Booking Policy

In accordance with IATA resolution 850m (Passenger Agency Conference Resolutions Manual), given below is the ADM Policy which shall be applied by the airlines available on Akij Air.

INTRODUCTION

An agency debit memo (ADM) is a way for an airline to collect money from a travel agent for a mistake or a difference in the ticket price. ADMs are also used to adjust or correct the money that agents report for the tickets they sell to the travelers. ADMs are a common accounting tool for airlines and agents to settle their transactions. To reduce the amount of ADM, it is recommended that agencies go through the booking policies and the ADM policies of the airlines they are ticketing from.

COMMON BOOKING POLICIES PRACTISED BY AIRLINES

  1. Churning: Segments that are repeatedly canceled and rebooked to circumvent ticketing time limits or to meet GDS productivity are considered churning bookings. The threshold for churning (repeatedly canceled and rebooked) is three (3). So, ADM charges are applied as of the 4th churn.
  2. Ticketing Time Limits (TTL): A date and time deadline will be provided in the PNR. Travel agents should either issue a ticket or cancel the booking before the TTL. Unticketed bookings at the time limit will be cancelled by Airlines.
  3. Fake/Fictitious Names: Booking will be checked to determine if it is with a genuine name or fictitious name. Airlines will cancel all bookings containing definite fake/fictitious names.
  4. High Cancellation: A cancellation rate of more than 60% for international routes and 50% for domestic route of the bookings for flights departing within the month will be considered as high cancellation.
  5. Duplicate Bookings: Each PNR will be checked for duplicate booking for the same passenger and/or same route and same date. Duplicate unticketed bookings will be canceled by the airlines.
  6. Inadequate Contact Address: Passenger’s contact address is a mandatory element to create a PNR. So, all sorts of contact like Phone no, Mobile no, e-mail address etc. of a travel agent as well as a passenger for both ends are to be available in the booking. If any important information related to the journey could not be communicated with the passenger due to inadequacy of contact information, the concerned agencies will be held responsible for that.
  7. Impossible Journeys: Bookings will be checked for segments where the passenger is due for departure on the same date but on a different route/destination. Airlines will cancel unticketed bookings and send a warning for ticketed bookings.
  8. Test Training PNRs: Booking will be checked to determine if it is a booking created by a travel agent purely for test/training purposes. Airlines will cancel all test/training bookings.
  9. No-Show:A No-Show occurs when a passenger misses the flight or when a travel agent fails to cancel a booking either ticketed or un-ticketed but not required by the passenger within voluntary sales to spoilage of inventory. Airlines will cancel all subsequent segments followed by the No-show segment. Requirement of cancelling the No-show passenger may vary from 24 to 72 hours prior to flight, check with the specific airlines for specifications.
  10. Waitlisted Bookings:Travel agents must cancel and remove all WL/HL segments at least 72 hours before flight departure, airlines will cancel all un-ticketed waitlisted booking 72 hours prior to departure including any confirmed segment followed by the waitlisted segment.
  11. Minimum Connecting Time (MCT): Travel agents must not create a booking that violates the MCT requirements; airlines will inspect and cancel all un-ticketed violations detected bookings and send a warning for ticketed bookings.
  12. Duplicate Ticketed PNRs: Airlines will check for instances where the same ticket number has been used on more than one booking and will send a warning to the booking agent.
  13. Partially Ticketed PNRs: Airlines will check for PNRs with multiple/group names and ticket numbers. If tickets have not been issued for all names, a warning will be sent to the agent and if no action is observed, then airlines will split the PNR and cancel all unticketed passengers.
  14. Inactive Segments: inactiveSegmentsDetails
  15. API/SSR Violation: It is an IATA mandatory requirement for the following information must be included in the PNR for the international journey:
    • Form of identification (FOID)
    • Date of Birth (DOB)
    • Gender
    • Others
    Airlines will inspect and send a warning for booking with incomplete information and finally missing APIS PNR may also be cancelled.
  16. Group Booking: Conditions specified in the airline’s group contract/policy will be audited, if any violation is detected action will be taken accordingly.
  17. Hidden Group: Airlines will also check across multiple individual bookings for a large group from the same agent and a warning will be sent to the concerned agencies.
  18. Passive Bookings: An acceptable passive segment is a segment entered into a GDS for the purpose of ticketing and must be canceled immediately after the issuance of a ticket. It must match with an existing booking. GDS subscribers must use an airline PNR functional instead of passive segments. GDS subscribers must not issue passive segments. Industry standards require that passive segments be used “for the purpose of ticketing only” after a booking has been made in an airline’s inventory system. Airlines do not allow passive segments to be used for other reasons, including the following –
    • To satisfy GDS productivity requirements
    • To circumvent fare rules
  19. Invalid Name Changes: Name changes are not permitted on reservations unless for the purpose of correcting a misspelling of the passenger’s name. Contact the Central Reservation Control of Airlines for assistance with misspellings to avoid cancellation of space.
  20. Coupon Sequence: The passenger must travel as per sequence of coupon and itineraries shown in his ticket. Sequence break journeys are strongly prohibited by airlines.
  21. Proper Ticket: Travel Agents must not issue a single sector ticket against a return sector booking for a valid visa passenger.
  22. ED or POC Violation: Booking and ticketing will be as per the available dedicated RBD that has been assigned by the airline for a selected OD according to the sequence of the journey. However, any manipulation of the segments in a booking to bypass the OD availability to gain access to a lower booking class is considered an ED or POC violation. For example: In Emirates Airlines if a flight from Dhaka (DAC) to Singapore (SIN) via Dubai (DXB) is booked and the DAC-SIN segment is cancelled will be treated also as OD or POC violation and the agency will be sent an ADM by the airlines.

Even without the reasons specified above, an Agency debit memo (ADM) can be issued by airlines in case of policy violations by the agency. Please adhere to the specific airline booking policy to avoid ADMs.

Any ADM received by an agency is the sole responsibility of the agent. Akij Air will not take any responsibility for any bookings made by the agents.