Debit Memos

Overview		Multiple Tickets - Same Passenger, Same Itinerary
Definitions and Booking Violation Information		Voiding A Ticket
Non-Refundable Ticket Refund		Infant/Child Indicator
Non-Refundable Ticket Endorsement		Disputes in General
Other Airline Private or Contracted fares		Credit Card Transactions
Incorrect Use of a Ticket Designator		Credit Card Chargeback
Special Contracts		Travel Agency Audit
GDS Booking Fee Monitoring Policy		Frequently Asked Questions
Marking Up Fares/Change Fees Prohibited

Agent Debit Memo is a debit to an agency for any tickets sold that were not permitted and were not the result of an airline error.

Debit memos may be issued whenever an agent fails to follow the fare rules or makes an error in booking or ticketing.

The best way to safeguard against receiving a debit memo is to make certain everything is documented in the PNR/Order record. It is good practice to note the full name and phone number of the person assisting you and to request and confirm that the American Airlines agent has documented their advice in the historical remarks of the PNR.

American Airlines monitors common booking practices which may result in an unfavorable outcome.

Automation is in place to help us identify these occurrences and detailed remarks will be entered in the booking in the SSR OTHS Field.

Churning: Excessive or constant book/cancel activity including ancillary products which may or may not result in a confirmed booking.

American Airlines prohibits travel agents from repeated booking and canceling of segments using the same PNR or multiple PNRs, in the same or different classes of service, to avoid ticket time limits, inventory controls, block-space, or meet productivity requirements.

Hidden City: For the purpose of gaining a lower fare, booking and/or issuance of a reservation or ticket for unintended travel to a more distant point(s) than the passenger's actual destination.

For example, the travel agent tickets a reservation from LAX to AUS (connecting in DFW) to receive a lower fare for their customer who intends to terminate travel in DFW.

· If the customer is traveling round trip and does not check in for their DFW-AUS flight, all remaining segments will be canceled.

Flight Coupons will only be honored in the order of the issued ticket. Issuing a ticket to a fictitious destination to undercut the applicable fare or circumvent fare rules is prohibited. This includes issuance of a ticket where any segment will not intentionally be used to create a different O&D than what will be flown or issuing multiple tickets to circumvent fare rules such as minimum/maximum stay requirements.

Inactive Segments: Flight segments within the CRS (Computer Reservations System) /GDS PNROrder with status codes UN, NO, UC, DL, DS, HX, IX, RM, US, UU, CN, WN or WK.

Travel agents must remove Inactive Segments from their CRS/GDS PNR at least 24 hours prior to the scheduled departure of each flight segment or a cost recovery fee may be applicable.

Invalid Waiver Code: When the agency utilizes an incorrect or invalid waiver code towards a ticket purchase or exchange that incorrectly supersedes standard fare rules, it will receive a debit memo.

An example of an Invalid Waiver Code behavior is when an agency exchanges a ticket utilizing the SKCHG waiver code in the Endorsement Box when, in fact, no schedule change has occurred.

Married Segments: Two or more segments of an origin and destination are married together to form a customer’s complete journey and are treated as a single unit/sector instead of individual legs/segments.

A violation occurs when multiple segments are married together to form a customer’s complete trip. Whenever possible, connections should be sold from City Pair Availability and not point to point. The breaking of married segments or creation of itineraries to circumvent married O&D segment logic is prohibited. Travel Agents must not issue a ticket unless the requested class of service is confirmed in American Airlines' internal reservation system available to sale for the city pair, O&D to be ticketed.

Origin & Destination Manipulation: American manages inventory on an Origin and Destination (O&D) basis. American’s booking policy prohibits inventory manipulation and creation of reservations with the intent of obtaining inventory for ticket sales which American does not intend to offer between the passenger's actual origin and destination itinerary. Travel agents engaging in practices that circumvent American’s inventory controls such as, but not limited to, married segment control logic, journey controls and O&D logic when building or making changes to PNRs will be held accountable for these violations.

Inventory malpractices are forced bookings made on inventories that are not available. When the class of service has been manipulated, the segment status will change to UC, and the following SSR and historical remark will add to the PNRs:

Violations are detected at the time of booking and canceled on real-time to prevent the agency has enough time to ticket the space. The travel agency must create a new PNR with the applicable fare.

