ARC Extends Free Access to Fraud Mitigation Tool
ARC is extending free access to the fraud mitigation tool, ARC Risk Check until March 31, 2021, for new users. For more information about the service and to enroll, click here.
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: Receiving ARC Pay chargebacks and dispute notifications via email rather than USPS
You can request to receive ARC Pay chargebacks and disputes via email rather than US Postal Service. This can make it easier and faster for you to receive and keep track of these ARC Pay issues. To do this, send an email to arcpaydisputes@arccorp.com indicating you would like to receive these disputes via email. You must provide your ARC Number as well as two or more e-mail addresses with the name of the person(s) receiving the notices.
Please keep in mind when this request is done you will no longer receive any ARC Pay notifications via mail. You can view additional FAQs on managing ARC Pay disputes here.