ABOUT 1000 FlySafair
ADMs have been issued
to the trade following
a glitch between BSP and
FlySafair’s bank, which
resulted in funds not being
deducted for BSP tickets
issued by credit card between
January, February and March
last year.
FlySafair head of sales and
distribution, Kirby Gordon, said
when the error was detected
the banks tried to manually
process the transactions. Most
of these went through but
where the manual transactions
were unsuccessful ADMs had
to be issued to recover funds
for services rendered.
“We understand that it is a
massive undertaking for the
trade to have to go back and
collect revenue from clients
from such a long time ago
and we are very grateful for all
of the support that we have
received from them,” said Kirby.
He added that the situation
was unfortunate as the error
was not caused by either
FlySafair or the agents but
that the revenue still needed
to be collected. According to
BSP regulations the onus is
on the travel agent to collect
funds from their clients
and, in an instance where
payment transactions were
not successful, the standard
procedure was to issue an
ADM, explained Kirby.
“We encourage the trade to
engage with us regarding these
transactions and are happy
to reverse the ADMs and to
rather invoice agents for these
transactions if this is more
convenient for them.”
Gm of Travel Counsellors SA,
Mladen Lukic, said he did not
believe that ADMs were meant
to be used as a mechanism
to adjust bureaucratic errors
and that he had initially been
unhappy with the way that Iata
and the airline had handled the
matter.
“We acknowledge that an
obligation exists for the client
to pay for services rendered,
although at no point during the
transaction did either the agent
or the client fail in its obligation
to process the transaction
correctly,” said Mladen.
Bidvest brands have also
been affected by the ADMs.
Ceo Lidia Folli expressed her
frustration that the airline had
not made any public statement
or engaged with the trade
before attempting to recoup the
(much delayed) charges.
“FlySafair has experienced
significant growth as a player
in the domestic travel space
over a relatively short period
of time as its operations have
expanded, but client service
expectations go beyond
passenger-in-seat and on-time
performance at the most
competitive price point – the
ability to administer charges
timeously is key. If you are
operating at an ever-increasing
scale you have to invest and
update systems and processes
that are robust enough to
support your growth,” said
Lidia.
Ceo of XL Travel, Marco
Ciocchetti, confirmed that
FlySafair had agreed to reverse
its ADMs and invoice XL for
the transactions and that this
was a less costly and more
manageable way for agents to
try and recover funds.
Iata spokesperson, Perry
Flint, told TNW that agents had
recourse to dispute ADMs that
they believed were mistakenly
or improperly issued and
did not involve a chargeback
situation in which fraudulent
transactions had occurred or
were believed to have occurred.
“Under Resolution 850m,
agents may, within 15 days
of receiving an ADM, raise
their disagreement through
the dispute process unique
to ADMs. Airlines have 60
days to review such disputes
and provide a response to the
agent. Should the dispute be
accepted by the airline the
agents will not be billed for
such ADM,” said Perry.
“For ADMs that have already
been billed to the agent,
according to Resolution 812
and 818g, agents have up to
12 months from the day the
ADM was issued to raise a
dispute to the airline as well,
expressing their disagreement
to a transaction that they have
already been billed for.
