Air Moana (NM/432) will join ARC as a participating carrier, effective with sales on Monday, January 8, 2024. Air Moana is headquartered at the Faa’a International Airport and operates domestic services within the French Polynesian. They have elected the General Concurrence method of agent appointment whereby all ARC agents are automatically appointed as agents of Sansa Airlines. Direct any inquiries to 800-380-6541 or julianna.hill@apg-ga.com.
Sansa Airlines (RZ/684) will join ARC as a participating carrier, effective with sales on Monday, January 8, 2024. Sansa Airlines is based out of San Jose, Costa Rica and operates scheduled passenger services throughout Costa Rica and Nicaragua. They have elected the General Concurrence method of agent appointment whereby all ARC agents are automatically appointed as agents of Sansa Airlines. Direct all inquiries to mestrada@swgsa.com.
Agencies with less 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 18, 2024. Only one draft will be issued for consolidated drafting agencies.
If you have not done so already, every agency must contact your bank representative and add ARC’s Company ID 9521367276.
|
Number of Transactions per Quarter |
Price per Transaction |
Tier 1 |
1,000 – 2,224,999 |
$0.013 |
Tier 2 |
2,225,000 – 5,999,999 |
$0.012 |
Tier 3 |
6,000,000 or more |
$0.011 |
ARC will notify travel agencies in an email to the primary administrator or operational contact on the account before each quarterly draft. For consolidated drafting agencies, only one draft will be assessed for all ARC-accredited locations.
Please note: There is a $25 nonrefundable fee for all returned drafts.
If you have any questions, please contact ARC’s Customer Care Center at 855-816-8003.
In order to operate our settlement platform, ARC maintains a 90/10 fee structure that participating airlines contribute 90% of core costs and participating travel agencies contribute 10%. Travel agency contributions come from annual fees associated with each ARC-accredited agency (i.e., home office location, branch) and quarterly transaction fees.
During the ARC’s November board meeting, the fee changes were approved by the ARC Joint Advisory Board-Agent Reporting Agreement (JAB-ARA) and by the ARC Board of Directors. All other fees, such as the return draft and late reporting fee, will remain the same in 2024. The changes to travel agency fees for 2024 are outlined below.
Please visit the ARC website for a complete listing of all 2024 agency fees and fee schedules.
2024 Annual Travel Agency Location Fee (AAF)
A 2024 annual travel agency location fee of $276 will be collected for each of your travel agency’s locations via electronic draft from your designated bank account on January 18, 2024. The fee may appear on your bank statement as “ARC Core Participation Fee,” though the exact wording will vary by bank. Please note: If you have not done so already, every agency must contact your bank representative and add ARC’s Company ID 9521367276. This ensures that ARC can successfully draft your 2024 annual fee. There is a $25 nonrefundable fee for all returned drafts.
2024 Quarterly Transaction Fees
The 2024 quarterly transaction fees will only be applied to travel agencies that process 1,000 or more transactions in a particular quarter.
|
Transactions Per Quarter |
Price per Transaction (US$) |
Tier 1 |
1,000 - 2,224,999 |
$0.014 |
Tier 2 |
2,225,000 - 5,999,999 |
$0.013 |
Tier 3 |
6,000,000 or more |
$0.012 |
Below is the projected collection schedule for the quarterly drafts:
Q4 (2023): January 18, 2024
Q1: April 18, 2024
Q2: July 18, 2024
Q3: October 17, 2024
Q4: January 16, 2025
ARC will notify travel agencies before each quarterly draft. For consolidated drafting agencies, only one draft will be assessed for all ARC-accredited locations. Please note: There is a $25 nonrefundable fee assessed for all returned drafts.
If you have any questions, please contact ARC’s Customer Care Center at 855-816-8003 or ccchelp@arccorp.com.
Thank you for partnering with ARC.
ARC is updating the agency accreditation application effective January 8, 2024, to help empower agents to protect themselves against fraud.
The updates apply to all new agencies and agency type 5 ownership changes, requiring these security measures before becoming accredited. View a summary of the updates below.
1) Effective and unique electronic challenge and authentication for all log-in credentials or security credentials, including but not limited to any credentials used to access System Providers. This includes, for example, usernames, PIN/PCC and password of any user accessing agent hardware, systems, or any other systems or hardware that can be used to issue ARC Traffic Documents and Transactional Data;
2) If a System Provider permits passwords that conform with the following criteria: a. 14 characters or more in length b. Combination of uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols; and c. A password that is different from all previous passwords;
3) The use of multifactor authentication when made available by a System Provider;
4) Installation and recording of logs of all security patches and system updates made available by Agent’s computer operating system provider and browser;
5) Installation and maintenance of industry-standard antivirus software, firewall software, and anti-malware software on all Agent’s computers and the regular use thereof and maintenance of logs for such use;
6) Use and maintenance of effective and current anti-spam and anti-phishing email filtering systems and effective use of anti-phishing toolbars;
7) Appropriate maintenance of security, encryption, and password protection on Agent’s computer and any wireless internet systems used by Agent’s computers;
8) The attendance of Agent and all personnel issuing ARC Traffic Documents at ARC approved fraud and security webinars and training in the previous twelve (12) months;
9) Installation of computer operating system updated with all latest patches and with automatic updates enabled; and
10) The Internet browser was installed with the latest patches and automatic updates enabled.
Updates Coming to ARA and CTDRA on January 30, 2024
ARC is making updates to the ARA and CTDRA that will take effect on January 30, 2024. View a summary of the updates along with a full review of the changes coming to the ARA and CTDRA using the links below.
Changes to ARA:
Summary (PDF)
Full review (PDF)
Changes to CTDRA:
Summary (PDF)
Full review (PDF)
Please note, in accordance with Section 5 of the ARA, your continued participation with ARC after January 30, 2024, serves as your acceptance of the amendments.
ARC strongly recommends reconciling IAR sales reports daily. A final reconciliation should also be performed before authorization/submission of the sales report. The final net remittance of the report is the amount ARC will draft to or from your bank account.
The following daily IAR sales report checks will facilitate this process:
-
Verify that all documents and voids are correctly listed.
-
Verify that all transactions were legitimately issued by your agency (to guard against unauthorized ticketing).
-
Correct any errors.
-
Verify all commission amounts.
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Verify that all refund transactions are accurate and that their values include any penalty information or waiver code (if applicable).
-
Verify that all exchange transactions are accurate and that their values include any penalty information or waiver code (if applicable).
-
Verify that all residual value MCOs/EMDs are properly linked to their associated exchange transaction as companion exchanges.
-
Verify that all other companion exchanges (exchanges that involve more than one new document) have all additional new documents correctly linked.
-
Verify any GDS void of a companion exchange transaction has been processed in IAR. IAR rejects void requests of either document once linked into a companion exchange transaction. The void of either document is only allowed when the companion link is manually broken by removing/unhooking the second new document from the transaction within the next business day after issuance.
-
Verify all IAR modifications and voids are completed prior to the expiration of the transaction’s next business day window date.
-
Verify cash and credit totals.
-
Verify the net remit amount.