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Over recent years and in line with general industry practice, British Airways has simplified its fare structures, which has allowed us to improve our fare and ticketing audit process.
We would like to take the opportunity to provide you with more information on why we do this, and how you can avoid unnecessary charges.
Why do we send out ADM’s?
An Agency Debit Memo (ADM) is sent out whenever tickets are not issued in compliance with the conditions, which apply to the ticketed fare. Examples of items we are auditing for include fare levels, ticketing time limits, ticket validity and seasonality.
Whenever fare rules are not adhered to we apply the industry standard and re-charge to the issuing agent the difference between the fare issued and the next higher applicable fare.
How can you avoid receiving an ADM?
Hints and tips to help you to avoid receiving an ADM: - Issue tickets according to the appropriate fare rules
- Obtain a new quote before ticketing to ensure the fare is still valid if the ticket is not issued at time of booking.
- If you store a fare when making a booking but your customer purchases the ticket at a later date, cancel the original booking and create a new PNR obtaining a current and valid fare quote.
Special Advice: Ticketing Time Limits
The logic that determines how different CRS’s apply ticketing time limits is not consistent. We strongly recommend that you always check that you have adhered to the ticketing time limit as stipulated in the fare rule. If you need to rebook we recommend you to create a new booking.
Please note: BA always calculates the ticketing time limit from the PNR creation date.
Automated checks of un-ticketed PNR’s by British Airways
To protect capacity on our aircraft and ensure the most accurate availability we run checks on un-ticketed bookings in some classes and routes. In some cases a warning message may be sent in the PNR asking you to advise ticket numbers, either by a specific date or by referring to the fare rules. When the deadline has passed all British Airways segments will be cancelled without further warning if no ticket number is detected in the PNR.
To help you comply with ticketing deadlines you will find bookings cancelled if you retrieve them beyond the ticketing time limit date. However please note that this automated check by BA does not lift your responsibility for adherence to ticketing time limits. You still have to ensure that tickets are issued in compliance with all fare rules.
Should you receive a message from us, which simply asks you to issue the ticket or to release the space - without stating that British Airways may cancel the booking - then no automatic cancellation will follow. This is a reminder but it is your responsibility to issue tickets in accordance with ticketing rules, and therefore avoid ADM’s.
In Closing
British Airways strive to offer attractive fares to our mutual customers. An important element of an airline fare in differentiating levels is the amount of flexibility granted to the passenger. Attractive lower fares generally come with lower flexibility. Ticketing deadlines and other restrictions are an important part in maintaining the value for customers buying higher fares. |
