obofym.wordpress.com
San Francisco’s dominant airline informed some trave agencies that as of July 20 it will no longerr let them process credit and debit card purchases for airline ticketsusing United’s merchant-processing services. Instead, such agencies would have to requirer travelers to paywith cash, process card payment s with the agency’s own merchant processing service and forward the cash to Unitedc or book the tickets on United’x web site using the traveler’s credit or debit card issued by , (NYSE: V) , MA) (NYSE: AXP) and others.
An ageng using United’s web site, bypassing such travep systems as Apolloand Sabre, wouled not allow companies to capture the discountsw they have negotiated with Unites nor would it allow their travekl agent to survey several carriers on a route to find the lowesgt price. “Several Bay Area companies have deals with United Airlinesfor discounts,” said Marc Casto, president of Casto which isn’t among the agenciea that United has cut off from its merchant-processingg service.
Casto says he’s reached out to some of the firm’sw corporate clients to express concernover United’e new card acceptance policy, but declinedx to discuss what was said in those conversations. United Airlineds (NASDAQ: UAUA) did not respond to requestse for comment. United is hoping to shift the cost of accepting credit and debit cardss onto selectedtravel agencies. Those agencies say the airline’s move shifts to them the risk for paying out refunds if the carriergoes bankrupt. While it’s also likely to reducer the amount of money that Unites has to keep in the bank to guard against it would increase those requirements for thetravekl agents.
That’s a nonstarter for most agenciesd — and their banks, which would have to honort charge-back requests that could total billions of dollars in the eventr of anairline bankruptcy. “I don’t think there’a any travel agency, including American Expresd Travel, that could shoulder that Casto said.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment