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Legal — travel agent policies

All travel agents booking or ticketing air transportation on Alaska Airlines ("Alaska"), including flights operated by Horizon Air or SkyWest Airlines that are marketed by Alaska, must abide by the following principles, rules and instructions ("Alaska Rules") in accordance with Section 11.3 of the Airline Reporting Corporation ("ARC") Agent Reporting Agreement dated as of July 1, 2013 (as amended from time to time, the "ARA") and International Air Transport Association ("IATA") Resolution 824 sections 3.2 and 4.

Alaska Rules apply to any entity displaying, advertising, booking, selling or ticketing any Alaska transportation services and are effective immediately, and are in addition to (and not in lieu of) any additional rights to which Alaska is entitled pursuant to the ARC ARA and the IATA Passenger Sales Agency Agreement. By continuing to participate in the ARC ARA or the IATA Passenger Sales Agency Agreement, an agent agrees to abide by Alaska Rules, Alaska’s Contract of Carriage, and any applicable Alaska fare rules when booking or ticketing transportation on Alaska.

The Alaska Rules may be subject to modification and updated accordingly from time to time without advance notice. It is each agent’s responsibility to ensure all of its employees or contractors comply with Alaska Rules, including future updates and modifications.

Proper disclosures of fares, charges and terms and conditions

An agent advertising Alaska fares as available for purchase through agent must at all times include all applicable taxes, airport charges, and all other levies, charges and fees (“Required Fees”) that are known at the time of advertising. Any Required Fees communicated to the agent by Alaska may not be altered by the agent. Charges for optional products and services must be clearly presented as such, and should be applied only if the customer affirmatively elects to purchase such product or service (i.e., no pre-checked boxes for optional charges).

Agents may not impose charges for services that Alaska provides to its customers without charge, such as online check-in, seat selection or limited beverage service. Agents also may not impose additional charges on top of Alaska’s fees for any paid Alaska service, such as checked baggage or inflight entertainment. If the agent collects a fee from the customer for the booking, such fee must be clearly disclosed as separate from Alaska’s fares and the Required Fees, in a way that makes it clear that the fee is being collected by the agent and not Alaska (for example, labeled as “[Agency Name] Booking Fee”). The agent may in no event impose service fees, discounts, or other fees for Alaska fares that are higher than those imposed by the agent on any other carrier’s fares.

All Alaska terms and conditions and applicable fare rules and restrictions must be communicated by the agent to the customer prior to booking. Any additional terms and conditions imposed by the agent must be clearly disclosed to the customer, in a way that makes it clear that such terms and conditions are not set or endorsed by Alaska.

To ensure customers are provided accurate information, any description of Alaska’s product offering must include a link to source of the information on AlaskaAir.com. This includes information about baggage fees, onboard product offering, seat maps, financial products and awards.

Alaska Airlines ticket stock

An agent can issue a multi-segment itinerary ticket on Alaska Airlines' 027 ticket stock only if the itinerary meets all of the following criteria: (i) the itinerary includes at least one Alaska operated flight or a flight operated by another carrier but marketed with an Alaska flight number and fare (Alaska codeshare flight), (ii) all other segments in the itinerary are operated by carriers with whom Alaska has a valid ticketing agreement, and (iii) the itinerary does not contain any segments operated by another carrier which take the passenger from the U.S. over an international border (other than Canada or Mexico) or are flown entirely outside of the U.S., unless the international segment is marketed as a codeshare with Alaska. Any segments that do not comply with the foregoing rules must be ticketed separately on another carrier’s ticket stock.

  • Example: Segment 1 is an Alaska codeshare flight within the U.S., Segment 2 is a U.S. to Canada flight operated by another carrier with whom Alaska has a valid ticketing agreement. 027 stock may be used for both segments.
  • Example: Segment 1 is an Alaska operated flight within the U.S., Segment 2 is an Alaska codeshare flight from the U.S. to Mexico. 027 stock may be used for both segments.
  • Example: Segment 1 is an Alaska codeshare flight within the U.S., Segment 2 is a flight within the U.S. operated by another carrier with whom Alaska does not have a valid ticketing agreement. 027 stock may be used for Segment 1, but Segment 2 must be ticketed separately on the other carrier’s ticket stock.
  • Example: Segment 1 is an Alaska operated flight within the U.S, Segment 2 is a flight from the US to a point outside of the U.S., Canada or Mexico that is operated by another carrier with whom Alaska has a valid ticketing agreement, but Segment 2 is not marketed by the other carrier as a codeshare with Alaska. 027 ticket stock may be used for Segment 1, but Segment 2 must be ticketed separately on the other carrier’s ticket stock.

