Why does the refund I issued in my GDS not appear in my IAR sales report? When I try to manually enter it into IAR I get the error "Coupons are not available."

Once an E-ticket is refunded in the GDS, the E-ticket coupons are marked as refunded ('R', 'RFND' or 'Refund') in the airline's ET database. This status prohibits the refund from being entered again into IAR. This status also prevents the coupons from being used for travel or for exchange.

In most cases where a GDS issued refund is missing from IAR, either the GDS did not send the refund to ARC, the ticket is not eligible for refund in IAR, the incorrect GDS refund format was used or the PNR encountered a simultaneous changes message during the refund process.

What can I do to make sure the refunds I issue in my GDS appear in my IAR sales report?

Refunds that you perform in your GDS will not appear in IAR until the following day, just like any sales you issue today will not appear in IAR until tomorrow. If the GDS refund is missing from IAR the next day, verify that you used the correct GDS format. Some older formats purposely do not send the refund message to ARC. Check your GDS help pages for the proper refund formats.

If you have used the correct GDS format, double check your IAR sales report for that specific ticket number or by filtering your IAR list to display only refund transactions.

If you did used the correct GDS format and the refund is not in IAR, check the status of the coupons in the GDS by looking at the Electronic Ticket Record (ETR).

How do I check the ETR for a refund issued in the GDS?

When you perform a refund in your GDS, the coupon status is changed from OPEN to RFND on the Electronic Ticket Record (ETR). An ESAC (Electronic Settlement Authorization Code) also becomes part of the ETR upon confirmation of the refund by the airline.

Travel Agents may access the ETR of the refunded ticket by using the appropriate GDS format:

Amadeus: TWD/TKT000-1234567890 (3 digit airline, dash, 10 digit e-ticket number)

Apollo: *TE/0001234567890 (13 digit e-ticket number)

Sabre: WETR*T0001234567890 (13 digit e-ticket number)

Worldspan: ETR0001234567890 (13 digit e-ticket number)

If the ET coupon status has not changed to RFND (still shows OPEN or some other status), the refund was not successful. If the ET coupon status shows RFND but the ESAC is not displayed by viewing the ETR, it is recommended to contact the airline to obtain either the missing ESAC or a waiver code.

Can I do a partial ET refund?

Ticketing resolutions require that any ET refund must action all remaining open coupons of that ticket. For example, for a totally unused ticket with four segments, each coupon will be listed in the airline's ET database with a status of 'O' or 'OPEN'. In such cases, you may not request a partial refund of only coupons 3 and 4 because the refund action must apply to all open unused coupons. However, if the passenger has already flown on the first two coupons of a ticket (coupon status shows F, FLOWN/USED) and wants to refund just the last two coupons, you may request a partial refund of those last two OPEN segments.

How can I refund just the tax amounts of a document?

IAR does support tax only refunds. If you use a GDS auto-repricing tool to issue a refund of only tax amounts, that refund should enter IAR with the correct tax-only amounts. If you do not use a GDS auto-repricing tool or are entering the refund directly into IAR, you will need to manually modify the values of the refund transaction by removing the base fare and any non-refundable taxes and adjusting the Refund Total to the correct amount. NOTE: Most airlines do not allow any portion of a non-refundable ticket to be refunded, including taxes, so before proceeding with a tax-only refund it is recommended that you first obtain permission from the airline.

I made an error and entered a refund as a full ET refund instead of as a partial ET refund. Can I change it to a partial refund in IAR?

The status of Refund is considered a final status and cannot be changed for many airlines. When you mark the ET coupons as refunded, the passenger will not be able to fly on that ticket and you will not be able to use those coupons in another refund or exchange.

However, some airlines do support cancel refund (the void of a refund) requests, so for those airlines you can void a refund as long as that void occurs the same day that the refund was created. For example, for a refund issued in the GDS today, the cancel refund must take place in the GDS today. For a refund manually entered into IAR today, the cancel refund must take place today. You cannot cancel a refund in IAR today that was refunded in the GDS yesterday.

If you request that ARC change the refund in IAR on behalf of your agency, the change will not update the airline's ET database. Such a change could negatively impact your client and subject your agency to a debit memo.

I created a refund under the wrong branch of my agency. Can it be moved to the correct IAR sales report?

All airlines allow any branch or location under an agency family (entity) to refund or exchange any ticket originally sold by any location within that entity. IAR supports this type of cross branch refund. Once an ET is refunded, it is documented in the airline's database. While ARC could void the refund from one IAR sales report and rekey it into a different sales report on your behalf, changes made by ARC do not update the airline's ET database. Moving a refund in this way could negatively impact that refund or could subject your agency to a debit memo.