President's Message
Last month, United Airlines announced plans to begin forcing selected U.S. travel agencies to absorb the carrier's credit card costs for tickets.

Tell United NO!
Gary M. Fee

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Not only would this new policy raise costs for agents, but it would also put agents in the uncomfortable position of dealing with chargebacks from clients whose United flights don't operate as promised!

OSSN has thrown its support behind the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA), which is fighting against United's move with the U.S. Justice Dept. and on Capitol Hill. In July, we need your help to fight, too!

Please take a few minutes to send these email messages to help ASTA and OSSN defend agents against United’s plan:

First, please use the sample below to write an email message to Dave Myrick at United Airlines opposing the shift of airline credit card expenses to agents. You can use this sample as a starting point, but try to rewrite it to fit your own experiences selling United. Once it’s ready, you can send the email to dave.myrick@united.com.

Dear Mr. Myrick,

My travel agency has been selling United tickets for __ years as your agent. I am writing to tell you that I am extremely disturbed about the new policy of denying agents the use of United merchant accounts to sell your tickets.

There has been no meaningful explanation given as to why United is doing this, and what plans United may have to extend these conditions to my business. This policy is bad for my business and bad for consumers. I urge you to rethink this change immediately and rescind the plan to implement on July 20. The entire agency community is watching. It is unreasonable, unbusinesslike and unacceptable for United to force its costs onto travel agencies in the hope that we will do the dirty work for you by passing the costs on to our customers.

Yours truly,
(Your name and agency name)

Then, please use the sample below to send another email to your members of Congress. (You can use ASTA’s Congress locator to find email addresses for your House and Senate members.) Again, you should use this sample as a base, but it makes a big difference if you rewrite it to fit your experiences.

Dear Representative/Senator ______:

I own/manage a travel agency in _________, _____ and I need your help. We have been in business for ___ years, employing __ full time agents and contributing to tourism sales and the local economy. When we sell an airline ticket with payment by credit card (accounting for over 90% of sales), the merchant account for that credit transaction is owned by the airline. Among the many advantages that this system, in place since the advent of credit cards, is that consumers get the full protections of the Fair Credit Billing Act in case of performance disputes, including airline bankruptcies.

United Airlines has just announced that, as of July 20, we will be denied access to United merchant accounts and must get our own accounts and pay United in cash. This policy will impose enormous costs and risks on our business and will defeat the protections that consumers get under federal law. If an airline service dispute arises, and they come up all the time, our agency will be the target for charge-backs even though United has the money. This is an impossible situation, unfair to us, unreasonable as a business practice and severely harmful to consumers.

We ask that you use your influence to persuade United to rescind this policy immediately before catastrophic consequences ensue. If your office needs further information, please contact Paul Ruden, ASTA's senior vice president of legal and industry affairs at pruden@asta.org or call him at 703-739-6854. Thank you very much for considering our views.

Sincerely,
(Your name and agency name)

Watch the "OSSN Daily" for the very latest updates on this critically important fight, as we work hard to protect your rights. Don't assume that you won't be affected by United's sneaky efforts here - if United succeeds in pushing its credit card costs onto the bigger agencies, your preferred air and non-air suppliers will follow suit quickly! Thanks for your help in sending these emails as soon as possible in July.

Gary M. Fee is president and founder of the Outside Sales Support Network (OSSN), North America's largest trade association for home-based travel agents. He may be reached at info@ossn.com.

(Credits: OSSN; Adrian Pingstone)