ARC leads a credit card working group (CCWG) that includes representatives from airlines, system providers, credit card brands, other payment partners and IATA. The goal of this group is to discuss the current and future state of payment processing to ensure all parties support payments in a way that provides the best customer experience, prevents loss and lowers costs.

The third annual meeting was held in Washington, D.C., June 7-8. All of the major card brands were pleased to report a decline in credit card fraud for airline transactions. In addition to announcements around efforts to improve chargeback management, the card brands also discussed several initiatives, including the requirement to obtain authorizations for refund transactions — similar to what happens with sales today. ARC will be coordinating additional meetings in the coming months to work through the details of what is required to support these initiatives at the point of sale, and to support the changes from a technology and process perspective.

Since the inception of the CCWG, the group has worked to improve payment data integrity to ensure transactions can be settled as efficiently and cost-effectively as possible. Given that the payments landscape continues to evolve at an increasing pace, the expectation is that, in the future, this group will meet multiple times a year, and include agency payment experts.