Unprocessed Schedule Change: American Airlines has an automation in place to assist with unprocessed schedule updates on ticketed reservations.

The below SSR will flag the PNR 3 days prior to the scheduled departure where the non-compliance occurred, and a charge(s) will apply. The SSR will be added per ticket, and the affected ticket number will be noted within the SSR.

Voluntary Change – Non-reissued tickets: Voluntary itinerary changes made after ticketing must follow fare rules and require the collection of any applicable difference in fare and taxes and ticket reissue. The travel agency is responsible for exchanging tickets after making a voluntary change to the itinerary.

Note: Itinerary changes should not be made within 2 hours of departure time.

· Outbound flight – The entire itinerary should be rebooked and re-priced using the applicable fare, then the ticket must be reissued.

o Prior to departure of the outbound flight - changes to the return itinerary requires the entire itinerary to be rebooked and re-priced using the applicable fare, then the ticket must be reissued.

o After departure of the outbound flight - the continuing/return itinerary should be recalculated to an applicable fare, then the ticket must be reissued.

Travel agencies who process unauthorized refunds are subject to a debit memo. American reservations sales representatives may not authorize exceptions to this policy.

Agencies are permitted to process a refund on a non-refundable ticket when following the published guidelines as follows:

· Schedule Irregularity/IROPS – Flight delay more than 90 minutes or canceled flight

· Reduction/Suspension of Service – refer to the specific protection policy

Per the Tariff rule/restrictions all non-refundable tickets, the original ticket and the reissued/exchanged ticket must be annotated in the endorsement box as specified in the fare rules.

Per the Tariff rule/restriction for non-refundable tickets, “reissued/exchanged” to a refundable fare, the following rule applies:

Whenever a non-refundable fare ticket is reissued or exchanged to a refundable fare, the notation Non-Refundable must be carried forth to the endorsement box (see example below) of the new ticket and it will remain non-refundable for ANY subsequent reissues/exchanges. The following information must be indicated in the endorsement box:

OA (other airline) Private or Contracted fares may not be ticketed on American/001 tickets. American is not a participant in other carriers' private agreements. As well, OA Ticket Designators may not be used on AA/001 tickets. American does not honor other carriers’ discount codes.

· If ticketing from a contract that requires a specific ticket designator, double check your ticket. If the correct contracted ticket designator is not used, then a debit memo may be issued.

· If the fare basis code / ticket designator is more than 13 characters, enter as many as possible in the correct order.

Note: You should not shorten the fare basis code to accommodate the ticket designator.

· Ensure that the CART and/or authorization number (AN) number are indicated in the Tour Code (CART then AN Number).

· For special contracts such as Group and Meeting Travel and Corporate, the contract information (i.e. AN number, Corporate CART/AN number, JBID number) must appear in the tour code box indicated in the contract The agency is ultimately responsible to ensure that the information required by the contract is on the original ticket as well as any reissued ticket.

Exception: When American provides specific requirements indicating information must be added to the IT box, the "other documentation supersedes" the special contract information in the tour code box (i.e. Travel Notice).

American Airlines incurs segment booking fees for inactive segments that are present in the PNR/Order within 24 hours of departure time.

As a reminder, American Airlines prohibits the marking up of published fares and/or change fees for the purpose of producing and collecting the travel agency's service fee. In addition, agencies may not issue published fares as "BT" or "IT" tickets.

Agents must strictly adhere to American's instructions, rules, regulations, conditions of sale, and tariffs.

When agents charge a service or other fee for the services that it provides to customers or compensates its customers, such charges, fees (including any discounts) and compensation shall be listed separately from American’s fare information, so that the components and calculation of the final sale price is clear to the customer (e.g., the fare as published by American must always be separately displayed).

The Department of Transportation has clearly stated that a misrepresentation by a ticket agent "as to fares and charges for air transportation or services in connection therewith" is an "unfair or deceptive practice or unfair method of competition". Violations are subject to civil penalties up to $2,500 USD for each violation.

