The Airlines Reporting Corporation (ARC) has announced enhancements to the company's sales reporting and settlement system. The goal is to accelerate ticket refund processing for travel agencies and their customers.
Made in consultation with ARC's Carrier and Agency Working Groups, the system upgrade will expedite cash and credit card refunds. They'll now be processed on the same schedule as sales transactions, as opposed to ARC's former weekly batch process schedule.
"ARC continually works with our stakeholders and customers to discover ways to improve our service," said Lauri Reishus, ARC's vice president and chief operating officer. "This significant change to our settlement system is a perfect example of this, with benefits to our airline and travel agency members, whose customers will realize faster refund transactions on their credit cards."
Nearly 14,000 travel agencies and 190 airlines use ARC's settlement services, which in 2012 totaled more than $84 billion.
What's to come? ARC (www.arccorp.com) said that as part of its continuous process improvement efforts, ticket exchange processing is also being examined for possible upgrading in the future.