Continued from page 48


“hopeful” the option will become available although it remains “early days”. Freeman identified US


visa-wait times, the customs and border experience, and extensive post-pandemic disruption to air passengers in the US as barriers to growth. He told Travel Weekly he


believes the delays to visa applications and at the border can be resolved relatively quickly but acknowledged: “Creating a functioning air travel system is a whole other animal.” Freeman noted the entire


US travel industry is looking at ways to address the current inefficiencies and delays affecting US domestic air traffic. He said: “We’ll continue


to make our voice heard. Communications are the most important thing we do as we raise the issues affecting the industry. “If people [policymakers


and the public] don’t know there is a problem, there is often not a lot of zeal to fix it. “But we have to understand


our capabilities and focus on government-made issues [such as visa and border delays].” Freeman also pledged to


make the industry’s case to government on issues such as gun crime and safety. But he added: “It’s incumbent on us to understand the politics of issues. We’ve been clear that travel and public safety go hand in hand and our job is to make decision-makers aware of the impact of their decisions. Just because we aren’t vocal [on an issue] doesn’t mean we’re not having those conversations.”


BA fined for ‘deceptive’ pandemic refund practices


Ian Taylor


The US Department for Transportation’s (DoT’s) Office of Aviation Consumer Protection found British Airways guilty of “unfair” and “deceptive” practices and “misleading” consumers over Covid-era refunds last week. The DoT imposed a token


$1.1 million (£888,000) fine on the carrier, reduced by half as BA paid out $40 million in refunds on non-refundable tickets during the pandemic. But its assessment of BA’s handling of refunds in the early months of the pandemic was damning. It found: “Consumers were


subjected to extreme delays in obtaining refunds and some may have been effectively denied refunds . . . [because] from March to November 2020, BA’s website contained contradictory and false information regarding refund options.” The DoT noted a consumer


BA says it ‘acted lawfully at all times’


who clicked on a “cancel and refund flight(s)” button on the site and submitted an online form “would receive a travel voucher instead of a refund”. Then, when the consumer contacted BA, it “would deny” refund requests “by asserting voucher requests were final and irreversible”. It found “BA’s practices and


misrepresentations to be deceptive” and accused BA of “obfuscating the necessary steps to obtain a refund”. The DoT also found BA “failed to maintain adequate functionality


of its customer-service phone lines”. BA contested this finding, denied that there were “excessive wait times” and revealed it refunded 69% of cancelled flights to or from the US between March 2020 and February 2021, paying out $763 million. BA said 12% of customers with cancelled flights obtained vouchers. It claimed: “We acted lawfully at all times.” However, the DoT found BA


“significantly delayed or denied the payment of refunds . . . engaged in an unfair practice [and] . . . in a deceptive practice by misleading consumers regarding refund options”. It revealed the DoT received “over 1,200 complaints” and noted: “BA received thousands more complaints.” BA told Travel Weekly: “We’re very


sorry that at the height of the pandemic our customers experienced slightly longer wait times to reach customer service teams.” It noted: “We’ve issued more than five million refunds since the start of the pandemic.”


Tui Germany ends agency agreement amid data scandal


Sales agreements affecting half the German travel trade have been cancelled amid the widening fallout from the scandal of the country’s largest agency consortium, RTK, sharing sensitive data with tour operator FTI. Tui Germany cancelled its


agreements with RTK and the larger Quality Travel Alliance


46 8 JUNE 2023


(QTA) network of agents, which RTK leads, at the end of May, and Germany’s fourth-largest operator, Schauinsland-Reisen, followed suit. RTK represents more than 3,000


agencies but has joint ventures with Tui and Schauinsland-Reisen which take the number close to 4,200. QTA extends RTK’s reach to more than 5,000 agencies. The data scandal was exposed


by business newspaper Handelsblatt in early May, revealing RTK systematically passed agency sales data to Germany’s third-largest operator FTI from 2015 to 2023 (Travel Weekly, May 11).


Tui cancelled its agreement


with QTA, saying it lacked “any basis of confidence to continue cooperation”. In a letter to agencies, Tui said: “The disclosure of sales and booking data over a very long period to one of our competitors is in no way acceptable.” Schauinsland-Reisen said


Xxy x yx yxy


its business had been “damaged massively”. Both companies pledged to compensate agents for loss of commission.


travelweekly.co.uk


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