Xiamen Airlines Agency Debit Memo (ADM) Policy (ARC)
According to IATA Resolution 850m and ARC regulations in USA, effective from 1st Nov, 2024, Xiamen Airlines will generate an Agency Debit Memo (ADM) for any violations below.
1. Audit Scope and ADM Reasons
1.1 Booking
Please refer to Attachment A Booking Policy of Xiamen Airlines. ADMs will be issued due to booking violations. Penalty standards are as below:
*If any passenger complaints or claims for compensation due to the violation of the agent, the agent shall be responsible to comfort the passengers and/or bear the loss of the passengers. Xiamen Airlines reserves the right to pursue liability in the form of ADMs according to the actual loss to agents who fail to fulfill the responsibility.
1.2 Commission
An ADM will be issued to adjust the incorrect commission rate reported by the Agent.
If the ticket has been refunded, but not by the agent who issued the ticket, Airlines will generate an ADM to reclaim the commission paid to the issuing agent.
1.3 Reissue/Exchange
An ADM will be issued due to the following reasons:
Reissue without collecting change/no-show/upgrade fee, etc.
Non-standard reissuance which causes settlement loss to the airlines
1.4 Fare
If the fare has been reported incorrectly, Xiamen Airlines will generate an ADM to collect the difference between the correct applicable fare and the reported fare. Specific categories of incorrect fare are as below:
Incorrect fare application and combination (e.g. routing or sales restrictions)
Incorrect fare value
Violation of minimum / maximum stay, advanced purchase rules
Violation of applicable date or flights
Use of invalid code-share flights
Violation of stopovers, transfers and surcharges regulations
Incorrect RBD (booking class), on MF and/or on other Airlines flights
Incorrect Fare Basis or Tour code
Incorrect use of promo fares (e.g. Marine fare)
1.5 Taxes/Fees/Charges
If the amount of taxes/fees/charges has been reported incorrectly, or the applicable taxes/fees/charges has not been collected by the Agent, Xiamen Airlines will generate an ADM to collect the difference between the correct taxes/fees/charges and the reported taxes/fees/charges.
1.6 Refund
If the refund has been reported incorrectly by the Agent, Xiamen Airlines will generate an ADM to collect the difference between the correct refund and the reported refund. The correct refund will be calculated in accordance with the fare rules of Xiamen Airlines. Specific categories of incorrect refund are as below:
Incorrect amount of refund of fares and taxes/fees/charges
Incorrect refund fee
Refunding fees which are non-refundable (e.g. change/no-show fee, etc.)
Not collecting no-show fee
Incorrect calculation of commission amount for refund
Incorrect form of payment for refund (versus sale)
Not in compliance with the airline refund policy, including but not limited to incomplete information for sickness refunds, duplicate refunds, refunds of used or expired tickets, refunds for non-refundable tickets
Waiver code not being input as required for involuntary refund
Refund procedures not being completed within 7 working days from the date of receipt of the passenger's refund application (excluding the processing time of the financial institution)
1.7 Void
The GDS void action must be performed in the GDS by 11:59PM local time one business day following the date of issue. Any void that exceeds the time limit will be regarded as ticket refund and relevant fees will be charged.
In view of the violations mentioned in 1.2-1.7, the repeated occurrence of a single situation will be regarded as malicious, and an additional fine of USD200 will be imposed.
1.8 Credit Card Violations
According to IATA Resolution 890, Xiamen Airlines will generate an ADM in the following situations:
In the event of the Agent accepting a type of Customer Card which is not accepted by Xiamen Airlines whose Traffic Document is being issued, Xiamen Airlines will charge the non-payment from the card company to the Agent.
The Agent may not accept any non-customer card or payment method that uses the MF's card acceptance merchant agreement, including any card issued in the name of the Agent or any Person permitted to act on behalf of the Agent, unless specifically authorized by Xiamen Airlines.
If there’s any failure to comply with the rule above, Xiamen Airlines reserves the right to charge a 3% of the amount of the card payment.
If Xiamen Airlines receives a notice of a dispute relating to a transaction submitted to the card company, Xiamen Airlines will notify the Agent within 7 days and request appropriate supporting documentation and information, and the Agent will promptly comply with any such request within 7 days.
In the event of chargebacks due to reasons including but not limited to agents’ failures to verify the card or obtain the cardholder’s authorization, Xiamen Airlines will issue an ADM to cover the loss, as well as the handling fee of USD50 per ADM. More than 5 tickets’ chargebacks (at one time or accumulatively) will lead to an additional ADM of USD200.
