Amadeus Offers Relief

Amadeus, has launched Amadeus Exchange Relief – an all-in-one airline ticket exchange solution – in the U.S. The new solution streamlines ticket exchanges for travel agents, offering them three choices in handling and processing, including the first and only full service option available in the marketplace. Amadeus Exchange Relief delivers faster and simpler processing while virtually eliminating debit memos related to exchanges and thereby enabling agents to save time, sell more and better serve travelers.

Vic Pynn, chief operating officer, Amadeus North America, said: “Complex, costly and confusing ticket exchanges and resulting debit memos are among the biggest pain points for agencies and have never really been tackled until now. With Amadeus Exchange Relief, agents can now process ticket exchanges with ease, speed and confidence and without the worries of incurring costs.”

And Pynn added: “This new solution was driven by our customers and for our customers and is part of Amadeus’ ongoing commitment to innovation that helps deliver success.”

Airline ticket exchanges and resulting debit memos have been a longstanding and frequently costly challenge for both leisure and corporate travel agents.

According to the Airlines Reporting Corporation (ARC), in 2014 nearly one-half million debit memos worth $138 million were issued. Half of those memos were related to fares, taxes or commissions. As of the end of 2014, ARC processed over 14 million refunds and exchanges representing about 8% of their total transaction volume. Amadeus U.S. agencies revealed in a sample poll that they processed, on average, 40 exchanges per week spending 28 minutes on each — that’s 18-plus hours a week per agency spent just addressing ticket exchanges.

Mike Premo, ARC’s president and CEO, said: “It’s fantastic that Amadeus is providing a solution for agents designed specifically for the purpose of reducing memos. Amadeus has been a great supporter of our Debit Memo Working Group since its inception and the introduction of this new offering shows their commitment to reducing debit memos in the industry.”

Amadeus Exchange Relief is currently available for U.S. travel agencies with roll-out in Canada to follow.

For more, go to http://www.amadeus.com/exchangerelief .