Alaska intellectual property, flight data and passenger data

Each agent acknowledges and agrees that, as between the agent and Alaska, Alaska owns, controls and retains all right, title and interest in and to Alaska Data and all copyright, database and other intellectual property rights relating thereto. Alaska Data may include, but is not limited to, flight schedules, fares, seat availability, inventory availability, seat assignment, service enhancements, flight information, frequent flyer program account information, and ancillary products and services offered by Alaska. Alaska Data also includes all information that relates to a transaction between a customer and Alaska, including booking and payment data, and all information that is passed by the agent to Alaska through a PNR or similar booking record. Alaska will treat all customer data in accordance with its privacy policies.

Each agent must adhere to all guidelines relating to Alaska’s service marks, trademarks, trade names, Alaska Data and other intellectual property.

An agent may not, without Alaska’s written consent, distribute, display or otherwise provide direct or indirect access to any Alaska Data (or any portion thereof) to any other party, including without limitation any Metasearch Site, or receive any referral, web page click-through or link from any Metasearch Site that is attributable to any Alaska fare in connection with any search result on the Metasearch Site. Agents also may not place or otherwise have any advertising link on any Metasearch Site in connection with any Alaska fare. A “Metasearch Site” is an Internet website that obtains fare data from various travel services companies, aggregates such fare data in response to user queries, and includes links to such other travel service companies for booking the selected itineraries.

Agents must not bid on Alaska’s intellectual property, including Alaska Data, with any online search engines. To be clear, Agents may not purchase or bid on keywords that contain Alaska trademarks, trade names, service marks or common misspellings. This includes Alaska’s primary name – Alaska Airlines, Alaska Air, AlaskaAir.com – and those of its sub-products – Horizon Air, Mileage Plan, etc.

Agents may not use Alaska trademarks, trade names and service marks in domains as either the destination URL or display URL, or as a subdomain without written consent. Agents’ landing pages may only utilize Alaska’s official logo, available in our Newsroom; use of other Alaska-branded imagery is expressly prohibited without written permission (this includes aircraft images, inflight service items and airport experiences).

Compliance with applicable laws

All agents must comply with all applicable laws, rules, and regulations in connection with the advertising, sale, or distribution of air transportation services. This includes, without limitation:

  • Compliance with all of the Department of Transportation’s rules and guidelines governing display or advertising of fares and air transportation services, including without limitation 14 C.F.R. §399.84;
  • Compliance with 14 C.F.R. Part 257, concerning the disclosure of codeshare services;
  • Compliance with 14 C.F.R. Part 258, concerning the disclosure of change of gauge services;
  • Delivery of all applicable ticket notices, including without limitation the notice of contract terms required by 14 C.F.R. Part 221 and 14 C.F.R. Part 253; the baggage liability notice required by 14 C.F.R. Part 254, international liability limitation notices required pursuant to DOT Order 2006-10-14 (Docket OST-2005-22617 (Oct. 26, 2006)); and notice of overbooking required by 14 C.F.R. Part 250;
  • Compliance with 14 C.F.R. Part 382, concerning nondiscrimination on the basis of disability in air travel.
  • Compliance with the notice requirements of 14 C.F.R. §399.85 concerning baggage fees and allowances.

This list of rules and regulations is not exhaustive. Furthermore, agents must not engage in unfair competition, or any otherwise unfair and deceptive practices, pursuant to 49 U.S.C. § 41712 and related laws.

Agents that issue tickets for travel partially or entirely outside of the U.S. and agents that operate in jurisdictions other than the U.S. must also comply with all applicable laws, rules and regulations for such foreign jurisdictions. Each agent must become familiar with and ensure compliance with any laws, rules, or regulations which apply to its activities, both in the U.S. and internationally.

Fees and penalties for non-compliance

Violations of the Alaska Rules, Alaska’s contract of carriage, the ARC ARA or the IATA Passenger Sales Agency Agreement, any applicable laws, rules and regulations (U.S. or foreign), and any applicable Alaska fare rules (collectively, the “Travel Rules”) may result in one or more of the following:

  • Alaska may charge, and the agent agrees to pay, a fee per passenger, per PNR, for each violation.
  • The agent may temporarily or permanently lose access to view, book and ticket Alaska inventory. To be considered for reinstatement, the agent must correct any non-compliance with Travel Rules and pay any amounts owed to Alaska. If Alaska decides to reinstate the agent, Alaska may assess an additional fee to restore access capabilities through a GDS.
  • The agent must pay for any losses incurred by Alaska due to agent’s violation of Travel Rules, including without limitation loss of revenue, the difference between the fare charged and the actual fare available at the time of the violation, and recovery of GDS transaction fees.
  • Alaska may offset from any available source any amount owed to the agent by Alaska in order to satisfy any amounts owed by the agent to Alaska a result of the agent’s violation of Travel Rules.
  • Alaska may terminate any and all applicable agency appointment(s) of any agent that does not comply with Travel Rules. Alaska also reserves the right to report any violations of Travel Rules to ARC or IATA, which may subject the agent to additional discipline or penalties, up to and including suspension or termination.