charging service fees; Use of air ticket consolidators.

Focuses on issues discussed at the November 1999 meeting of the American Society of Travel Agents in Strasbourg, France. Efforts to pursue the United States Congress about antitrust issues; Advertising campaign promoting the value of travel agents; Information on public relations campaigns.

Reports that the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) will play a significant role in the United States Congress, according to ASTA executive vice president William Maloney. ASTA to lobby for consumer rights in Congress; Efforts of ASTA to urge the passage of passenger rights legislation; Cooperation of the Coalition for Travel Industry Parity and the National Tour Association with the ASTA.