Inside Track - 1996-06-24

By AUTHOR / June 23, 1996

<H1>Inside Track

</H1>E-Ticket Interlining On Horizon

The Air Transport Association's subgroup on electronic ticketing standards will present its recommendations for interlining to the ATA's passenger council on July 2. Pending passenger council approval, airlines will be allowed after that date to issue electronic tickets for each other. "I think two airlines will be ready to start doing it as early as this summer," said Nestor Pylypec, the ATA's vice president of industry services. Presumably, those two would be United and Continental, and Pylypec added that he "wouldn't be surprised if a number of carriers are interlining by early fall."

Online RFPs from NBTA

The National Business Travel Association next week will be posting standard Request for Proposal forms for hotel, rental car, limo, meeting and travel agency suppliers in a new Member's Only section of its World Wide Web site, at http://www.nbta.org/nbta. The RFPs-developed by travel managers and industry suppliers through NBTA committees-will "save our members many long hours of research, networking and faxing, and introduce formats that have been tested and proven," said NBTA president Judie Shyman. The Members Only section also will offer discussion forums.

Airborne Computing Power Powow

Standardization of in-flight laptop power sources will be addressed over the next few months by a subcommittee of the World Airline Entertainment Association, which includes representatives from American, Canadian, Delta, Lufthansa and United. The WAEA group is evaluating recommendations by the Federal Aviation Administration, supplier Olin Aerospace, Boeing and Intel to determine whether the power should be AC or DC; to develop a common passenger interface to be used on all carriers; and to address some of the carriers' wishes to derive revenue from the service. The subcommittee was scheduled to meet June 25 at Boeing headquarters in Seattle. A source at a competing airline said that in the meantime, American has put on hold its plans to introduce the power units by this fall (BTN, March 18).

DOJ Probes Visa Rule

A Visa USA bylaw that prohibits member banks from issuing American Express or Dean Witter Discover cards is at the center of a Department of Justice investigation of anticompetitive practices in the credit card industry. The probe began after DOJ officials met with Amex, which has been blasting the five-year-old Visa rule after announcing plans to allow banks to issue Amex cards (BTN, June 10). In Europe, Amex, Citicorp Diners Club and Discover filed antitrust complaints with the European Commission against Visa International over plans to implement a similar ban. Earlier this month, the Visa International board voted to continue to allow its six regional boards to determine such rules instead of adopting the same "duality rule."

Genesis Gets N.Y. Nod

The Genesis Project has inched forward after the state of New York approved the incorporation of the U.S. Travel Agent Registry as a not-for-profit travel agency services cooperative. The project aims to slash excessive distribution costs and provide an agent-controlled replacement for the Airlines Reporting Corp., IATAN and computer reservations systems. Details are available on USTAR's Website at http://www.ustar.com.

Deducting Cafeteria Meal Taxes

A recent ruling by the United States Tax Court appears to clear the way for some corporations to deduct 100 percent of the cost of meals they provide to their employees in office cafeterias. While tax deductibility for most business meals was pared down to 50 percent two years ago, the court held that meals that can be classified as a fringe benefit under Internal Revenue Service regulations can be fully deductible.

Judge David Laro rendered this decision in a case involving a group of Las Vegas casino operators who provide meals on their premises free of charge to all employees. Arguments in this case suggest, however, that employee cafeteria meals provided on a nondiscriminatory basis can be excluded from employee gross income and employer income tax withholding under the following conditions: The facility is owned, operated or leased by the employer on or near the business premises, the meals are provided during or immediately before or after the workday and the annual revenue derived from the facility equals or exceeds its direct operating costs. Laro's decision is an important one because it is a tax court opinion that sets a binding precedent. Still, as David Fuller, an attorney with Washington, D.C.-based McDermott, Will & Emery, warns, "it remains to be seen how the court will apply its legal ruling to the facts of this specific case and taxpayers in general.

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