A Message from ARC about COVID-19
As the industry contends with the impact of COVID-19, ARC is diligently working to support the global travel community. ARC recognizes that each of its travel agency partners is facing enormous pressures due to this global crisis. We will partner with you to weather these events.
ARC is committed to ensuring its settlement, reporting, payment and data functions remain consistent, reliable and uninterrupted. ARC is also dedicated to supporting its agency partners through its Customer Care Center, which is open Monday and Tuesday 9 a.m.-9 p.m. EDT and Wednesday-Friday 9 a.m.-7:30 p.m. EDT. If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out via email at ccchelp@arccorp.com or by phone at 703-816-8003.
Plus Ultra Refund Update
Plus Ultra (PU/663) is organizing refunds directly with their ARC ticketing agencies. Therefore, ARC will inhibit the processing of cash and credit card refunds for PU/663 in IAR until further notice. All other PU/663 transactions, including sales transactions, will continue to be processed. For more information, please visit the Plus Ultra Airlines website.
Eastern Airlines Now Accepts American Express
Effective with sales issued on Monday, March 16, 2020 (PED 3/22/20), Eastern Airlines (054/2D) will begin accepting American Express as a form of payment through ARC.
Vistara Now Accepts American Express
Effective with sales issued on Monday, March 16, 2020 (PED 03/22/20), Vistara (228/UK) will begin accepting American Express as a form of payment through ARC.
Air India No Longer Accepts Mastercard
Air India (AI/098) has notified ARC that until further notice they will no longer accept Mastercard as a valid form of payment for sales transactions. However, Air India will continue to support the Mastercard refunds.
Tip of the Week: Adding Refunds in IAR
Due to the recent travel ban, our Customer Care Center is expecting an increase in call volume. For expedited service with refund assistance, please email your request to ccchelp@arccorp.com.
IAR provides travel agents the ability to perform refunds and refund cancellations directly in IAR, within the appropriate modification window, with airlines who support these capabilities. This is possible due to the EDIFACT (Electronic Data Interchange for Administration, Commerce and Transport) messaging standard that IAR uses to verify eligibility against each participating airlines Electronic Ticket (ET) database. IAR uses EDIFACT messaging to ensure that ARC’s database is synchronized with the airlines’ ET databases. Doing so keeps IAR compliant with industry ticketing resolutions requiring verification of OPEN coupon status prior to processing a refund.
Even though IAR supports refund functionality, ARC strongly recommends that travel agents process any refund directly in their GDS to properly update both the airline ET database and the PNR (Passenger Name Record) in the GDS. While IAR can update participating airlines’ ET database, IAR cannot update the agency's PNR. Please click here for ARC's Airline Ticket Matrix which is a chart summarizing individual airline support of IAR’s EDIFACT messaging capabilities.