1.9 Other Sales Violations
ADMs will be issued due to other Sales Violations. Penalty standards are as below:
Item | Description | Penalty |
Other violations | Seat booked by Mainland China agents while ticket issued by oversea agents or sales behavior conducted in Mainland China while seat booked and ticket issued by oversea agents | USD500/per passenger |
Unauthorized cancellation of one or more segments to issue tickets or modify one or more segments and classes to obtain lower fares, or sell throwaway tickets1 or hidden-city tickets2 | ||
Release private fares (IT fares or key account policies) to non-designated channels | ||
Maliciously modify PNR | ||
Modify or cancel PNR of other agents | ||
Violations including not refunding refundable tickets, not completing the refund procedure within time limits, not notifying passengers of schedule changes, etc. | ||
Maliciously disrupts market by providing a lower price than airlines’ net fare | ||
Agents apply for refund in the name of passengers without passengers’ consent | ||
Sell the ticket with the booking unconfirmed | ||
Falsify airlines’ change and refund rules | ||
Forcibly sell ancillary products (e.g. insurance) | ||
Failure to comply with the regulations on the protection of personal information, including divulging, selling, illegally using or providing personal information of passengers to others, etc. | ||
Failure to reissue or exchange tickets in accordance with airline regulations.(e.g. arbitrarily changing carrier, flights, etc.) | ||
Use the Waiver Code against the rules, or falsify the information for refund fee waiver or discount | ||
Use the false certificate to claim ticket discount or reduce fee for refund and endorsement | ||
Failure to comply with the regulations of DOT's Final Rule on Ticket Refunds and Consumer Protections Furthermore, in cases where a DOT fine is imposed on the airline, Xiamen Airlines will issue additional ADMs to recover the incurred losses. | USD200/per passenger | |
Collect additional charges apart from airlines’ fares without prior notice to the passengers, causing misunderstanding and complaints. |
*If any passenger complaints or claims for compensation due to the violation of the agent, the agent shall be responsible to comfort the passengers and/or bear the loss of the passengers. Xiamen Airlines reserves the right to pursue liability in the form of ADMs according to the actual loss to agents who fail to fulfill the responsibility.
Throwaway tickets: The booking and/or issuance and/or use of connecting and/or roundtrip tickets for the purpose of one-way or partial travel only.( You could find related rules and details in DOT website: https://www.transportation.gov/airconsumer/refundsfinalruleapril2024)
Hidden-city tickets: The booking and/or issuance and/or use of a reservation or ticket from an initial departure point on the ticket which is before the passenger’s actual point of origin of travel, or to a more distant point(s) than the passenger’s actual destination being traveled even when the booking or purchase and use of such tickets would produce a lower fare.
2. Disputes
2.1 The agent shall confirm receipt of the ADM issued by Xiamen Airlines via ARC within 10 days after the issuance and can dispute the ADM within 30 days after the issuance in accordance with ARC regulations.
2.2 Xiamen Airlines will handle disputed ADMs within 30 days of receipt.
2.3 If Xiamen Airlines rejects the dispute, an explanation for the rejection will be sent to the agent via ARC. Email address need to be provided for escalation process after the memo has been unsuccessfully disputed twice.
2.4 If it is established that an ADM is not valid, it will be canceled.
2.5 Agent will pay a memo within 14 calendar days of determining it is valid. Airline closes memos in Memo Manager within 14 calendar days of receiving payment.
2.6 If the agent does not approve the ADM or if both parties fail to come to an agreement on the ADM within 90 days after the issuance, the ADM will not be settled. Xiamen Airlines reserves the right to suspend the ticketing authority of such agent.
3. ACMs
If the ADM dispute is reasonable and accepted, Xiamen Airlines will generate an ACM to return the amount of the disputed ADM.
4. Contact Details
Communication through the comment function on ARC Memo Manager is the most preferable. It is also accepted to contact us at the email address on the ADM.
5. Others
5.1 The minimum value for the issuance of a single ADM is 2.5 US Dollar or other equivalent currency.
5.2 Subject to the compliance with ARC Best Practices for Effective Debit Memo Resolution and Prevention, Xiamen Airlines reserves the right to change any provisions in this Policy without prior notice. The Policy will be updated timely on Xiamen Airlines official website, and the link will be placed on ARC Memo Manager for agents to view the Policy at any time.
