DOT Questions MIDT
By Jay Campbell
Monday, June 9 2003
Monday, June 9 2003
Published on AllBusiness.com
Washington, D.C. - The airlines' use of booking data received what one participant called a "curious" amount of attention from the U.S. Department of Transportation during a hearing last month with industry officials. The one-day meeting, in which regulators asked questions and heard arguments on its global distribution system regulations, featured no statement from a corporate travel representative.
Nevertheless, master of ceremonies and DOT deputy assistant secretary for aviation Michael Reynolds—citing a key issue for the likes of American Express and the National Business Travel Association—asked eight times about the booking data that DOT requires GDS companies to offer participating carriers.
DOT is considering limitations on the data as part of an effort, with the White House Office of Management and Budget, to rewrite the GDS rules by Jan. 31, 2004. Today is the deadline for filing final comments on DOT's proposed changes (BTN, Dec. 9, 2002).
During the public hearing, Reynolds particularly was interested in alleged abuses of MIDT, Marketing Information Data Transfer, data. According to travel industry attorney Mark Pestronk, DOT should be concerned about the following scenario: "A sales representative from an airline will say to the travel agency executive, 'I see that you have 50 travelers going to the Orient next month on the other airline. Why don't you put them on our airline, and we'll give you the following inducement?' "
Delta Air Lines' representative said such allegations are "simply false."
Hershel Kamen, staff vice president of international and regulatory affairs for Continental Airlines, said it is "simply not true that airlines use MIDT to poach customers from their competitors."
That's news to corporate travel experts reached by phone following the hearing.
"Only 10 days ago, I got a call from Continental," asking for existing bookings on another carrier to be shifted to Continental, said Caro Cook, senior transportation officer with the International Monetary Fund. Cook said she has received similar calls from other carriers.
"In April, we had two full-coach passengers booked O'Hare to Honolulu on airline A," added Chicago-based Tower Travel Management president John Smith. "Then our representative from airline B contacted us based on the GDS data and offered one-way, first-class upgrades to switch."
At the hearing, Continental's Kamen said, "There has never been an enforcement complaint alleging such activity nor has any serious investigation of such charges occurred."
Such
Nevertheless, master of ceremonies and DOT deputy assistant secretary for aviation Michael Reynolds—citing a key issue for the likes of American Express and the National Business Travel Association—asked eight times about the booking data that DOT requires GDS companies to offer participating carriers.
DOT is considering limitations on the data as part of an effort, with the White House Office of Management and Budget, to rewrite the GDS rules by Jan. 31, 2004. Today is the deadline for filing final comments on DOT's proposed changes (BTN, Dec. 9, 2002).
During the public hearing, Reynolds particularly was interested in alleged abuses of MIDT, Marketing Information Data Transfer, data. According to travel industry attorney Mark Pestronk, DOT should be concerned about the following scenario: "A sales representative from an airline will say to the travel agency executive, 'I see that you have 50 travelers going to the Orient next month on the other airline. Why don't you put them on our airline, and we'll give you the following inducement?' "
Delta Air Lines' representative said such allegations are "simply false."
Hershel Kamen, staff vice president of international and regulatory affairs for Continental Airlines, said it is "simply not true that airlines use MIDT to poach customers from their competitors."
That's news to corporate travel experts reached by phone following the hearing.
"Only 10 days ago, I got a call from Continental," asking for existing bookings on another carrier to be shifted to Continental, said Caro Cook, senior transportation officer with the International Monetary Fund. Cook said she has received similar calls from other carriers.
"In April, we had two full-coach passengers booked O'Hare to Honolulu on airline A," added Chicago-based Tower Travel Management president John Smith. "Then our representative from airline B contacted us based on the GDS data and offered one-way, first-class upgrades to switch."
At the hearing, Continental's Kamen said, "There has never been an enforcement complaint alleging such activity nor has any serious investigation of such charges occurred."
Such
