YTB To Clients: You're On Your Own!

I asked a question a few days ago and there was no real definitive answer as to what the MLM crowd was doing for their clients on ATA, Skybus and Aloha. The closest I got was a comment from Proud To Be YTB who said he received this via "wire" from HQ:

As you may be aware, yesterday ATA cancelled all service effective immediately. This impacts Funjet Vacations' Value Flight customers from Midway to Cancun and our ATA scheduled air customers to Cancun and Hawaii. As a customer-centric vacation company, Funjet Vacations is protecting our customer's vacations by: - Helping customers find alternate air service - Applying the value of their ATA airfare to the new reservation

Well, he thought that answered the question, but had he scrolled down on the "wire" a little bit more, there was a second half to the story. You see, as I knew, this was a communication from FunJet (as I got the same one) and they did specifically lay out what the agent was to do.

How can you help? To expedite obtaining alternate flights, we are encouraging travel agents to book their own flights for the same travel dates and receive a refund from Funjet Vacations for the cost of the original ATA airfare purchased. The rest of the Funjet Vacation will remain in tact. To receive a refund and ensure transfer service can be fulfilled, travel agents or customers who choose to book their own alternate flights need to e-mail us at atarefund@funjet.com with the following information: - Original Funjet Vacations reservation number and passenger names - New flight information including airline, flight numbers and flight times

But as we all suspected, Proud To Be YTB only told half of the story and of course, their clients were left to figure it out on their own. YTB has been screaming all week about Orbitz and Travelocity and Expedia doing nothing, but you know what--that is not true either. But more on that later in the week---probably Friday!

Aloha ATA

Well, since no one had any answers as to how the MLM crowd was responding to the Aloha issues, ATA apparently has decided to give them a second chance.

In a statement, ATA has said:

ATA Airlines has discontinued all operations and cancelled all current and future flights. Following the loss of a key contract for our military charter business, it became impossible for ATA to continue operations. Unfortunately, we were not in a position to provide our customers or others with advance notice. We apologize for the disruption caused by the sudden shutdown of ATA and regret the impact on passengers, employees, suppliers, and other parties. ATA customers should seek alternative arrangements for current and future travel.

So, again, I know what the traditional travel agents are doing this morning. I also know what the online biggies are also doing. The question remains, what is YTB and the other MLMs doing about customer service. With almost a half billion dollars in reported sales, certainly some of your customers are impacted.

What is the answer? Call YTB HQ? Go to my website? Or is it that it is not your problem because you are just a privately branded Travelocity site and it is their problem? Welcome to the realities of being a travel agent folks---referring or otherwise!