Several North American travel industry associations are reporting progress in the battle to convince airlines not to shift credit card merchant costs to the retail distribution channel or consumers.
Officials from the Association of Retail Travel Agents (ARTA) and ARTA Canada met last week with United Airlines' officials at the carrier's Chicago headquarters, with United's escalating distribution costs at the top of the agenda.
'ARTA and ARTA Canada made it clear to United that travel agencies would not be able to sustain the costs and fees associated with a shift of merchant status to agents, and that even if they could manage these increased costs, merchant processors are almost all unwilling to provide these services to travel agencies as travel is considered too 'high risk,''
