Paranair Joins ARC

Paranair (ZP/445) will join ARC effective with sales on April 22, 2019 (PED 04/28/19).

Founded in 2015, Paranair is based in Asunción, Paraguay offering service to Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Uruguay. Please see more about the wide variety of destinations and flights offered by Paranair.

Paranair has elected the general concurrence method of agency appointment, whereby all ARC agents are automatically appointed as agents of Paranair. Ticketing is available in Sabre and Amadeus. The airline accepts Visa, Mastercard and cash as valid forms of payment.

For more information about Paranair, sales information, or reservations, please contact the office listed below:

Summerwind USA
Phone: 786-622-9352 or 304-371-1845
Email: paranair@summerwindusa.com
Commercial Contact: ndiaz@summerwindusa.com
Website: https://www.paranair.com/

Samoa Airways Joins ARC

Samoa Airways (OL/162) will join ARC effective with sales on April 22, 2019 (PED 04/28/19).

Samoa Airways is the National Airline of the Independent State of Samoa and operates scheduled daily flights between Apia (APW), Samoa and Auckland (AKL), New Zealand as well as twice-weekly flights between Sydney (SYD) and Brisbane (BNE), Australia. The airline uses a Boeing 737-800 Next Generation configured with 12 business class and 150 economy class seats. Samoa Airways also operates daily turboprop flights between its airport base Fagali’i (FGI) to Samoa and Pago Pago (PPG) using a fleet of de Havilland Twin Otter aircraft.

The airline has elected the general concurrence method of agent appointment, whereby all ARC agents are automatically appointed as agents of Samoa Airways. The airline is available in Amadeus, Galileo and Sabre; Worldspan and Apollo will follow soon. At this time, the airline only accepts cash as a valid form of payment, but credit cards will be added in the near future.

For inquiries, reservations, or sales information, contact the office listed below:

Samoa Airways
Samoa National Provident Fund Building, Second Floor
P.O. Box 599
Beach Road
Apia, Samoa
Phone: +685 21261
Email: enquiries@samoaairways.com
Website: www.samoaairways.com

Reminder: Obtain a Valid Authorization via the GDS

As payment card brands look for ways to improve the credit card acceptance process, increase approval rates and reduce fraud, a valid authorization is one of the consistent basic requirements for successful payment acceptance and processing of a card transaction.

Best Practice Card Acceptance:
Section 6 of the Industry Agents’ Handbook (IAH), states the following in the Payment Card Acceptance Procedures for obtaining an authorization:
Identify the ticketing airline and, at the time of ticketing, obtain an authorization (i.e., approval code) via the GDS for the exact amount of the transaction. Transactions that are not properly authorized may not be settled successfully and, as a result, the airline may not be paid. In addition, the airline could be subject to increased card acceptance costs or non-compliance fees, in which case the airline may contact the agent for reimbursement.

As a reminder, it is important for agents to follow the procedures outlined in Section 6 of the IAH related to payment card authorizations. Failure to follow these procedures may result in transactions that cannot be properly billed to the cardholder and therefore, non-payment to the airline. The typical next step is a debit memo to the agency.

If you have any questions, please contact Kevin Haag, ARC’s manager of payment processing and acceptance, at khaag@arccorp.com.

2019 Quarterly Transaction Fees – First Quarter

This is a reminder about the agent/CTD transaction fee that is assessed on a quarterly basis. See the chart below outlining this tiered fee structure. Note: Agencies with fewer than 1,000 transactions per quarter will not be assessed transaction fees. A separate debit representing this fee will be drawn against your ARC designated bank account on or after April 25, 2019. Only one draft will be issued for consolidated drafting agents.

Number of Transactions per Quarter

Price per Transaction

Tier 1

1,000 – 2,249,999

0.012

Tier 2

2.25 – 5.999 M

0.011

Tier 3

6 M or more

0.010

Tip of the Week: Can I Receive TASF Chargebacks and Disputes via Email Rather Than U.S. Postal Service?

You can request to receive Travel Agency Service Fee (TASF) chargebacks and disputes via email rather than U.S. Postal Service. In doing so, you will make this process easier and faster for you to receive and keep track of these TASF issues. To make this request, you will need to send an email to tasf@arccorp.com indicating you would like to receive these disputes via email, and you must provide two or more valid email addresses. Please keep in mind that when this request is completed, you will no longer receive any TASF disputes via U.S. mail.

To learn more about TASF click here, or call ARC’s Customer Care Center at 855-816-8003.