ARC Extends Free Access to ARC Risk Check
ARC is extending free access to the ARC Risk Check fraud mitigation tool until March 31, 2021, for new users. For more information about the service and to enroll, click here.
ARC’s offices will be closed on Friday, December 25, 2020, and Friday, January 1, 2021, in observance of Christmas and New Year’s Day.
Holiday Ticket Modification/Voiding Schedule
The GDS void/IAR reconciliation dates for tickets issued on Thursday, December 24, 2020, will be extended until Monday, December 28, 2020. The GDS void/IAR reconciliation dates for tickets issued on Thursday, December 31, 2020, will be extended until Monday, January 4, 2021.
Sales Report Submission
Weekly sales reports for PED 12/27/20 must be authorized by 11:59 p.m. EST on Tuesday, December 29, 2020, and weekly sales reports for PED 01/03/21 must be authorized by 11:59 p.m. EST on Tuesday, January 05, 2021.
2020 Quarterly Transaction Fees – Fourth Quarter
This is a reminder about the agent/CTD transaction fee that is assessed on a quarterly basis. See the chart below outlining the 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 the applicable ARC designated bank accounts on or after January 21, 2021. Only one draft will be issued for consolidated drafting agents.
|
Number of Transactions per Quarter |
Price per Transaction |
Tier 1 |
1,000 – 2,224,999 |
$0.012 |
Tier 2 |
2,225,000 – 5,999,999 |
$0.011 |
Tier 3 |
6,000,000 or more |
$0.010 |
The COVID-19 pandemic continues to affect organizations throughout the travel industry including ARC and its travel agency customers. Due to the significant adverse impact the pandemic is having on air travel transaction volumes, ARC is adjusting both its annual travel agency location fee and quarterly transaction fees to ensure the continued reliability of ARC’s settlement system for the global air travel community. These changes have been approved by representative organizations of the ARC Joint Advisory Board-Agent Reporting Agreement (JAB-ARA) and by the ARC Board of Directors. In 2021, ARC will also revert its Ticket Resolution Service (TRS) fee grace period back to the standard schedule.
Lastly, ARC is making two minor updates to both the Agent Reporting Agreement (ARA) and Corporate Travel Department Reporting Agreement (CTDRA), which have also been approved by JAB-ARA and the ARC Board of Directors.
2021 Annual Travel Agency Location Fee
A 2021 annual travel agency location fee of $304 will be collected for each of your travel agency’s locations via electronic draft from your designated bank account on January 21, 2021. A full listing of 2021 fees can be found here. A separate draft will be issued for each active agency location on record as of January 3, 2021. For consolidated drafting agencies, only one draft will be assessed for all ARC-accredited locations.
In the event your agency is going through a bank account change or will be opting to voluntarily delete or change participation program, these updates will need to be completed by January 7, 2021. Bank account changes can be made with ARC’s accreditation tool in My ARC or by contacting ARC’s Customer Care Center (CCC) at 855-816-8003 or ccchelp@arccorp.com.
2021 Quarterly Transaction Fees
The 2021 quarterly transaction fees will only be applied to travel agencies who process 1,000 or more transactions in a particular quarter. The 2021 fee schedule is outlined below and can be found here.
|
Transactions per Quarter |
Price per Transaction (US$) |
Tier 1 |
1,000 – 2,224,999 |
$0.025 |
Tier 2 |
2,225,000 – 5,999,999 |
$0.023 |
Tier 3 |
6,000,000 or more |
$0.021 |
Travel agencies will be notified prior to each quarterly draft. For consolidated drafting agencies, only one draft will be assessed for all ARC-accredited locations.
TRS Fee Grace Period Updates
In April 2020, ARC extended the TRS compensatory fee grace period from 15 days to 45 days. ARC’s aim was to provide travel agencies and airlines more time to easily resolve open debit memos during a highly volatile and challenging time period.
Beginning with memos loaded on January 1, 2021, ARC is reverting the TRS compensatory fee grace period back to 15 days, at which point any open TRS debit memos will be charged a $55 fee. ARC is taking this step after careful analysis of current TRS debit memo trends.
Tip of the Week: Payment Acceptance Chart
ARC provides processing of various forms of payments on behalf of an airline. Each airline determines which forms of payments it accepts and then works with the Global Distribution Systems (GDSs) and ARC to support those payments.
The Payment Acceptance Chart shows the acceptance of various forms of payment by each ARC participating airline. The chart also shows the restrictions some airlines have for accepting payment cards on their behalf. It is in an easy-to-use format where you can filter by Airline and/or by Form of Payment.
Agencies should refer to the Payment Acceptance Chart to ensure instructions are followed when accepting payment on behalf of airlines. You can access the chart by visiting our main site (www.arccorp.com), clicking on Support, and then under “Agency Resources” click on Payment Acceptance Chart. The chart is also available by clicking here.