5.3 Agents shall pay attention to the updates of Xiamen Airlines General Conditions of Carriage for International Passengers and Baggage in time, so as to better cooperate with Xiamen Airlines and serve passengers. For details, please refer to: https://www.xiamenair.com/brandnew_EN/travel-transport-condition.html
5.4 Agents are prohibited from undertaking any form of conduct that contravenes national regulations, business ethics, and professional ethics during the sales process. In the case of such acts, the agent shall be held accountable for all consequences resulting from measures that Xiamen Airlines may adopt, such as termination of cooperation and legal pursuit for economic losses.
5.5 In the event that this Policy and the penalty standards herein are in violation of the laws and regulations where the agent is located, the local laws and regulations shall prevail.
5.6 This Policy shall take effect on 1st Nov, 2024. Xiamen Airlines Agency Debit Memo(ADM) Policy previously in force shall be abolished simultaneously.
Your kind support and cooperation will be highly appreciated.
Xiamen Airlines
ATTACHMENT A
Booking Policy
For agency practices that are considered a violation, Xiamen Airlines reserves the right to issue ADMs, cancel all abusive bookings and cease any agency access to view, book and do ticketing through GDS terminals. Please refer to Xiamen Airlines ADM policy for our ADM practice.
Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.
Details
Article1. Multiple GDS
Please book and ticket passenger itineraries in the same GDS.
Article2. Required Minimum Connecting Times
We do not accept reservations for itineraries that do not satisfy Minimum Connecting Times of each airline.
Article3. Passenger Contact
Travel agency must provide its phone number, the passenger contactable phone number or Email and also local contact number.
The necessary personal information of the passenger provided by the ticket buyer should be accurately recorded into the reservation system.
Article4. Fictitious Name
It is prohibited to make reservations with fictional /fabricated name for any reason.
Article5. Fictitious Ticket Number
It is prohibited to input fictitious ticket number to circumvent the time limit.
Article6. Fictitious Bookings
It is prohibited to Create any fictitious bookings including test or training bookings. Agencies can create a test or training PNR only in the training mode of a GDS provider.
Article7. Duplicate Bookings
It is not allowed to create duplicate bookings for the same passenger for any reason. Definitions of Duplicate Booking are follows.
(1) Same section of routes on the same day are reserved
(2) Same section of routes on dates in close proximity to each other are reserved
(3) Different section of routes on the same date are reserved; or
(4) It is reasonably considered that the Passenger cannot use all of the seats reserved.
Article8. Churning
Please issue a ticket by the ticketing time limit of fare rule or TLC specified in the PNR when making a reservation.
It is not allowed to repeatedly cancel and rebook the same itinerary to circumvent the ticket time limit or for any other reason.
Article9. Secure Flight Passenger Data
SFPD is required by the government depending on the destination. Please input SFPD into the PNR by the deadline.
Article10. Inactive GDS Segments
Unnecessary segments must be cancelled including inactive segments with status codes of HX/NO/UC/UN/US/SC/TK/TL/TN/UU/PN/WL/WN/DL/DS/IX/MM/RM/GL/XX/WK etc. at least 24 hours prior to flight departure, as Xiamen Airlines will be charged booking fee by GDS therefor.
Article11. Scattered Booking
Bookings of 10 or more passengers on the same flight must be created in the same PNR. Creating individual PNRs to disguise the size of a group is not permitted.
Article12. Passive Segments
Passive segments shall be created for the purpose of ticketing only. Passive segments created for ticketing must be cancelled at once after issuing ticket at least 24 hours prior to flight departure.
Article13. Queues
Travel Agency is responsible for promptly working all queues. Please inform passengers of any schedule change, flight cancellation or other circumstance informed by Xiamen Airlines.
Article14. Married Segment Violation
We do not accept bookings that do not follow the O&D logic and other various practices used to manipulate the system to accept bookings made against the married segment logic. Please proceed all bookings, fare calculation and ticketing on an O&D basis.
Article15. Forced Reservations
Verification on forced bookings by various practices used to manipulate the system with the intention to circumvent MF inventory to obtain seats in RBD(s).
Article16. POC (Point Of Commencement) Violation
We do not accept creation of segment(s) not in the right booking sequence as per the journey passenger intends to travel, with the intention to circumvent airline inventory to obtain seats in RBD(s) which may have not been available when the same was requested.
Article17. Incorrect Usage of Booking Class
Booking and ticketing must be made in the appropriate booking class and must correspond with a valid fare and fare rule for the complete itinerary.
闽公网安备35020602000793号
