Debit memo volume flat

The number of debit memos created in 2016 will be virtually level with last year, ARC is projecting.
But the dollar value of those memos will decline.
ARC manager of settlement services Shelly Younger presented the projections, based upon the first nine months of 2016, on Thursday at ARC’s annual meeting here.
“We are kind of excited to at least see these numbers stay in line,” Younger said.
ARC projects that 492,000 debit memos will be written this year compared with 493,600 last year. But while that represents a change of just 0.3%, the dollar value of debit memos are expected to go down this year by 6.4%, decreasing from $142.7 million to $133.6 million.
Younger stressed that the actual figures could vary from the projected ones as 2016 plays out.
The projected decline in the total dollar value of debit memos is due largely to an anticipated drop of 10% in the value of memos written for credit card chargebacks, which tend to be costlier than memos written against other items, such as airfares and commissions.
Younger attributed improvements on the chargeback front to beefed up fraud training and improved cooperation from airlines. She especially praised United, which has begun delivering passenger manifests to ARC, thereby making it easier to fight false chargebacks with credit card companies.
“They are winning about 45% of the time and that is huge,” Younger said.
Younger also updated conference attendees on the progress that ARC is making in getting airlines to begin using its new industry-standard reason codes for debit memos.
ARC completed reason code mapping with eight U.S. carriers in July, she said. They are United, JetBlue, Delta, American, Air France, Lufthansa, SAS and Condor. ARC’s goal is to get those eight carriers into Memo Manager by the end of the year.
And the organization has set a goal of bringing 20 more carriers into the standardized system by the third quarter of next year.
At present, most carriers have their own codes for debit memos. The standard reason codes have nine primary categories: commissions, credit card chargebacks, fares, taxes, refunds, exchanges, fees, bookings and miscellaneous. Each category has multiple secondary codes that further define why a memo was issued.

Source: Travelweekly