Travel agencies that markup published fares or change fees for the purpose of collecting their agency service fees will receive a debit memo for the amount of the markup. Your compliance with our policy is appreciated.

ARC accredited agencies may use ARC's travel agency service fee (TASF) program to collect their service fees.

Detailed information regarding the TASF program is on ARC form number 111. See the ARC website www.arccorp.com for ordering instructions.
IATA accredited agents should see www.iata.org for information on IATA's TASF program.

When issuing an AA/001 ticket, if the travel agent experiences a delay in a ticket number being generated, please do not enter multiple times as this will generate more than one ticket for the passenger. One of the tickets will be a “ghost” ticket and will not be indicated as a reported sale.

Please verify the Passenger Name Record to confirm that multiple ticket numbers did not generate for the passenger. If more than one ticket number was issued in error, the agency is responsible to properly void the first VCR (ghost ticket), so that only the last ticket entered is the usable ticket. A debit memo will be issued for agency multiple tickets that have not been properly voided due to this issue.

Failing to correctly VOID a ticket on time, may result in a Debit Memo, see these files for Voiding information

· If a ticket is issued for an infant or child, the "IN" OR "CH" indicator must follow the fare basis code.

· If using a ticket designator, document as follows: SA07ERD1CH/FLEX or SA07ERD1IN/FLEX

o Only 13 characters are allowed in this field. Document in the correct order and do not alter the fare basis code.

You can submit questions related to a Debit Memo by raising a dispute through the ARC Memo Manager.

Per the addendum to the ARC agreement, an agency must pay or resolve debit memos within 30 days. Please use ARC Memo Manager for disputes on tickets issued via ARC.

Provide comments, upload, or attach any documentation to verify your claim in ARC Memo Manager. (Example - ARC/BSP report, copy of waiver, copy of contract).

You can submit questions related to a Debit Memo by raising a dispute through BSPLink.

For tickets issued via BSP, you have 14 days after the issuance date to dispute an ADM. Disputes should be submitted in BSPLink by selecting ADM/ACM query and choosing ADM. Once you choose ADM, a new screen will pop-up with the dispute option at the bottom. Please enter the dispute and submit.

Note: Please be advised that Agency Relations is not the avenue in which to dispute, waive, or reduce Debit Memo's. All ADMs must be disputed via the above channels before any exception requests can be considered.

Travel Agencies must obtain a valid credit card authorization on all credit card transactions. Additionally, the valid authorization must appear on all coupons of the ticket. Please see the guidelines set forth in the ARC Industry Agents Handbook, Section 8.2 and IATA Resolution 890.

Any credit card company merchant fees issued by the credit card company for policy violations will be passed on to the travel agency in the form of a debit memo. These fees can be easily avoided by obtaining a valid approval code for all credit card transactions.

When American Airlines receives a credit card dispute (charge back), we use the following procedures:

For questions about specific debit memos, make a dispute through Memo Manager in ARC or BSPLink, or contact Travel Agency Sales and Audit:

American Airlines
4000 E Sky Harbor Blvd
Phoenix Arizona 85034
ATTN: PHX-RWE-TAA

No, for a minor letter error in a waiver code, you will not receive a debit memo, for example: SKDCHG instead of SKCHG. Conversely, the debit memo will apply when the waiver code is used to manipulate the ticket outside of its intended authorization.

2. If the itinerary status was changed to UC and the messages “SSR OTHS YY RIPA/ORIG DEST VIOLATION CLASS NO AVAILABLE” and “RIPA 99 *** DO NOT REINSTATE ***” were inserted, how can we fix the PNR?

You need to create a new PNR with the same itinerary and reprice; it will be considered a voluntary change. Debit memo will apply.

3. If I have a PNR with multiple passengers and I incorrectly reissued the tickets to one passenger twice and left another passenger without a ticket, how can I fix the tickets? Will I receive a debit memo?

A Debit Memo will be issue because it is considered an unauthorized name change.

To fix the problem, the agency must process a reissue again with the correct passenger’s name and write to debit.memos@aa.com as soon as they notice the mistake, to advise what happened. The agency must include the new fixed ticket in their email.