With more than 99% of sales through the Airlines Reporting Corp. involving e-tickets, the air transaction clearinghouse eliminated the requirement that travel agencies return their unused ticket stock.
So, instead of securing and shipping the unused stock to ARC, travel agencies are now being asked to fax -- ahem, no email? -- an accounting of the ticket stock to ARC and then to destroy the ticket stock.
With the omnipresence of e-tickets, travel agencies don't use much ticket stock these days, but the new ARC policy will save a few bucks for those agencies which still occasionally issue paper tickets.
Still, the procedure -- albeit for security reasons -- seems a tad complicated.
The following are ARC's instructions for the process:
- Download form 116 (Affidavit for Accountable Traffic Document Destruction)
- Complete the form electronically, prepare the affidavit and proofread the stock control numbers to ensure accuracy. If you are destroying large quantities of stock and the inventory will not fit on one page, use additional forms as necessary
- Fax the completed form toARC
- Once the completed Affidavit for Accountable Traffic Document Destruction has been faxed to ARC, you need to destroy the documents listed on the form per the ARC destruction guidelines; Section 3.6, page 22 of the Industry Agents’ Handbook.
And, I guess the market for ticket-stock recycling isn't huge these days, either.