ARC's offices were closed on Friday, November 10, 2023, in observance of Veterans Day. All sales reports for PED 11/12/2023 must be authorized by 11:59 p.m. EST on Tuesday, November 14, 2023.
Transactions issued in your GDS from Thursday, November 09, 2023, to Sunday, November 12, 2023, may be voided or modified in the GDS or IAR until Monday, November 13, 2023.
Effective November 2, 2023, our modernization initiatives began accelerating the exchange process reporting schedule.
Error-free exchanges will now be locked down one business day after transaction issuance and transmitted to airlines on the same processing schedule as sales and refunds, and data for credit billing or refunds will be accelerated to credit card processors on the same schedule as refunds.
This enhancement provides:
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Faster credit billing/refund for exchanges where the cardholder has an additional collection or residual refund value.
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Reduced customer call volume and credit card inquiries/chargebacks for late refunds.
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Accelerated exchange data transmission to airlines.
The specifics of this project include:
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Error-free exchanges loaded in ARC’s Interactive Agent Reporting (IAR) will be locked down the next business day at 11:59:59 p.m. ET (Eastern Time), the same as sales and refunds.
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Error-free Miscellaneous Charge Orders (MCOs) and Electronic Miscellaneous Documents (EMDs) loaded in IAR will be locked down the next business day at 11:59:59 p.m. ET. This applies to MCOs and EMDs that are sales or part of an exchange.
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Exchanges loaded in IAR in error that are corrected after the next business day at 11:59:59 p.m. ET will be locked down immediately upon error correction, the same as sales and refunds.
Recommended Action Items:
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It is strongly encouraged that all errors are corrected, and sales reports are reconciled daily. Exchange transactions with an IAR-identified error status that are not corrected within that sales reporting PED will be moved or rolled over to the next IAR sales report PED with a dual status of “OE” (Out of Period) and Error.
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If your agency uses IAR BOS Detail files, you may need to add the “EXCH” qualifier in your Scheduled Tables settings for each day's BOS creation.
Visit our Exchange Best Practices and FAQ for more information on exchanges and the above changes.
If you have questions about this change, contact our Customer Care at 855-816-8003 or ccchelp@arccorp.com.
IAR automatically links a residual value MCO or EMD to a new exchange when you follow these steps:
For MCOs:
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Issue the new exchange ticket first.
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Issue the residual value MCO on the same day as the NEW exchange (recommended) and be sure to:
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Include the NEW exchange document number (not the old document number) in the "Issued in Connection with Document Number" (ICDN) field.
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Include the word "RESIDUAL" in the "Type of Service" or "Valid For" field (Amadeus users can also use the word “FUTURE”).
For EMDs:
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Issue the new exchange ticket first.
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Issue the residual value EMD the same day as the new exchange (recommended) and be sure to:
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Include the NEW exchange document number (not the old document number) in the "Issued in Connection with Document Number" (ICDN) field of the EMD.
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Include one of the following 3-character EMD "Reason for Issuance Sub Codes" (RFIS) on the new EMD:
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99I - Residual Value
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996 - Refundable Balance
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98E - Non-refundable Amount
Once linked, the exchange and the residual document become a single companion exchange transaction. A companion exchange is any exchange transaction with more than one new document. It is identified on the IAR sales report in the transaction type (TT) column with the indicator of “CX.”