CHANGES to Iata’s Resolution
890 included a proviso to
introduce agent credit cards as
an additional form of payment,
but globally airlines appear to
be blocking this.
Although the new
wording confirmed the sole
acceptance of client cards in
the settlement programme,
it added a statement
acknowledging the opportunity
for agents to use their own
credit cards, subject to
approval by individual airlines.
Asata ceo, Otto de Vries,
says the new resolution
wording has spurred a stream
of global communications from
airlines, saying that they will
categorically not accept agent
cards. Otto expressed concern
that the new resolution
wording would not bring any
actual change.
However, in the local market,
agents haven’t engaged
airlines to make payment
with agent cards. Amy
Mak, account manager for
Singapore Airlines South Africa
and Darrin Thomas, marketing
and communications manager
for Virgin Atlantic, confirmed
that they had received no
applications for agent credit
card approvals to date.
Marco Christofoli, BCD
ceo and coo of BidTravel
leisure brands, said approval
for the use of agent cards
would be advantageous to
SME agencies, such as their
Harvey franchise owners,
from a cash-flow perspective.
However, he added that the
lengthy approval process
would be cumbersome to
an agency’s workflow, which
would discourage agents from
individually applying to the
various airlines.
Iata’s Transparency in
Payments initiative, of which
the changes to Resolution
890 forms part, has been
launched alongside its New
Generation of Settlement
Systems (NewGen ISS), which
is currently being rolled out in
Norway.
