[ ARC: THE CARRIER’S EFFORTS REPRESENT ‘GOLD STANDARD’ FOR AIRLINES ]
United says it cut debit memos
by almost $5 million in one year
By Jamie Biesiada
United Airlines has implemented
several policies that in aggregate are
saving travel agencies close to $5
million a year on debit memos, according to the carrier.
That reduction comes as ARC’s Debit
Memo Working Group continues efforts to
reduce the volume of debit memos agents
receive.
“We don’t like issuing debit memos as
much as the agencies don’t enjoy receiv-
ing them,” said Brian Miller, United’s senior
manager of sales communications and poli-
cies. “But we have the resources, the relation-
ships, the intelligence now to make some in-
formed decisions in policy changes that can
help us really make a significant change in
this space. We want to be an industry leader
in coming out and saying, ‘You know what?
Let’s try to the extent possible to eliminate
debit memos.’”
One of the ways United is working toward
that goal is by participating in the Working
Group, according to Craig Miller, director of
revenue accounting. (He is no relation to Bri-
an Miller.) Among members of the Working
Group, which began meeting in 2013, are rep-
resentatives of carriers, agencies, IATA, ASTA,
GDSs and the Airline Tariff Publishing Co.
Shelly Younger, ARC’s settlement services
manager, said the Working Group’s focus is
currently twofold: creating standard debit
memo reason codes and establishing best
practices “applicable to all phases of the debit
memo process.”
Dispatch from India: Tourists became
victims of the rupee’s demonetization
By Abe Peck
IMPHAL, India — Landing in New Delhi,
my wife and I anticipated that the wedding
of our younger son, Rob, in India’s far northeast would be full of cultural surprises. But a
more immediate revelation came via a note
slipped under our hotel door early the next
morning: The rupees we’d bought at the airport were suddenly obsolete per a snap demonetization by the Indian government.
Faced with oceans of unreported “black
money,” the government had stunned the
country by declaring on Nov. 8 that all 500-
and 1,000-rupee notes (about $7.50 and $15,
respectively) would need to be exchanged for
new bills. Suddenly, 86% of Indian money,
by value, was technically invalid. Strict daily
swap limits and lack of replacement currency
created a still-evolving cash crunch.
(Editor’s note: Black money is not coun-
terfeit but rather legal cash earned through
illegal activity. Recipients of black money
must hide it, spend it in an underground
economy or attempt to launder it.)
For us, Delhi was just a pit stop on a five-flight odyssey to Imphal, in the state of Manipur. The JW Marriott Hotel New Delhi
Aerocity had no problem with my credit
card, but from there, it was fiscally downhill.
As of press time, international travelers
could exchange up to 5,000 rupees of old
greenish-yellow and red-colored Gandhi Series notes per week at international airport
counters with transactions subsequently
See RUPEE on Page 53
See DEBIT MEMO on Page 56
WWW.TRAVELWEEKLY.COM DECEMBER 5, 2016
Arnie Weissmann
12
ec in the
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2016
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